Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Miles DavisEdition: Music CD
Format: Box set, Extra tracks
CD Release Date: 1998-11-24
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Pharaoh's Dance
- Bitches Brew
- Spanish Key
- John McLaughlin
- Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
- Sanctuary
- Great Expectations
- Orange Lady
- Yaphet [#]
- Corrado [#]
- Trevere [#]
- The Big Green Serpent [#]
- The Little Blue Frog [Alternate Take][#]
- The Little Blue Frog [Master]
- Lonely Fire
- Guinnevere
- Feio [#]
- Double Image [#]
- Recollections [#]
- Take It or Leave It [#]
- Double Image
Free Music Notes for The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions
Free Music Review: The best of the box sets
Hit: 5 Stars
Conventional wisdom seems to be that the Complete Bitches Brew Sessions is weak and uneven, and possibly even dishonest in its title; and that one should instead go for the Complete In A Silent Way Sessions or the Jack Johnson Sessions.
However, in my opinion exactly the reverse is true. The In A Silent Way Sessions are terrific, but they suffer from an ungodly amount of noodling. It is very true what they say, that some of the tracks in the Silent Way box set were probably intended for later editing, but that Teo never got around to it. Further, many of the tracks (only one of which, Frelon Brun, was released at the time) consist of some really cheesy experimentation with boogaloo fusion which Miles abandoned later on.
As for the Jack Johnson sessions, they are the weakest of all, with very loud, very repetitious tracks making great use of electric instruments, but strangely lacking in interest.
To me, the Bitches Brew box set is the best. True, the title is perhaps less apt than for the other two box sets. But remember, this box set came FIRST. The fact that the original cuts of the Silent Way and Jack Johnson material were put on to the other two box sets (with little resultant insight of the original cuts, I might add) was BECAUSE of complaints over this box set. So those who call the title of this box set a "scam" or whatever are forgetting which box set came first.
With that out of the way, to me this box set is the best of the three. Certainly, the sound is not quite as good, and there is also an enormous amount of dead wood here too. But the music is, to me, more interesting.
DISC ONE
The original Bitches Brew material might seem chaotic and arbitrary at first, but multiple listenings confirm what a musical genius Miles Davis was.
Pharaoh's Dance: This tune, by the late Joe Zawinul, is an unlikely album-opener, as it is a meandering and formless piece that is possibly the most avant garde on the album. An atmosphere similar to "Shh/Peaceful" from In A Silent Way pervades this recording. The track is heavily edited, with many chunks being only a couple of seconds long. The main melody is not stated directly but is merely hinted at until close to the end of the recording.
Bitches Brew: Miles Davis' fusion classic begins with a rubato thumping in the bass, matched by Miles' screeching Echoplexed trumpet. Then an evil sounding ostinato bass line starts up, with all the improvisation occurring on top, reminiscent of Bach's organ Passacaglia. At the end the rubato segment comes back. Like Pharaoh's Dance, this track is heavily edited.
Spanish Key: The best track on the album is also an unedited performance. This piece had been performed by Miles in live situations before the studio recording. The signature of this piece is the modal changes, with occur with an electric shock whenever Miles plays a pre-determined code phrase on his trumpet.
DISC TWO
Miles Runs the Voodoo Down: Another live staple by this time, but heavily modified by Miles. The drum beat is very unusual, and on this track Miles has stripped down the original melody (which you may only find on bootlegs) until it is just a skeleton. A very funky track.
Great Expectations/Orange Lady: This track, released on Big Fun, is another in a long line of Miles experiments in repeated horn ostinatos (Nefertiti, Sanctuary, Two Faced). Here, however, there is precious little to listen to under the repeated horn figures, and those thumping chord changes get very dull after the twentieth time.
Corrado: Really funky stuff, with some great soloing.
DISC THREE
Trevere/Big Green Serpent: Both perfect examples of scraps of music that should really have been left in the archives! What on earth is going on?
Lonely Fire: My favourite track of the box set outside the original Bitches Brew album. Another experiment in repeated horn ostinatos, but this time with really beautiful soloing to look forward to, along with some funky bass.
Guinnevere: Crosby, Stills and Nash tune given a truly weird workout here, with a mysterious Sitar-laden atmosphere and yet another experiment with repeated horn ostinatos. Very atmospheric.
DISC FOUR
Feio: Wayne Shorter's tune is a slow, shapeless, mysterious bass figure that sounds like a nightmare come to life. Airto Moreira's cuica squawks plaintively like a vulture waiting for someone to die.
Double Image: This track points the way forward to future developments. Yet another repeated horn ostinato experiment, but this time with John McLaughlin's distorted electric guitar sounding really raunchy. No soloing, but plenty of atmosphere.
Recollections: A long, meandering track like Lonely Fire, with many wonderful solos.
The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions Poster
Miles Davis invented a whole new jazz form with the release of Bitches Brew in 1970, and now here's a whole new way of listening to that jazz rock masterpiece-a 4-CD set containing not just the complete original album and material from the Big Fun, Circle in the Round and Live-Evil sessions, but NINE unreleased tracks totaling about 85 minutes of newly discovered music! And this new longbox version gives you *$20* off the price of the original release!These historic sessions, recorded between 1969 and 1970 and originally released as a 90-minute double LP, merged jazz and rock into the hybrid genre known as fusion. They remain Miles Davis's most controversial recordings. Davis, along with pianists Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Joe Zawinul; bassist Dave Holland; soprano saxophonist Wayne Shorter; bass clarinetist Benny Maupin; drummers Jack DeJohnette, Billy Cobham, and Lenny White; and percussionist Airto Moreira, went electric with rock rhythms, and the rest, as they say, is history, or as some feel, the end of jazz history.
Now, all of the sessions' 265 minutes are contained on this four-CD set, compiled from alternate takes, nine unreleased tracks, and selections from previously released LPs. The superb remastering reveals the spectral power of Davis's amplified, muted, and open trumpet painting on a swirling harmonic canvas created by Hancock, Corea, and Zawinul, especially on Zawinul's impressionistic "Pharoah's Dance," Shorter's elliptical "Sanctuary," and Davis's rocking "John McLaughlin."
The previously unreleased tracks, including "Yaphet," "Corrado," "Tevere," "The Big Green Serpent," and Zawinul's "Double Image," contain some interesting East Indian motifs and inventive arrangements but will probably not change anyone's mind about this well-debated period of Miles Davis's career. --Eugene Holley Jr.
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