Miles from India (TWO CD SET)
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Music CD Cover
Performer: Gary BartzPerformer: Ron Carter
Performer: Jimmy Cobb
Performer: Chick Corea
Performer: Pete Cosey
Performer: Adam Holzman
Performer: Robert Irving III
Performer: Dave Liebman
Performer: John McLaughlin
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-04-15
Music Label: FOUR QUARTERS ENT
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Spanish Key
- All Blues
- IFE (Fast)
- In A Silent Way
- It's About That Time
- Jean Pierre
- So What
- Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
- Blue In Green
- Great Expectations
- IFE (Slow)
- Miles From India
Free Music Notes for Miles from India (TWO CD SET)
Free Music Review: Haven't Heard It Yet? You Will.
Hit: 5 Stars
Spanish Key with traditional Indian Vocals? An awesome combination on this striking CD - an intriguing, inimitable offering which, if you love fusion, you'll want to immediately procure. I'm not going to drool superlatives over this revisioning of the Miles cannon as others have and assuredly will, because, at an early stage of listening, I find this sprawling hoot to be uneven, descending, at its worst, into a rather vapid, simplistic funk - choppy, innocuous riffs without real cohesion or direction.
After all, "new directions" was what Miles was about. With every release, Miles and his incredible sidemen were pushing music to its perimeters, to the edge, over the edge, and beyond. The project was symbiotic with our age - the chaos - the alienation - the primal urge for freedom - for life itself - if there's much left. The excitement `Spanish Key' generated thirty-eight years ago as the autochthonous bars of `B[...]es Brew' began to unfurl seems to be exactly what is lacking here - the new directions. The only direction `Miles from India' looks to is backwards - to the past. In terms of East/West fusion, there's little new (though en masse it comes together quite nicely). While Jai Uttal's `Shiva Station' was revolutionary, ten years ago, 'Miles from India' seems to ape or rehash similar ventures from the past.
The concept and the performances: a great idea - no doubt. When one remembers McLaughlin's storied Shakti, one wonders why it didn't happen sooner. Yet, as good as the idea and many of the interpretations are, I found myself embellishing and rearranging many parts, imagining the whole as so much more. For instance, why only one voice when a chorus would have been that much more powerful? Which brings us to the playing. As a celebratory reunion of surviving Miles' alum with a core of gifted Indian musicians it's o. k, with a few questionable absences. Dave Holland isn't there (not in any way to disparage the venerable Ron Carter)- but considering the context, they could have used him - and a few more of the 'Cellar Door' era crowd, any number of percussionists - like the boys on 'Dark Magus'(although . . . amazingly Jimmy Cobb re-emerges after half a century to play on "All Blues"), that long lost genius, Wayne Shorter and/or Kenny Garrett, and, of course, Colin Wolcott (is he still alive?). And what about Bennie Maupin, currently undergoing a ressurgence and some long overdue recognition?
On the Indian side, there is one towering omission - L. Subramanium - the world's leading Mridangam/Violin player - and the leading fusion maestro on the subcontinent (he was doing East/West fusion beginning in the mid-70's simultaneously with McLaughlin and Miles of the `On the Corner' era. The guy they've got (prominent on `In a Silent Way') is not bad - but one cannot help but speculate on what this session would have been like with the luminous L. Subramanium at the helm and, curiously, why he was not.
John McLaughlin. The critical consensus has generally settled that recent years have not been kind. Not even the most diehard fan (I might be considered one)would seriously contend that McLaughlin's stature at the vanguard of innovation is anywhere near what it was in 1969-70, when he shared the stage with Miles as the most far out guitar soloist anyone had heard since Hendrix - and decidedly a new direction for jazz. I sat at the foot of the stage during his legendary performance with the original edition of the Mahavishnu Orchestra at the Mar Y Sol rock festival in Puerto Rico in 1972, when the magical vibrations emanating from his double-necked guitar literally brought in the tradewinds to assuage the 90+ degree stifling tropical heat- truly, a remarkable experience.
What he was channeling in those days at the height of his eminence - I can't say. I still listen to 'The Inner Mounting Flame' occasionally - a kick after all these years. Whatever it was - it's not happening here. McLaughlin's riffs often come across as retro, trite, more noise than substance, a somewhat exposed throwback to his early glory. Listening to 'The Way Up', a fairly recent Pat Metheny Group release, also an uneven venture, I found the crucial difference - when it gets good - it's great - utterly elevating and absorbing - a level that `Miles from India', for all its delights, never seems to really reach.
However - don't get me wrong. Within 24 hours of first hearing this music on the radio, I snapped up a copy at retail. In the end, what I sense to be shortcomings, dwelt upon at some length here, in the larger view prove ephemeral, because the listening is that much fun.
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