Miles Davis - Aura (rec. 1985, rel. 1989)

A suite of music composed for Miles by Palle Mikkelborg in 1984, and recorded in early 1985.  Contractual hurdles delayed its release until 1989, but it was worth the wait - Aura is nothing less than Miles Ahead for the 80s, lushly orchestrated but with the sound right up to date for its era.  Elements of rock, reggae and electronic music are all woven into the multi-colour suite, which is musically germinated from a ten-note theme based on the letters in "MILES DAVIS", a la B-A-C-H.  Sometimes eerily ambient, such as the opening minute with the calm broken by John McLaughlin introducing the theme, sometimes hard-edged and frenetic, Aura is a great album that finds Miles with plenty of spark left in him.

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pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson

Live-Evil
On The Corner

In Concert

Big Fun
Agharta

Dark Magus

We Want Miles

Miles Davis - We Want Miles (1982)

Cautiously dipping a toe into 80s Miles Davis now (although I vaguely remember liking Tutu when I heard it years ago, but that's as far as I previously got).  This double-live set, the second album overall and first live release from Davis' comeback period, seems to have retained a good critical standing and was readily available as a cheap CD, so here goes.

The six tracks in 76 minutes that comprise We Want Miles were taken from recordings on US and Japanese tours in 1981 (I love how Recorded "Live" gets those air quotes on the album, so possibly brushed up in the studio, but that's all fine and commonplace).  The first LP of the original set is bookended by long and short versions of Jean-Pierre, a really nice earwormy take on what is apparently a French nursery rhyme, with just enough of a discordant rendering to give it an idiosyncratic edge.  In between, Miles' 1981 band turns up the heat for a couple of more firey jams, with Mike Stern sounding like a particularly spicy rock-jazz guitarist, and the presence of Al Foster providing a link back to the mid-70s fusion era.

Sides three and four of the original release, each containing a single track, are even better.  First we get a 20-minute callback all the way to Porgy & Bess in My Man's Gone Now, but of course with the sound unmistakably rooted in the early 80s.  It's a fantastic, slowly unfolding exploration of the classic tune and a definite high point of the album.  Lastly, a lengthy improv named for its venue (the Kix club in Boston) takes in old-style walking blues, a slight reggae lilt and brings it all bang up to date (for '81).  All in all, a really good album that showed Miles revitalised for having taken time off in the back half of the 70s.

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pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson

Live-Evil
On The Corner

In Concert

Big Fun
Agharta

Dark Magus

Miles Davis - Dark Magus (rel. 1977, rec. 1974)

One more Electric Miles Friday post for now, and probably the most ferocious-sounding live document of his career, besting even Agharta for sheer sonic assault.  With most of the band in place who would travel to Japan the following year for Miles' pre-retirement period concerts, the music on Dark Magus was recorded in March 1974 at Carnegie Hall, NYC.  The recordings wouldn't be released for another three years - or 23 years, for the world outside of Japan.

In his liner notes for the eventual 2-CD reissue, saxophonist Dave Liebman recalls being inducted into Miles' band with only the barest of preparation for what they were going to play - a fragmentary vamp here, a listen to the densely layered grooves of a Sly Stone record there - and the rest would just be led by Miles on stage.  A full-throttle thrash of drums introduces Moja Part 1 - the original four LP sides were simply named after the numbers one to four in Swahili.  Miles is in full wah-pedal trumpet and smears of Yamaha organ mode, and new guitarist Dominique Gaumont burns through Hendrix-style solos.  This calms down just a little in Moja Part 2, which eventually fades into a spacious atmosphere of reved-up drum machine from James Mtume.

 

Things get funkier for Wili Parts 1 & 2, then Disc 2 kicks off in similar fashion to Agharta with another storming jam, before again petering out via drum machine into the organ riff from Calypso Frelimo.  Drum machine weirdness skitters all over the slowburning start to Nne Part 1, which is nominally sub-titled Ife, but as on Live-Evil, only resembles that piece occasionally, and is a dark, atmospheric slow exploration.  The final stretch of Nne is another belter, to close out one of Miles Davis' most uncompromising, thrilling releases.  Dark Magus is sometimes described as "jazz metal" in latterday appraisals, and why not.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson

Live-Evil
On The Corner

In Concert

Big Fun
Agharta

Miles Davis - In Concert (1973)

For this double-live helping of electric Miles, we're in the dark, dense funk of the On The Corner era. Just under 90 minutes of smoking-hot dankness was drawn from a concert in New York City on 29 September 1972, and packaged in another eye-catching Corky McCoy cover drawing.  When originally released on vinyl, the four sides had no track titles, although the two records were sometimes known as "Slickaphonics" and "Foot Fooler" from the illustration captions on the inner sleeves.

Transferring to digital does give us individual track divisions and titles, but doesn't really clean up the album's notoriously murky sound - arguably though, the fuggy mix sort of works in favour of Miles' music at this point in time rather than against it.  A full-steam Rated X gets Disc 1 into gear, before Honky Tonk highlights Reggie Lucas' guitar and the noisy smears of Miles' wahed-trumpet.  On the old second side of the LP, the Theme From Jack Johnson kicks up a gear again, with plenty of solos for Miles and Carlos Garnett, then the groove changes abruptly to Black Satin from On The Corner.

Most of Disc 2 is taken up by a lengthy Ife jam, although the identifying bassline from Big Fun doesn't make an appearance until halfway through.  It's a nice long midtempo stretch for everyone in this future-funk band to pile on solos and effects pedals, and probably the highlight of the album for me.  Right Off/Sanctuary takes us to the end, in another fast and furious free-for-all.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson

Live-Evil
On The Corner

Big Fun
Agharta

Miles Davis - Live-Evil (1971)

First in a three-Friday look at some of the many double-live albums released by Miles Davis in the 1970s (already posted: Agharta, see list below).  This one does actually include short tracks of studio material, three of them by Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal and recorded in June 1970; Pascoal also contributes vocals, percussion and electric piano to those pieces.  All the rest are live recordings from The Cellar Door in Washington DC, 19 December 1970.  Joining Miles on stage were Gary Bartz, John McLaughlin (a quick end-of-residency addition), a rare electrified Keith Jarrett before he swore off amplified keyboards, and a cracking rhythm section of Michael Henderson, Jack DeJohnette and Aitro Moreira.

The album title, and a couple of the track titles, come from the mirror-text effect on the vinyl gatefold: MILES DAVIS LIVE = SELIM SIVAD EVIL.  Sivad is the first lengthy live jam - might that be Jarrett's (in)famous vocalising halfway through? Could be Airto.  What I Say turns up the tempo for an even funkier exploration - Jarrett sounds like he's about to play LA Woman in the intro there.  The brief studio tracks by Pascoal are mellow, drifting drones, and completing Record 1/CD1 is a studio take of Gemini/Double Image by Davis/Zawinul, which actually dates back to February 1970.  That last one adds Khalil Balakrishna on electric sitar, and all the studio material adds Chick & Herbie to the keyboard section.

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Over on Disc 2, Selim provides a quick overture in the form of a Pascoal piece sounding similar to the other two, then it's Live Evil all the way in the two remaining long tracks.  Funky Tonk does what it says on the tin, with plenty of Jarrett grooves, McLaughlin solos and storming percussion.  To close, Inamorata is a great straight-ahead funk jam, with the "Narration By Conrad Roberts" being a brief voice-over poem near the end by the titular actor, for reasons I've never quite seen explained.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson
On The Corner

Big Fun
Agharta

Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson (1971)

Soundtrack to a 1970 documentary about heavyweight champion boxer Jack Johnson (1878-1946), and also just an incredible electric-period Miles Davis album; perhaps an even better John McLaughlin album, given the guitarist's starring role.  First released as simply "Jack Johnson", with the LP cover below, all subsequent releases switched to the monochrome image of Miles (which apparently should've been the proper front cover in the first place), and added "A Tribute To" to the title.

Most of the music on the album's two side-long tracks was recorded on 7th April 1970, with inserts from earlier sessions.  Wanting to put together "the greatest rock 'n' roll band you've ever heard", Davis chose McLaughlin, Michael Henderson on bass guitar, Billy Cobham on drums and Steve Grossman on soprano sax to tear through the spontaneous rock groove of Right Off.  Eventually they were joined by Herbie Hancock, who happened to be passing through the studios and was plonked in front of a grungy organ to further electrify the groove at its midpoint.

Yesternow is an altogether weirder listen, with Teo Macero wielding the tape blade for a concoction that even has a brief excerpt of Shhh/Peaceful from In A Silent Way in the mix.  The first thirteen minutes are a much more slow-burning piece a la Ife on Big Fun, then post-Shhh the track jumps to another completely different session from February 1970.  The lineup here includes Sonny Sharrock on second guitar (not sure if it's him or McLaughlin doing that volley of laser-blast effects in the right channel), Chick Corea, Bennie Maupin, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette.  At the very end, a calm orchestral outro features a Jack Johnson voiceover performed by actor Brock Peters.  Altogether, A Tribute To Jack Johnson is one of Miles' most scorching electric records, and one that deserves to be just as well appraised as the better known classics like Bitches Brew/Silent Way.

Original LP cover

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pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 
On The Corner

Big Fun
Agharta

Miles Davis - Big Fun (2000 expanded edition - compi rel. 1974, rec. 1969-72)

An outtakes collection that's at least as good as the original albums it connects to, Big Fun spends just over an hour and a half offering up four magnificent slabs of electric Miles.  As originally released on double vinyl, it was bookended by two tracks from just after the Bitches Brew sessions, with one each from the On The Corner (link in list below) and Jack Johnson eras in the middle.

Other than Miles, I haven't put the usual musician names in the tags - not even half of them would fit in to the maximum space.  The late 60s - early 70s was a time when Davis would record and tour constantly, flit through new lineups at a Mark E Smith pace, and generally push the boundaries of jazz, fusion and Afro-futurist cosmic funk to ever further extremes.  

The opening track here, Great Expectations (with elements of Joe Zawinul's Orange Lady at points) starts out as a sitar-flavoured mid-tempo exploration that gradually dissolves into Silent Way-like ambience, before gathering pace again.  Next we're in the On The Corner mode of insistent funk for Ife, riding an indelible bass groove that occasionally trips over itself until the rhythm again falls away towards the end.

Go Ahead John, with the most compact lineup of Davis, the titular McLaughlin, Steve Grossman (who just died a month ago) on sax and the dream rhythm section of Holland & DeJohnette, dates from the Jack Johnson sessions.  For me it's easily the best of the four main tracks, with a groove that spins in zero-gravity thanks to the constantly panning drums and angry-hornet guitar solo.  This production, more than any other, locates Teo Macero at this point in time less alongside other jazz producers and more in a league with Plank and Czukay, or the Jamaican dub innovators.  Don't miss Lonely Fire afterwards though - I used to neglect it at the end - it lands back in late 1969 with a softly glowing ambience.  This reissue adds a further 40 minutes of Bitches Brew-era material, further fleshing out a time when Miles was constantly exploring sound, and still sounding contemporary today.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 
On The Corner
Agharta

Miles Davis with Gil Evans - Quiet Nights (1963)

Whilst not up to the standard of their previous collaborations (see Miles Ahead and Sketches of Spain links below), Miles Davis and Gil Evans' final album is still an enjoyable slice of summer-night loveliness.  The compromised nature of Quiet Nights is generally thought to have been due to pressure from CBS to make a more commercial bossanova cash-in, which Davis and Evans eventually grew frustrated with after months of sessions.  They abandoned the project with just 20 minutes of music completed.

The paltry runtime was filled out with an outtake from Miles' previous album and released by Teo Macero against the artist's wishes, causing a three-year rift in their working relationship.  When remastered for a Columbia Legacy CD, it was bulked up a little more with 12 minutes of music intended for a theatrical project.  For all its limitations, I've got a definite soft spot for Quiet Nights - not just because I love Miles Davis/Gil Evans and Brazilian music, but because it's a sweet, languid little record perfect for sitting with the windows open in August watching the sun set.

link
pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
On The Corner
Agharta

Lee Konitz, Miles Davis et al - Conception (1956 compilation, rec. 1949-51)

R.I.P. Lee Konitz, 13 October 1927 - 15 April 2020

The legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz has died at the age of 92, from Covid-related pneumonia.  He was the last surviving member of Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool band, and had a storied career in his own right as a distinctive, melodic player and improviser.

This great collection was issued by Prestige in 1956 to bring together some 78rpm sides and material from 10" LPs.  The first six tracks in fact are the entirety of "The New Sounds" by "Lee Konitz featuring Miles Davis", a 10" released in 1951.  All of it essential early cool jazz and bop.

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pw: sgtg

Miles Davis All-Stars - Walkin' (1957 compi of 1954 EPs)

An essential collection of early Miles Davis, from when he was newly cleaned-up and sounding fresh and vital.  This album paired two earlier 10" mini-LPs, recorded at two sessions in April 1954 with slightly different lineups.  The first two sextet tracks are bold, confident settings-out of his hard bop stall that would lead to milestone albums like, er, Milestones.  The title track might have been taken at increasingly breakneck speeds in concert, but here's it's at a perfect swagger, leaving the fast tempos for Dizzy Gillespie's Blue & Boogie.

The three quintet tracks from the other EP are both a throwback to cool jazz and a sign of things to come in Miles' mellower records.  The trumpet mute goes in, and an absolute Miles classic, Solar, is first up before the group relax into two great standards.  Early Miles Davis, just before the First Great Quintet, doesn't get much better than this.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead
Sketches Of Spain
On The Corner
Agharta

Miles Davis - Blue Moods (1955)

An often-overlooked mini masterpiece of early Miles, Blue Moods was recorded in July 1955 for Charles Mingus' Debut label.  Four tracks in just under 27 minutes of cool, smoky perfection, Blue Moods has an interesting (and unique in Miles' catalogue) lineup that contributes to its mellow atmosphere: trumpet, trombone (Britt Woodman), vibraphone (Teddy Charles), bass (Mingus) and drums (Elvin Jones).

By 1955 in jazz, the 10" mini-LP was on its way out, and longer albums becoming the norm; this is likely why the original liner notes pointed out that the brevity of this 12" LP was an audiophile choice to experiment with wider grooves.  Perhaps also true is that only these four tracks were rehearsed and taped; the CD excuses the runtime by stating that no bonus material was available to pad it out.  In any case, Blue Moods suits its length just fine, letting you give your full attention to four beautifully-rendered tunes.  None were penned by the participants, making this a pure exercise in song interpretation.

First up is the slow, crepuscular take on Eden Ahbez's Nature Boy, made famous by Nat King Cole, with Miles' mellifluous tone blowing gentle wisps over the not-too-wet vibraphone setting.  Next is the Broadway number Alone Together, in a great Mingus arrangement - more Mingus next week, btw.  The album's second half pairs the only slightly more upbeat There's No You with the movie standard Easy Living, which completes the hazy after-hours mood.  An absolutely gorgeous little record from start to finish, that deserves much greater recognition in Miles' lengthy discography.

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pw: sgtg

Miles Davis/Gil Evans - Miles Ahead (1957)

Miles Davis and Gil Evans, who'd first worked together on the 1949-50 sides that would make up Birth Of The Cool, reunited in 1957 for the first of three major album projects.  Miles Ahead was to be an ambitious suite of jazz and classical pieces that were arranged to run together.  Right from the upbeat Springsville segueing into Léo Delibes' Maids Of Cadiz, it was an inspired album that expanded the vocabulary of jazz and third stream music, and still sounds fresh and essential.

Miles abandoned the trumpet in favour of flugelhorn for Miles Ahead, an inspired choice that was a natural fit for his playing style.  The 20 musicians are masterfully arranged by Evans, and the linking together of each piece makes it hard to pick favourites; they're just all brilliant.  Still to come from this legendary collaboration was a setting of Gershwin's Porgy And Bess, and of course the magnificent Sketches of Spain.

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pw: sgtg

Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain (1960)

This album always jumps to the front of my August playlist - languid, lazy dog days never quite feel complete without its legendary Gil Evans orchestration and Miles' muted, melancholy tones being so perfectly suited to the Spanish melodies.  IIRC from a Mojo interview back in the 90s, this is Robert Wyatt's favourite album of all time, and what a great choice; Sketches Of Spain isn't just a high watermark in the careers of Davis & Evans, but a hugely influential and enduring classic of 20th century music full stop.

With the passage of time, and with so many recordings of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjeuz available to us now, it's weird to think that it was only 20 years old at the time Miles Davis heard the CBS recording fronted by Renata Tarragó and became obsessed with it.  He got Gil Evans hooked on it too, and the arranger took the gorgeous melody of the Adagio and extended it into 16 minutes of stunning third-stream writing to form the centrepiece of a new album.  Next to receive the Evans treatment was Will O' The Wisp from Manuel Falla's El Amor Brujo, and a folk tune called The Pan Piper.

Reaching even further into Spanish tradition, the album was rounded out by the melancholy march of Saeta, inspired by an Andalusian Easter procession, and Solea, another more upbeat piece in which Miles discovers the links between flamenco and the blues and turns another legendary performance.  The recording sessions for Sketches Of Spain might not have always run smoothly, and the Davis/Evans relationship would soon run out of steam (although the studio backchat between them quoted in the record's liner notes can be hilarious), but the album that resulted here is arguably the best that they made together.

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Miles Davis - On The Corner (1972)

Someone mentioned late 60s-70s Miles in the comments recently, which made me dig this one out.  When On The Corner got its Columbia Legacy reissue in 2000, it became my introduction to Miles Davis' electric period - and holy crap, what a choice for diving into his post '68 journey to the outer limits of jazz fusion.  Already getting a hammering from establishment jazz critics for setting his sights light years farther than theirs, by 1972 the James Brown/Sly Stone-influenced Davis cared less than zero with On The Corner, its straightahead funk cacophony and its cartoon cover by illustrator Corky McCoy (Miles' idea being to appeal to a younger African-American audience).

If On The Corner was meant to be a record to groove to, that's not exactly easy at the outset, as the odd rhythm (the sixteenth-notes on the hi-hat are the key to following it) cuts in mid flow.  The title track - the first three minutes of the opening suite - is the kind of full-on fury that would lead to scorching live documents like Dark Magus and Agharta a few years later, with John McLaughlin's guitar and Collin Walcott's sitar wah-wahing like fighting lions.  Even as the larger 20-minute track opens up to give a bit more space, the subsequent sections deftly spliced by Teo Macero (wonder if he was ever aware of Tago Mago?), the groove doesn't calm down until the very end.

The head-shaking of the jazz critics continued as the rest of the album - that's 34 minutes - proceeded to hinge around one single bassline.  I must admit on early listens this did make me tune out, particularly on the 23 minute Helen Butte/Mr Freedom X - big mistake.  To follow these tracks closely is to hear infinite variations from the assembled players (Miles himself sticks mostly to electric organ, in his Fela-like lead shaman role), and an abundance of clever editing and other studio trickery, influenced by both Stockhausen and Paul Buckmaster  Essential, life-affirming deep groove music that the rest of the world is still catching up to.

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Miles Davis - Agharta (1975)

Miles Davis, 1975 - in constant pain from multiple health problems, about to bow out for the rest of the decade - and piloting jazz funk/fusion into its most scorching solar orbit, with flares of avant-garde electronica spitting everywhere. Miles and afro-futurist crew landed in Japan early in the year, and taped two concerts for future release in one day at Osaka Festival Hall.  The evening show was called Pangaea on release, and is pretty good; the afternoon show became the mindblowing Agharta.

Like 'Tatu' from the previous year's Dark Magus concert, Agharta thunders in with a breakneck funk vamp that continually gets derailed by Miles crashing down on the electric organ, so that everyone can regroup and charge ahead again.  He's on organ at least as much as trumpet in this era, colouring the music with massive discordant smears, whilst Pete Cosey on lead guitar shares the limelight by coaxing unearthly guitar sounds through an EMS Synthi serving as an effects unit.  After over half an hour of this (the Japanese CD used here corrects the botched track division from the 90s US release) we get to mellow out a bit with the queasy lounge groove of Mayisha from Get Up With It, but even this is soon taken over by a cracking Hendrix-esque solo from Cosey before calming down again.

The second disc here is one continuous track, starting out by jamming on the Theme From Jack Johnson, before a lengthier respite in an eerie, swampy mid-section based on Ife from the album Big Fun.  There's even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it throwback to So What from Kind Of Blue, before the final section cranks up the volume again if not quite at as frenetic a tempo as earlier in the show.  Percussionist James Mtume is the star of this final stretch, but basically every one of the 97 minutes of Agharta is exhilirating, essential groove.

Disc 1
Disc 2

Miles Davis - Bags' Groove (1957 compi, rec. 1954)

One of my absolute favourite albums of early, pre-Columbia Miles Davis - and actually a compilation of two 10" mini-albums, Miles Davis With Sonny Rollins recorded in June 1954, and Miles Davis All Stars Vol. 1, recorded on Xmas eve that same year.

It's all about the magnificent, knockout triple-punch of Sonny Rollins compositions for me, all of which would become widely-covered standards.  This inspired collaboration between Davis and Rollins would unfortunately prove to be a one-off (the omnipresent drug problems of 50s jazz, apparently); listen to these tracks and imagine what could've been.  Also recorded was Gershwin's But Not For Me, showing that this quintet were equally versatile with ballads and standards.

The 'All Stars' session from the end of the year featured another rare congress of striking personalities, with Thelonious Monk on piano and Milt 'Bags' Jackson on vibes.  Bags' Groove, the composition, is the very definition of mid-50's cool.  This compilation is rounded out by two alternate takes - of the title track, and But Not For Me.  Prestige seem to have been quite the label for offering value for money - I never knew until today's discogs browse that they'd done 16rpm compilations, offering presumably over an hour of music on one disc decades before the advent of CDs.  Sorry, I love trivia like that...

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