|
>1968 >Miles Davis - Miles In The Sky (Columbia CS 9628) >Miles Davis - Filles De Kilimanjaro (Columbia CS 9750)
>1969 >Miles Davis - In A Silent Way (Columbia CS 9875) >The Selected Works Of Chick Corea - Music Forever And Beyond >(GRP GRD 5-9819) >Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (Columbia GP 26) >Miles Davis - Big Fun (Columbia C 32866)
>1970 >Miles Davis - A Tribute To Jack Johnson (Columbia S 30455)
>1972 >Miles Davis - On The Corner (Columbia KC 31906)
>1973 >Miles Davis - Black Satin (Jazz Masters (G) JM 011/12) >Miles Davis - Ife (Lunch For Your Ears (E) LFYE 002)
>1974 >Miles Davis - Dark Magus (CBS/Sony (J) 28AP 2165/66)
those are all the albums, including Water Babies and Miles In The Sky, (which i don't know why they were excluded from the list) that i have spent time with. And by spend time, I mean a lot of hours, in particular the years of 2001-2007.
when I'm not afraid to hide my art-fag pretense, this is without a doubt my favorite period of music, for music in general and Miles in particular. Without the technical knowledge of how to speak about jazz, i always speak of and engage with the music from a personal, emotive, cultural and historical level. To me the music aesthetically and emotively reflects a lot of the racial/social turmoil of the period, but it's beyond that. Miles was trusting his band-mates and listeners with a whole lot.
He had the audacity to record and play live PROCESS. not completed ideas. no here is a beginning, the middle and end of songs. but a simple groove / rhythm that lead to he and all the musicians laying layer upon layer of sound with and against each other. some times when certain songs end, you feel its due to fatigue/ exhaustion rather than the "idea" being complete.
Though i agree that I don't here much Rock in Miles' jazz-fusion recordings (with Mahavishnu it's undeniable), there is no way to deny the funk. i mean by the time we get to Dark Magus, Miles and his team are DEEP in the bowels of the funk sound, feel, attitude. its hyper sexual, strong, proud, and angry. it is kind of fitting that it was his last recording before the 6-8 year hiatus.
Than you get me thinking of his age, something i have never considered. He wasn't in his 30s, but 40s! pushing himself and the MANY DIFFERENT MUSICIANS to expand, bend, re-interpret and re-imagine what sound/noise was and could be. It's the type of aesthetic asceticism that is rarely found in artist 20s. but than again there was sumthin in the water 'cause this desire for a "new" sonic language was found in the works of Coltrane, Sun Raw, Zawinal and Pastorious.
without a doubt when those phrases of epic, legendary, ect get thrown around, i believe this is one of the few times they fit.
|