Customer Reviews
2008-11-10
How could anyone not "get" this album??...
Bitches Brew was the last defining moment where (in my opinion) Miles had spontaneously changed the entire landscape of jazz at his whim. ..
This album single-handedly started the jazz-fusion movement in the 70s. & that in my opinion is where jazz took a leap of faith and caught up with the 60s thanks to Miles. Trippy music that played with your mind and body and soul had come to life but not to fruition until this album. Period. Thank you for your time and support.
2008-10-28
Another innovative classic album from Miles...
When this album can out in '69, jazz was in a state of flux, alternating between the mainstream, traditional swing and rock'n'roll. Miles had been flirting with rock rhythms and vamps in his later albums with his famous 2nd group (Shorter, Hancock, Carter & Williams) with "Miles in the Sky", "Filles of Killamanjaro" and "In a Silent Way" ( a colloboration with Joe Zawinul which also featured Chick Corea and John McLaughlin). But with this ground-breaking album, Miles Davis created a new genre---fusion. For better or worse, Miles wasn't about to look back but forward as he did earlier with his "Kind of Blue" album. Many earlier fans thought Miles had sold out but I believe that he was true to his Gemini nature of wanting to break new ground. And of course with Zawinul's influence he did with extraordinary results. Tunes like "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" and Shorter's "Sanctuary" would become staples of his group in concert. If you're longing to break away from be-bop and am tired of it and swing--check this one out!! It is as about innovative as the avant garde music of Ornette Coleman or Cecil Taylor. Recommended only for adventurists in sound.
2008-10-11
A JAZZ FUSION MASTERPIECE....
An ex co-worker of mine's from my working days at the Post Office turned me on to this Miles Davis recording back in 1993. I'm glad he did because I went straight to the record store the next day and copped it. Haven't regretted it since. The improvisations, which Miles really dug from his musicians, was really hittin' on all cylinders. Some jazz fans may view this recording as rather bizarre, but this was around the time when Miles was kind of going in a different direction with his music. I would recommend this title for all jazz lovers.
2008-09-07
Bitches Brew...
I wouldn't say this is Miles best Album, but I think the experiment as some would call it was successful. If this is nothing more than an experiment in heaping dimished and minor chords on top of each other with tape loops...if people want to reduce it to that I don't object. However I have to say this is Phenomenal. As an experiment it works 100% - I've been listening to it regularly for a long time and have not tired of it. It is magestically apocalyptic with no regrets.
2008-08-16
stanley crouch hates it , it must be good....
when neocon jazz protectors like stanley crouch and wynton [whens the last time he's made a good album] marsalis. spew such venom toward any music by a jazz artist that doesnt fit in their little bop box, degrade an album of admittedly challenging music, they do us all a diservice, as if saying "that aint jazz" means it isnt worthy of respect,as great as miles davis was, basically being a founding father of bop, cool jazz modal postbop, acid jazz , jazz funk and even electronica [he loved him madly from get up with it] dispute it if you will, but miles davis is certainly the greatest jazz figure of post war era. critically hated albums like on the corner, have been reinvestigated by the generation x'rs and have influenced so many electronica artists, as well as modern rock bands,i cant see how stanley crouch and the neo cons cant just agree to disagree, and let it be.now to the album. i am going to go out on a limb. I believe that bitches brew is miles's masterpiece, i know. i know, what about kind of blue, or miles smiles, or porgy and bess, all classics and certainly in the top 10 jazz albums of all time. but bitches brew was something never heard before.and to say sly and the family stone was an influence on this is laughable,[that influence would come later], the term jazz rock doesnt do this album justice, this album has the darkest chilliest and emotion stirring , or thought pravoking sound i have ever heard ,before or since. "pharoahs dance composed by joe zawinul, has this concrete jungle sound , that seems to take me into utter loneliness , dispair maybe ,i always get reflective, and some times my mind wanders off, i first heard this track 10 years ago.and the thing that struck me ,was how modern it sounded , surely not dated, and each time i hear it , it never seems dated , it alway sounds fresh and new.i would almost call this art jazz , but is it realy that jazzy, these are, jazz musicians , is it industrial jazz? the title track bitches brew, the longest track, 26 minutes is much the same.if not more isolating in feeling.but other passages in the track hint at a better tomorrow. ten spanish key the minor vamp groove piece realy cooks, and always puts me in mind of someone struggling to break free, to escape the isolation of the first 2 tracks. and the little ditty john mclauglin, breif, brief but to the point,reafirms spanish keys effort to escape that concrete jungle dispair of the first 2 tracks. then by the time you get to "miles runs the voodoo down" you feel as if youve escaped that lonely dispair, and with that gutbucket funky intro,and that balls to the wall miles trumpet solo 2 minutes in , i cant help but smile knowing this is it, nirvana.personnaly this solo is my favorite in all of his music. man miles was a lion during his "electric phase" jack johnson the live albums etc... hes soloing like a boxer. bob and weave ,jab, uppercut, roundhouse,and a punch to the gut.how the neo cons cant see the art form for what it is, great music , thought provoking , challenging,and exillirating . is beyond me, nothing i can say to open minded listeners who havent bought this album. judge for your self, but be warned, this is not easily digested music, it takes dozens of listens to truly grasp its greatness., if your not into this type of music. theirs alway that wynton and willie nelson album that just came out, uggghhh! to be fair wynton's album from 1999 [marciac suite] was a wonderful album and in my opinion his most realized album ,his masterpiece. but bitches brew is an undefinable assault on the mind. i just love it.
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