Miles Davis-Bitches Brew (1969) (CBS)
The cultural and political landscape has changed not only in America, but worldwide over the last 50 years. We have been changing continuously to meet the demands of everyday life, with economic reform, lifestyle changes are inevitable. The political and social landscape was changed significantly in America during the period of 1944 through to 1970. Many things happened, and many contributing factors led to the eventual liberation and change in levels of patriotism one had for their country dubbed “the home of the brave”.
On the political front, movers and shakers such as Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm X and others, shared a similar view in that the people as a nation should be united as one, and embrace and respect each other’s heritage without prejudice. While many shared this view, black oppression was and still is prominent in the U.S (other countries as well) and sticklers for convention were reluctant to acknowledge other races, let alone accepting the fact that interracial politicians were active in their country.
Making a statement always meant that controversy would surround you in whatever you attempt you made to lead a normal, unharmed life. In wanting unity for everybody, Martin Luther was assassinated, the same applied for Malcolm X. Bobby Kennedy wanted to provide for the working class or hard done by districts, he went into the run down communities and tried to make a change, providing them with more facilities. Or at least he tried to. The years of work he tried to put into the country was all a waste, after his death. In a few years time the imprint he left on American society was all but diminished when Richard Nixon led his term in office, ruining any hope the American people had of changing their way after making so much progress.
After World War II, the depression had a certain catharsis in the air, and blues singers probably could muster up more pain and anguish in their playing, than any emo band could in a lifetime.
Families trying to survive doing what they had to do. Black musicians were entertaining everyone and the main culprits around this time were Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to name a few. They were all entertaining coloured folk around the country and leading jazz in becoming a popular form of music.
From 52nd streets rush, to Harlem’s inner heart, and Minton’s Playhouse were so many legends of jazz played over the years. In the beginning it was pure, and it was music for the black people as was blues.
Once Caucasian America caught wind of it, it began to spread out, and white musicians were starting to popularise this music by playing at white clubs around New York.
Bill Evans among many others were starting to get known for their brand of jazz around town, and it was of the opinion of the African American folk that the white man would try and take their music from them and take credit for it.
There was a truly vibrant atmosphere around uptown New York with clubs like Minton’s playhouse or Heatwave where all the hot jazz ensembles had residences.
After the big band era died, jazz started getting smaller, and the quintet’s starting forming, where a smaller setting for the music enabled the musicians to thrive on not compositional arcs in the music, but the improvisational nature of it.
With the emergence of the bebop sound, were it’s pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie “Bird” Parker, they paved the way for what was to become the modern jazz sound. However, it was Miles Davis who then took all his influences from the Dixieland through big band and bebop and created his own style of jazz, it would become the Modal sound.
The modal approach to jazz was based on a series of chords, in which the soloists can improvise around, moving up in key to further explore a roughly arranged chord progression.
Miles Davis was from St Louis and moved to New York to enrol in the Julliard School of Music. He later sat in for Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and would later become a very influential figure in popular music.
His breakthrough album which featured the modal style of playing, was 1959’s Kind of Blue. It’s considered a jazz album classic and is highly publicised as being the highest selling jazz album of all time to the present day. He broke into the big league, having already established himself in the jazz scene. After a few years his second great quintet featuring Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock recording a few classic albums, such as E.S.P, Nefertiti, Filles De Kilimanjaro etc. However by the mid sixties Miles had to move forward with the times. He met Betty Mabry in 1968 and they got married shortly after he divorced his previous wife Frances earlier that year. She was a funk soul singer who was into the new culture of rock n roll, and influenced the way Miles dressed and played after that. Out with the Italian suits, and in with the flairs and colourful vests and whatnot. He had changed in a big way, and his music was also going to indicate a huge turning point in his life, because he would ultimately alienate the bulk of his long-time fans, but reach out to millions of new ones.
In a Silent Way was recorded before Bitches Brew. He introduced rock drumming time signatures, upright basses turned into electric bass, guitarists started being used (John McLaughlin debuts on this record for the miles davis band) and the music begin being more ethereal and more funk based.
Bitches Brew is a landmark album in music history, it represents the pride and boldness of an artist to come forth and break open the floodgates for everyone else to come through. Jazz had such a repressed attitude about it, and Miles had always claimed that good music is good music no matter what genre it is, it allowed experimentation into the jazz form, which is ironically something it had been lacking for a couple of years, despite aficionados saying that it was such a complex and exciting form of music, though they cringed at the fact that anyone could introduce electric instruments into it. Miles did that and broke the conventions of a genre that was getting pigeonholed. It was to the outrage of the purists who thought that Davis had gone mad, though it was to worldwide praise that this significant document of music had been received, and to this day it remains that way influencing countless numbers of musicians around the world.
The album opens with Pharaoh’s Dance, a slowly building dissonant gliding piece. Next up is the title track Bitches Brew. In all it’s 27 minutes of greatness (it originally covered side 2 of the LP) it’s a brooding slow build, rising action and decline. The sneeking bass line is immortalised as one of the most beloved memories of my music appreciation, the bass line acts as a mantra throughout the track, and the other soloists interact with each other building up to wailing proportions and then falling again into submissiveness. Miles uses an echoplex of his trumpet something revolutionary at the time, which gives it an alien like attitude to his horn sound.
Spanish Key remains one of the most upbeat numbers on the album, Miles resonating riff through Spanish Key is memorable.
John McLaughlin the track named after the guitarist of the same is the shortest track on the album about 4 minutes long.
“Miles Runs The Voodoo Down” is a remarkable funk based jam which rises up to the heavens with dissonant noise, and wailing trumpet from Davis, it feels as if it’s going to burst out of the speakers.
The closer Sanctuary, I believe is the centrepiece of this album. It requires the group to keep contained and they reach an unspeakable climax at the end, to be reinforced by Davis’ central riff at the end to finish proceedings.
An astonishing achievement in contemporary music, it’s vital for anyone who wants to explore a certain electricity which cannot be obtained by sticking a fork into a power point. Miles Davis has been declared an innovator up until his death, but has left behind an unmatched legacy in terms of spirit of creativity he brought to music as an art form. Becoming the first jazz musician to perform at huge rock festivals and arenas around the world, Bitches Brew more than made up for its sheer audacity and non compliance with the jazz form, by opening up to millions more younger people willing to open up their minds to even jazz musicians, he left the old timers behind and never looked back.
The ability to nurture this historical document of recorded sound is made possible by either these days a cd reissue by Columbia records, or the original LP which is now a huge collector’s item.
Discover this album for the time in the cd reissue from 1998. It is a terrific accomplishment, by one of the most accomplished men in music, Miles Davis.
The cultural and political landscape has changed not only in America, but worldwide over the last 50 years. We have been changing continuously to meet the demands of everyday life, with economic reform, lifestyle changes are inevitable. The political and social landscape was changed significantly in America during the period of 1944 through to 1970. Many things happened, and many contributing factors led to the eventual liberation and change in levels of patriotism one had for their country dubbed “the home of the brave”.
On the political front, movers and shakers such as Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm X and others, shared a similar view in that the people as a nation should be united as one, and embrace and respect each other’s heritage without prejudice. While many shared this view, black oppression was and still is prominent in the U.S (other countries as well) and sticklers for convention were reluctant to acknowledge other races, let alone accepting the fact that interracial politicians were active in their country.
Making a statement always meant that controversy would surround you in whatever you attempt you made to lead a normal, unharmed life. In wanting unity for everybody, Martin Luther was assassinated, the same applied for Malcolm X. Bobby Kennedy wanted to provide for the working class or hard done by districts, he went into the run down communities and tried to make a change, providing them with more facilities. Or at least he tried to. The years of work he tried to put into the country was all a waste, after his death. In a few years time the imprint he left on American society was all but diminished when Richard Nixon led his term in office, ruining any hope the American people had of changing their way after making so much progress.
After World War II, the depression had a certain catharsis in the air, and blues singers probably could muster up more pain and anguish in their playing, than any emo band could in a lifetime.
Families trying to survive doing what they had to do. Black musicians were entertaining everyone and the main culprits around this time were Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to name a few. They were all entertaining coloured folk around the country and leading jazz in becoming a popular form of music.
From 52nd streets rush, to Harlem’s inner heart, and Minton’s Playhouse were so many legends of jazz played over the years. In the beginning it was pure, and it was music for the black people as was blues.
Once Caucasian America caught wind of it, it began to spread out, and white musicians were starting to popularise this music by playing at white clubs around New York.
Bill Evans among many others were starting to get known for their brand of jazz around town, and it was of the opinion of the African American folk that the white man would try and take their music from them and take credit for it.
There was a truly vibrant atmosphere around uptown New York with clubs like Minton’s playhouse or Heatwave where all the hot jazz ensembles had residences.
After the big band era died, jazz started getting smaller, and the quintet’s starting forming, where a smaller setting for the music enabled the musicians to thrive on not compositional arcs in the music, but the improvisational nature of it.
With the emergence of the bebop sound, were it’s pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie “Bird” Parker, they paved the way for what was to become the modern jazz sound. However, it was Miles Davis who then took all his influences from the Dixieland through big band and bebop and created his own style of jazz, it would become the Modal sound.
The modal approach to jazz was based on a series of chords, in which the soloists can improvise around, moving up in key to further explore a roughly arranged chord progression.
Miles Davis was from St Louis and moved to New York to enrol in the Julliard School of Music. He later sat in for Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and would later become a very influential figure in popular music.
His breakthrough album which featured the modal style of playing, was 1959’s Kind of Blue. It’s considered a jazz album classic and is highly publicised as being the highest selling jazz album of all time to the present day. He broke into the big league, having already established himself in the jazz scene. After a few years his second great quintet featuring Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock recording a few classic albums, such as E.S.P, Nefertiti, Filles De Kilimanjaro etc. However by the mid sixties Miles had to move forward with the times. He met Betty Mabry in 1968 and they got married shortly after he divorced his previous wife Frances earlier that year. She was a funk soul singer who was into the new culture of rock n roll, and influenced the way Miles dressed and played after that. Out with the Italian suits, and in with the flairs and colourful vests and whatnot. He had changed in a big way, and his music was also going to indicate a huge turning point in his life, because he would ultimately alienate the bulk of his long-time fans, but reach out to millions of new ones.
In a Silent Way was recorded before Bitches Brew. He introduced rock drumming time signatures, upright basses turned into electric bass, guitarists started being used (John McLaughlin debuts on this record for the miles davis band) and the music begin being more ethereal and more funk based.
Bitches Brew is a landmark album in music history, it represents the pride and boldness of an artist to come forth and break open the floodgates for everyone else to come through. Jazz had such a repressed attitude about it, and Miles had always claimed that good music is good music no matter what genre it is, it allowed experimentation into the jazz form, which is ironically something it had been lacking for a couple of years, despite aficionados saying that it was such a complex and exciting form of music, though they cringed at the fact that anyone could introduce electric instruments into it. Miles did that and broke the conventions of a genre that was getting pigeonholed. It was to the outrage of the purists who thought that Davis had gone mad, though it was to worldwide praise that this significant document of music had been received, and to this day it remains that way influencing countless numbers of musicians around the world.
The album opens with Pharaoh’s Dance, a slowly building dissonant gliding piece. Next up is the title track Bitches Brew. In all it’s 27 minutes of greatness (it originally covered side 2 of the LP) it’s a brooding slow build, rising action and decline. The sneeking bass line is immortalised as one of the most beloved memories of my music appreciation, the bass line acts as a mantra throughout the track, and the other soloists interact with each other building up to wailing proportions and then falling again into submissiveness. Miles uses an echoplex of his trumpet something revolutionary at the time, which gives it an alien like attitude to his horn sound.
Spanish Key remains one of the most upbeat numbers on the album, Miles resonating riff through Spanish Key is memorable.
John McLaughlin the track named after the guitarist of the same is the shortest track on the album about 4 minutes long.
“Miles Runs The Voodoo Down” is a remarkable funk based jam which rises up to the heavens with dissonant noise, and wailing trumpet from Davis, it feels as if it’s going to burst out of the speakers.
The closer Sanctuary, I believe is the centrepiece of this album. It requires the group to keep contained and they reach an unspeakable climax at the end, to be reinforced by Davis’ central riff at the end to finish proceedings.
An astonishing achievement in contemporary music, it’s vital for anyone who wants to explore a certain electricity which cannot be obtained by sticking a fork into a power point. Miles Davis has been declared an innovator up until his death, but has left behind an unmatched legacy in terms of spirit of creativity he brought to music as an art form. Becoming the first jazz musician to perform at huge rock festivals and arenas around the world, Bitches Brew more than made up for its sheer audacity and non compliance with the jazz form, by opening up to millions more younger people willing to open up their minds to even jazz musicians, he left the old timers behind and never looked back.
The ability to nurture this historical document of recorded sound is made possible by either these days a cd reissue by Columbia records, or the original LP which is now a huge collector’s item.
Discover this album for the time in the cd reissue from 1998. It is a terrific accomplishment, by one of the most accomplished men in music, Miles Davis.
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