As a Miles newbie (you can be that still after 12 years of listening) I have decided to listen to every album in this thread. Most of these will be on Spotify as I only own about 6-7. Amazingly, I've found all of them so far. For this particular one I think I will have to go for the Japan LP version.
I was lucky enough to score the US box for $21 at a flea market not too long ago (can't remember if there's a booklet or not). Still have 2 CDs left to listen to (it's like reading the bible), but my enthusiasm has definitely been spiked by this thread!
Some info I found on plosin.com about the Plugged Nickel releases: On issues prior to Mosaic MQ10-158 and Columbia CXK 66955, several tunes are edited because portions were missing on the tapes used as masters. By using a (newly discovered) three-track master tape, Columbia was able to restore these tunes to their full length: "Walkin'" (first set) - add 1:04 to ts solo. Listen for clean edit at 7:58 of incomplete version. "Four" (second set) - add 1:20 to tpt solo. Listen for clean edit at 1:37 of incomplete version. "Milestones" (second set) - add 2:20 to ts solo. Listen for audible splice at 1:54 of incomplete version. "No Blues" (third set) - add 1:16 to tpt solo. Listen for clean edit at 3:10 of incomplete version.
Yes, about 20 minutes of extra music. Hence the 8th CD on the US version versus 7 on the Japanese version.
Ah, didn't know that! Never realised there is a difference between the two sets, although I did notice that "Teo Macero edited" sticker on the Japanese version. Your comment made me realise that the Japanese set was released in 1992 (!), three years prior to the US set, so it must have used a different source. Although, on second thought, it might have been the same source and the Japanese had Teo Macero involved who decided to edit some of the tapes. Maybe somebody knows more about this... I've always regarded the Plugged Nickel set as a beginning of sorts of Columbia/Legacy's reissue campaign that started with The Complete Gil Evans/Miles Davis box, which also came out later in 1995.
The whole reissue campaign was always centered around the plan to release EIGHT metal spine boxed sets. They got that done, but barely, as there were more and more problems cropping up between the producers and the estate. The last set based on On the Corner is sort of a travesty, only because calling the sessions included as part and parcel of that album is a big time misnomer. The original plan was also to have included an intrinsic partnership with Mosaic, which was to release the vinyl counterparts of all sets. Obviously, that didn't end up happening. In addition to the metal spine campaign, there was a concurrent campaign to issue landmark live sets -- Blackhawk, Cellar Door, Plugged Nickel, Montreux (which was a cooperative with Warner Bros, which handled the Euro version of that box).
Plugged Nickel is incredible. I didn't like the single disc version I originally heard, just couldn't latch onto what they were doing. And I hated Miles' tone. And I wanted to hear more of the Quintet's original compositions. But I eventually got the box and fell in love with it. Wayne Shorter's solos on that box are among the best in jazz history, IMO.
The Bitches Brew set from a few years earlier was more glaring in not including any new material from the actual Bitches Brew sessions in August 1969. OTC did have some unheard material recorded at the same time as the album.
The name of the "Complete Bitches Brew" always annoyed me. I expected something more along the lines of what they did with the In a Silent Way box--to breakout the original recordings from the edited versions. Not even close. The non-BB material on the box doesn't even sound almost anything like the BB material! They just knew they had a marketable name.
Interesting, I've never thought of it this way. I feel like most of the tracks on The Complete Bitches Brew sound like they could belong on the album. I haven't paid too much attention to recording dates though. Were most of the included tracks not done around the same time period? As for Plugged Nickel, it's some great material for sure. I love hearing the unique takes on familiar songs. Agreed that Wayne Shorter sounds like a beast!
To be fair, two CDs of Bitches Brew outtakes (the same material described in the liner notes, and reportedly all that exists in the vault) did leak out somehow shortly after the box set release.
Very good points. They did eventually release alternate takes of two Bitches Brew tracks, two 1970 single edits and two mono singles from those sessions on the Legacy Edition — but those tracks should have been on the Complete Bitches Brew all along!
I remember hearing those — pretty unlistenable. Too many small recorded fragments meant to be edited together later.
As Paul Tingen points out here, the OTC nomenclature is even more misleading: Like with many of the Miles boxed sets, the overall title is rather misleading, in this case particularly so. It was already a stretch, for instance, to compile all sessions Miles did between August 1969 and February 1970 on the 4-CD The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, when the actual BB sessions took place over just three days in August 1969. But the forthcoming boxed set covers three years of sessions, from March 1972 to May 1975, and contains music with entirely different vibes, concepts, approaches, personnel, and so on. It's a bit like calling everything The Beatles recorded from Sgt Pepper' onwards The Complete Sgt Pepper's Sessions. http://www.miles-beyond.com/otcbox.htm
Regardless, we're glad we were able to get it and it is one of my favorite of the box sets. Just finished listening to a bit of Plugged Nickel thanks to this thread.
Hancock shared a nice little story about playing with miles in the quintet during a recent lecture... http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2014/02/dont_play_the_b.html "Don't play the butter notes..."
On the US plugged nickel box, it's a 7 cd box. But one volume (2 maybe) has a disc a and disc b, totaling 8 discs. However, the music from disc a and disc b is enough to fit on one disc. I've heard this briefly touched upon elsewhere, but mainly just voicing confusion. Does anybody have any idea why this is?
Yes, it's evident it would have been difficult to make those presentable for a broad audience (although they did eventually find some bits for that later rerelease). I find "Pharoah's Dance" interesting since it has some composed material not included in the finished version.
I think the answer is pretty simple. CDs nowadays can hold up to 80 minutes, and discs 2a and 2b are less than a minute short of 80 minutes. It seems back in 1995 the limit was the still the initial 74 minutes per CD.
The BB box included a lot of material recorded in November 1969, three months later. Sitar and tamboura players in the band. Good stuff but never considered for Bitches Brew and different in character.
