I don't think sleeping is what my wife had in mind when she was talking about listening to Kind Of Blue in bed As for Bitches Brew, yeah, a sample of one of Miles' trumpet blasts would make a helluva alarm clock sound. Better than one of those ones that uses an actual rooster crowing!
I think taking advise to go slow and approach great works gradually takes out the fun. If you're interested in free jazz, listen to Machine Gun. If not, ignore it. Most people will come to music by listening to a lot of rock during their youth, so when they develop an interest in jazz, checking out Miles Davis' highly successful early electric period should come naturally. Sure, Bitches Brew is a bit abstract, but being challenged by music is fun. Being told how to correctly approach any art form, however, is stifling.
Is that not exactly what you are doing? To be honest, the guy can go & check out Bitches Brew on Youtube if he wants, I was merely giving some advice as to what might be a gentler approach (In A Silent Way). Personally I like to 'dip my toe' before jumping head first in to more 'difficult' music but everyone is different.
When she was 7 years old, my daughter declared that she wanted to be a vegetarian. My wife got very excited and made a classic hippie food feast that night. After struggling through the dinner, my daughter decided she would not be a vegetarian. She should have gone slow. Personally, I like my food slow AND my music slow.
Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert (1975) ECM 810- 067 2 W.German Polygram cd. It started snowing around 2:30pm in Tokyo and hasn't quite stopped yet. It's always interesting to see snow in this city. I went out and made the most of it with my camera, as well as doing the neccessary grocery shopping. Sun is forecast tomorrow, which could make for some great photos Inside with hot coffee looking out at a white carpet, for some reason this suggested itself. Deeply satisfying...
Unless I’m mistaken on the timeline, I first recall seeing this brew many years ago; I can’t believe that, with as much as I love A) Miles Davis; B) Bitches Brew (the album); and C) beer (dark beer included), I’ve gone so long without ever trying this. I don’t recall which brewery, may have been the same one, also had a Kind of Blue themed beer, flavored with blueberry. Never tried it either as at the time when I recall seeing it I was still adamantly opposed to fruit flavored beers.
When a brew is 9%, it starts out high on my list, or should I say I start out high and listless. I had some of this last week from a friend who had been saving it for me. Later, I did a karaoke version of "Save It For Me".
Unless you know someone really, really well, you never know what that someone is going to like. Like, my daughter has a really good sense of what kind of TV, movies and books I'm going to like. But some stranger might look at the fact that I live the music of Bruce Springsteen and say, "Oh, you'll like XYZ," and name a bunch of guys who write midtempo Americana-tinged guitar rock, like Tom Petty or something, but no, I'm completely indifferent to the music of Tom Petty. Also, unless you know someone really, really well, you don't really know how people like things. This suggestion that somehow there's fun on one side and thinking on the other, seems crazy to me. Thinking IS my kind of fun. When I get curious about the music, my fun is delving into it deeply and, largely in a very structured way -- listening to all the stuff in some kind of order, understanding the discography and how the artist fit into his or her times and what the were thinking. I'll read multiple books about the artist. That IS fun. That's not something separate from or other than fun. Other people seem to feel that somehow that's taking fun away from music. Some people might get into the cool water with a plunge, other people might dip their toes in. Some people think "being challenged by music is fun," some people don't. Also I think it's problematic to assume things like, "Everyone can agree on KOB, but BB is an entirely different animal" (don't forget in the 1970s, BB was THE Miles Davis album to own. KOB hadn't yet arrived at the revered status it has now and BB dramatically outsold it). Or to presume that, "Most people will come to music by listening to a lot of rock during their youth" -- I don't know a lot of people under 30 who are principally rock listeners, I don't know a lot of people who are something other that white who grew up as rock listeners, etc. No way to know when a poster asks in an internet forum, "I heard KOB should I listen to BB?" what kind of person that is -- a toe dipper or a cold plunger, a person for whom a challenge is fun or an impediment, a person who grew up with rock or not rock (though since I think the poster mentioned something about guitar that suggested he or she was a rock fan), etc. All you can do is ask 'em if they like KOB, what they liked or didn't like about it, explain to them how BB is different, and then let them listen for themselves. There's no settling the matter of the best or proper way to recommend music to a stranger, there is no best or proper way.
After Sarah Vaughan came up in another thread -- and someone advanced the idea that Sarah Vaughan wasn't a storytelling singer who inhabits a lyric -- I've been off on a Vaughan kick. Her Roulette and Mercury material is kind of all over the place in terms of style and setting. I always tend to gravitate to the small group stuff, and not even small group stuff, but even the vocals plus duo stuff on After Hours and +2......But love this one that's kind in between the small group stuff and the more orchestrated stuff, and it's great. I don't know why it's not better thought of.
I don't think Dogfish Head's Bitches Brew tastes anything like Guiness. It's an Imperial Stout, so it's made very differently. Also, they don't overcook (burn?) the barley, which is what Guiness does to give their stout a unique flavor. Instead, they use a chocolate barley, which I think yields a much smoother stout. It's been a while since I've sipped one, but I remember it being a lot less bitter than Guiness.
I like this approach and am somewhat envious of those who do this as I never seem to get around to it. The closest I came was to read “Clawing at the Limits of Cool”, a book about Coltrane and Miles time together. However, at the time I was in a different country and didn’t have access to any stores to get the CDs of the material being discussed, although never being a big music downloader it never occurred to me at the time that I could just buy the albums on iTunes. I keep meaning to do a reread of it with a deep dive into those albums, accented by doing some transcriptions of some of the solos. One day...
Your comments are great, except I would say that Kind of Blue achieved a revered status upon its release, and that status only grew continually, both right up to the release of Bitches Brew and beyond that. I might agree that Kind of Blue's status may have been non existent to very young people and those that approached Miles and jazz from strictly a rock and roll background, but that group was not everyone, by a long shot.
One difference between "Dogfish" brews and Guinness is that after you've had two bottles of Dogfish, you will not even be aware you had them (or be aware of anything else for that matter). But after two bottles of Guinness, you will want your money back and leave with a bad taste in your mouth.
My copy is enroute to me and I'm really looking forward to it. The man might not put out as many albums as some artists but his consistency in quality (imho) is second to none. NP Red Garland At The Prelude (Prestige) SHM CD Speaking of consistent pianists.....
As to KOB vs. BB: Just curious, is there anyone here who does not like KOB? If ever a Jazz album has succeeded in satisfying both the expert and the mass market taste, this must be the one. There is a reason that KOB still is #1 on more or less every Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time list. Sure, BB sold like half a million copies upon first release, but this album received a massive marketing campaign and was aggressively pushed to college audiences. It worked, and for time, there was a major hype around this album, the industry successfully stylized this as a ‚must have‘. And this album certainly came out at the right time, when young people were wide open for challenges. Does anybody see an extreme endeavour like BB sell half a million units in today‘s streamlined music market? I don‘t. All I was trying to say to the original poster was: You may like it or you may not. Before you go out and buy it, just because somebody else tells you this is SO GREAT, go to Youtube and find out for yourself. If nothing else, thirty seconds on Youtube should give you a rough idea on what to expect.
We don't get the good stuff in the US. Having a proper pour of Guinness in Europe is totally different (and perfect) thing than what you get in a bottle from a market in the US. I will say the 60 Minute IPA by Dogfish is pretty good but they can get a little too creative for me sometimes. Speaking of perfection, played this on the TT last night. Joe Pass - Intercontinental
I’m looking forwards to this ! For years it has bothered me that Bob Stenson is not talked about more ...his music should stand beside Brad and Keith’s ...and he writes so much more than either one -the world is not fair
Imo Bobo Stenson has never released a bad, even mediocre album. The worst thing you can say is that most of them are similar in style which is fair. I happen to really like his style although it might not move people who need excitement or pizzazz in their jazz. I like knowing that when I play a Bobo Stenson recording I will get a sublime program of music that will soothe me. If I want excitement I'll listen to Sonny Rollins. WP Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Collosus (Prestige) AP mono SACD NP Jim Hall Live In Tokyo (King) Japanese cd Both this and his Live In Japan album are higher energy recordings than his usual output. Surprising but not disappointing.
