miles davis -which album to buy from electric period?

Hello everyone,

I recently bought "big fun" cd-
and i do really enjoy it!
So my question which cd to buy next?

 

In A Silent Way
B*tches Brew

you cant go wrong with either one of these two...

 

Jack Johnson is absolute desert-island material for me. In A Silent Way too.

On The Corner too, but I wouldn't get it first (meaning not next).

"Go Ahead John" (from Big Fun") is a Jack Johnson outtake, so if you like it, definitely get Jack Johnson too.

 

Yeah !!! got them allready -
What about water babies?
Or the live albums?

 

We Want Miles
Superb guitar by Mike Stern on Jean Pierre on this set.

 

The best live electric Miles album for me (currently), is the Bootleg Series, Volume #3.

Before you get Water Babies, just get the Complete In A Silent Way box (3 CD's).

The boxes are really the way to go with all the later Miles studio material. My favorites (in order)...

Jack Johnson box
On The Corner box
In A Silent Way box
B*tch's Brew box

 

To me there are really kind of three Miles electric periods -- the initial more rock-rhythm focused one, the later '70s skronky funk one especially in the bands with Pete Cosey, and the post-comeback one.

My favorite live album from that first period is the under-appreciated Black Beauty; my favorite studio album from the period is In a Silent Way.

My favorite live album from the skronky funk period is Agharta; my favorite studio album from the period is pre-skronk but catches Miles on his way to funkville, Jack Johnson (I never loved On the Corner).

Never was much of a fan of the post-comeback stuff but among that stuff the live album We Want Miles isn't bad.

I mean, if you're really a Miles fan you probably want 'em all (and then some, lots of "unofficial" live releases from Europe), but those are my faves

 

Black beauty sound interesting-
What is that record like?

And what about Get up with it?

 

Agharta and Pangaea

 

A TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON

 

I love 'em both but they're crazy, crazy, crazy.

 

Get Up with It, like Water Babies and Big Fun, was cobbled together from various studio sessions from 1970-1974 during Miles' retirement/hiatus. I think in a lot of ways those original compilations have been replaced by the "complete sessions" series -- Complete In a Silent Way Sessions, Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, Complete On the Corner Sessions which are probably the best way today to hear that material today vs. those original hiatus-era compilation albums. Like, for example, if you don't have On the Corner or Get Up with It, just by the Complete On the Corner Sessions box

 

Live Miles sounded very different (more free jazz oriented) from studio Miles in this period. Black Beauty is a good representation of this.

Get Up With It is the only studio record including the Pete Cosey era bands. IMO this band was at its best live on Agharta but it's worth hearing this eventually (or getting the On The Corner box which includes all of the album, minus one stray track from the 1970 Jack Johnson era).

 

all of 'em!!

 

I personally like On The Corner and Get Up With It the best personally. I think Bitches Brew is good but overrated. The bootleg series vol. 3 is very good too.

 

Live Evil is a great one.
I does have racist artwork though.

 

Dark Magus is awesome as well.

 

Racist?
Anyway the Cellar Door box is great if you like Live Evil.

 

On the front cover: the artist's rendition of a pregnant African woman
On the back cover: the artist's rendition of a pregnant Caucasian woman
Also, notice how the word "evil" is shown by the white woman.



You can make your own judgement.

 

My fav

 

For all that Miles and others went through during those times, do you not feel that he might have had the right to feel a little bit "perturbed"?

He was trying to make the music more accessible to his people, and the cover art of this and other albums reflected that. Therefore, it makes sense that there would be an African woman on the front cover. I believe that the front and back covers were just meant to be "mirror" images. Notice that "Miles Davis Live" backwards is "Selim Sivad Evil".

 

From Wikipedia
"The album cover was illustrated by artist Mati Klarwein. Klarwein had painted the front cover independently of Davis, but the back cover was painted with a suggestion from Davis:

"I was doing the picture of the pregnant woman for the cover and the day I finished, Miles called me up and said, 'I want a picture of life on one side and evil on the other.' And all he mentioned was a toad. Then next to me was a copy of Time Magazine which had J. Edgar Hoover on the cover, and he just looked like a toad. I told Miles I found the toad.""

 

J. Edgar Hoover in drag with a blonde wig? Yeah, I guess that fits the "evil" tag, but to most people it just looks like that's Miles' opinion of the white race breeding.

 

And if it is, how is that different from the other way around?

Btw, nobody I know or have ever known has ever made that kind of comment about that or any other Miles cover from that time period.

 

speak for yourself.