miles davis -which album to buy from electric period?

Get them all, in any order you want. It was just a steady progression onward until Miles retired for a while in the 70's. When he came back it was a bit more simplified and poppy, but there are still some good ones including Man With The Horn, We Want Miles, and Tutu. Get Up With It is not leftovers. There is some padding out of the material from disparate sessions to make a two record set, but the long tracks He Loved Him Madly and Calypso Frelimo are mind bending and the same basic group is on Mtume, Billy Preston, and Maiysha. IMO his best studio album of the 70's. The overinterpretation of the cover of Live Evil is offensive to me. Mati Klarwein's explanation is sufficient to explain it.

 

Who are these 'most people'? I spoken with many folks who've seen and listened to it and never heard such utter nonsense. Time for you to retract your comments on the basis of gross ignorance.

 

Supposedly that was supposed to be J Edgar Hoover on the back.

 

I have never read of or heard anyone expressing this idea, ever. (Klarwein was white, by the way, and according to at least two sources that I know of, he only ever recieved the limited amount of art direction for the painting as read in the wikipedia article.)

in fact, Miles was occasionally condemned by some other (black) members of the jazz community for regularly including white and latin folks in his bands as early as the 50s.

to try to get back to the OP's question--as is usually the case in these threads, you've been recommended more or less his entire post-filles output by now. I agree with whoever it was that suggested concentrating on the 'complete sessions' box sets since they provide a much more cohesive presentation of Miles' development in the 70s than some of those hacklike columbia albums. I'd start with the silent way box mostly because it's dynamite.

 

IMO, since you like 'Big Fun', you can go in any direction you like and it'll be a worthwhile trip.

 

Now that I know that it's supposed to be J. Edgar Hoover, I feel much better about it. It's still disgusting, but I guess that's the point (FBI/Hoover being "evil").

 

Live At Fillmore

 

The Jack Johnson Sessions boxset is the one to buy if you want to hear Miles try to be the baddest rock band on the planet. Starting with The Cellar Door set (Live Evil) onwards, he moved towards the funk in a major way. This was primarily accomplished by hiring a bassist that was schooled in Motown/R&B rather than jazz (Michael Henderson) and by having the drummer play repetitive, high-hat heavy grooves that the band could jam over.

 

You should get On The Corner & Jack Johnson, then get Witches Brew

 

I got them already-great albums!!!

 

Thanks i will look out for the box!!!

 

In A Silent Way. Although the later Star People was pretty cool in my opinion, most of it and often overlooked. Though Bitches Brew is pretty safe bet as well. I had never heard Bitches Brew until I saw the movie Colateral with Tom Cruise. I had to know the music being played when they were in the jazz club. Found out it was Spanish Keys and have been hooked ever since. Funny how we discover some things !

 

I already had the Bitches Brew Sessions box-set at the time, but I remember thinking how cool it was to hear "electric" Miles music in the movie Finding Forrester back in 2000. This, if you remember, is the movie about where Sean Connery's character tutors/mentors a teen in NYC. "Recollections", "Little Church", "Black Satin", "Lonely Fire", "In a Silent Way", and "Vonetta" (mid-60's acoustic quintet) were featured on the soundtrack.

 

Another vote for Get Up With It. You'll love it.

 

U

I just ordered the cd!!

 

Just a question aside:
Has anybody listen to the new bitches brew mfsl lp?
A review would be very welcome!

 

No, Get Up with It was not a post-retirement release.

 

My bad, I see that there are three 1974 tracks on there and another couple of '72 and '73 performances with more or less the same band cut just before retirement and only one much earlier track on it.

 

That's cool, I just remember spending many many spins with that release before anyone knew of Miles retiring.

In college, second year, this was a release I played to death when I bought it as soon as it came out and beyond. Many I knew and listened to music with did not get it. But I did, I'd started out with Filles de Kilamanjaro and Bitches Brew from the library when I was starting my senior year, become fixated on Miles Davis at Fillmore and then Live/Evil for months and months the rest of that year and In a Silent Way my first year in college, and then BOOM Get Up With It took over my mind.

 

I must say I listen to the Miles from that period a lot but it's almost always live stuff -- Agharta and Pangaea, which I first heard on the Japanese imports -- Dark Magus, some of the semi-official European releases. For me those sets have more of a flow and coherence and sense of building to and through something than On the Corner or Get Up with It ever had. But as a result it's been years and years since I spun Get Up with It. I'll have to pull it out and slap it on the turntable tonight.

 

Will be an interesting listen I bet. I listen to the live stuff too (and I have a ton of bootlegs) but. . . I love what Miles and Teo did with the studio material, and I hear coherence and a sense of building in much of it.

 

I'd also recommend "Get Up With It" if you like "Big Fun." My favorite from the electric era is "In A Silent Way," but that album has a different vibe than "Big Fun." The box sets are worth having, especially IASW, but if you're just testing the waters for now and don't want to make the financial investment in the sets, then "Get Up With It" is a good way to go.
I've found electric Miles to be addictive and, after purchasing a few albums, I sprang for the box sets.

 

Wow. I never, in my four decades of experience with this release, came to any judgment even vaguely like that, nor did anyone I know who also knows this release.

All I ever wondered about. . .was the odd vaginal imagery of the back cover. Not my sort of personal vaginal imaginings!

 

All of these suggestions are valid I think. For me, the best document of the 'electric' Miles live is the complete Cellar Door recordings. The recently issued Bitches Brew at The Isle of Wight isn't half bad either.

Studio albums, the run of In Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Tribute to Jack Johnson and On The Corner is essential. 'Silent Way' is a sublime jewel and makes getting the Complete Silent Way Sessions box pretty much inevitable!

Other than a couple of his late albums, all Miles is essential really!

 

I never thought of any meaning to the Live Evil cover art, and never imagined that it was J. Edgar Hoover on the back. To me, it was just more of the freaky stuff that was all around us at that time anyway.

I think that In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson and Get Up With It are essential.

Agharta is a blistering live date with screeching electric guitar solos and funky beats.

Live Evil, In Concert and On the Corner are all very good. To me, the Complete On the Corner box set is really great--it's a revelation to me what was not released at the time, some really good stuff on that box which surfaced for the first time.

Black Beauty and At Fillmore are intense live dates, where to me, the conventional enjoyment factor is less than on the other albums I have mentioned.

I like Dark Magus less than Agharta, for live dates from the same time frame.