Yeah, definitely not the groove he was aiming for Should've left that one out of the list, bad example. But, if he was an audiophile I bet he felt amazed with the sound quality of that one. And produced by a european [German (like you Crispi?)] At least I was when listened to it for the first time (CD, but I guess the vinyl is even better).
I've never heard that album, just had a quick listen on Spotify & it sounds great. Clearly not what Miles was after but nice enough nontheless.
We've been here talking about Dark Magus and the band is already on it's way to Japan. They have a three-week tour scheduled. It might take some time for the band to settle. Crispi will inform us when they hit Osaka.
I’ve always been very curious about that reissue but assumed, roghtly or wrongly, that it was digitally sourced and possibly ripped from CD. What’s the consensus on this LP?
MOV always were forthright about their lineage. You can drop them a line if you are curious about this album—that will certainly make more sense than getting half-baked infos from any of us. But in general, most (but not all) of their pressings are mastered from digital files. They are, however, an official subcompany of Sony/Columbia, and they get their files in high resolution directly from the Sony archives. Plus, their pressing plant in Holland is in my opinion the best in Europe when it comes to quality control. I have never heard pressing with less surface noise than theirs.
Oh my God guys! Since @Daniel Thomas mentioned MOV, I was looking at their site and I don’t know what it was that caught my eye, but FOR THE FIRST time in my life did I understand what is on the cover of Dark Magus!
There is also a very recent reissue of Dark Magus on Music On CD (a sublabel of MOV, specializing in bringing back out of print CDs): Miles Davis Dark Magus – Music on CD Am I to assume this is just a reissue of the old Tom Ruff mastering from the digipak version? I dont have CDs of those five 70's live albums that came out in digipaks in '97, except Live-Evil, which was already reissued in 2010. Out of that series they also have Miles Davis At Filmore: Live At The Filmore East, so maybe they're planning to put more of that stuff back into circulation. They aslo have Miles Davis In Europe, but in that case I actually don't think the original release of the remaster is out of print...
Yeah, sorry, it was On The Corner I was thinking of, not Bitches Brew, when suggesting Columbia might have been ready to pull an "intervention" on him... I can deal with that- I need to track some of those LPs down! Any specific suggestions for starters, anyone? Maybe not, but Holland's still a helluva bass player...I prefer Michael Henderson, of course, but Dave Holland's pretty good too.
So now that we've reached this point what are your thoughts on the Miles Davis album covers so far ? Sure that loving the music helps one love the cover art, but I really think that they're actually pretty amazing. And most of the times they fit perfectly the music inside (like the one for dark magus). Here are my favorites. Not just the front cover... One of the reasons I gave bitches brew a second try was the cover. Just kept on looking to it, trying to find out the meaning. But like for the music, it made sense when I just let my mind go. We can go into detail afterwards. Do you have a favorite ?
I know we are not there just yet but I remember about 25 years ago when I was discovering Miles I would pop into HMV once a week and buy a Miles CD. Such an exciting time. No internet as such so was really just pot luck. I adored Bitches Brew / In a Silent way / Jack Johnson so I built up a good collection from around that period. I remember buying both Pangea and Agharta over a 2-week period and being absolutely blown away. I had never heard anything like it. This ain't A Kind of Blue. Hell, this is even a million miles away from Bitches Brew. To this day I find those 2 albums simply incredible. I love them. Miles was not in good shape and you can hear that in his playing but what he created through all the discomfort, pain and drugs was both mind-blowing and simply stunning. God, to have been there!
Bitches Brew is my favourite cover (painted by the same guy who did Abraxas) closely followed by the similar covers for On the Corner, In Concert, Big Fun & Water Babies. I do love the Nefertiti & Miles in the Sky album covers too.
Before Bitches Brew the covers were a bit lame - take a look at Miles Smiles. I don't know what changed with Bitches Brew, but I imagine Columbia wanted a cover that reflected the music, and I think they succeeded. The covers after that album are generally good, but I still think Live Evil is a bit weird.
You probably already know... This was the picture used on the original Jack Johnson album: The current version has an edited photo from an August 1970 show: Yes, agree with you: What an iconic image!
Most of the Columbia covers were great, I thought. Miles Smiles was a weird case. For me it is a kind of "so bad it's good" example.
The original pressing of Jack Johnson (with the grey Columbia Masterworks label used for soundtracks) had the painting of Jack Johnson on the front cover, and a few photos on the back including the photo of Miles onstage. For the reissue they shifted the Miles photo to the front and removed Gary Bartz and Keith Jarrett from the background.
Some of my favorite covers: Birth Of The Cool Milestones Porgy And Bess In Person At The Blackhawk Miles In Tokyo Miles Smiles (agree with pbuzby - so bad it's good; looks very mid-sixties to me) Bitches Brew Also like many of the Prestige covers for their classic simplicity.
I know that feeling, discovering what was then obscure Miles albums in the early 90s. I bought the first CD release of Jack Johnson (orange border) and was blown away. NO ONE was talking about that album then.
I know we haven't reached Agharta yet, but the colourized Gustav Dore engravings on the gatefold are a great example of cover art that's tuned into the music it encloses.
Favorite Miles Davis album art: Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants Milestones In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk In a Silent Way
I agree with all of those ‘xcept Modern Jazz Giants—a compilation cover that looks cheap. In my opinion, of course.
