Miles Davis: BLACK BEAUTY - LIVE AT THE FILLMORE WEST (1973/1997) {10 April 1970} A month later than IT'S ABOUT THAT TIME and the opposite coast, with Steve Grossman instead of Wayne Shorter. Also not a favorite and also not recorded welll, though to me Miles sounds terrific here: brazen and super-focused tone. I love this "sick" fusion sensibility, even when I am not crazy about all of the music. I don't much care for Macero taking credit for Miles' live approach in this period ("It was because of me, because we always overlapped sections in our edits...")---but I find that I do like this aspect of the live music a lot more than the jammier, "playing"-intensive aspects. The breaking of the music into building blocks that sometimes seem like mindnumbing repetition, but function like cells or loops....that idea has aged very, very gracefully. Cybernetics!
Listening to the AP 33 of this one that I just recieved. Eric Dolphy Quintet on Prestige: Outward Bound
I seem to remember you really disliking Lovano's playing, once upon a time. Have you warmed up to him at all? I used to love him, but I change my mind all the time, and I haven't listened to him in a while. I am going to listen to a bunch of Motian early next year. I think I am going to listen to this whole thing tonight (gluttony): Herbie Hancock: THE WARNER BROS. YEARS 1969-1972 (Warner, 3cd, 2014) I think it's just Fat Albert Rotunda, Mwandishi, and Crossings with a little bonus material, most of all of which seems to be single/promo edits/mixes.
Just got done listening to The Dynamic Duo Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery. Great stuff. Earlier today I listened to Kind of Blue for what seems like the first time in ages. I've been buying so many albums lately it's easy to neglect albums I already know I love.
That album cover is hilarious. I can't believe I haven't seen it before. Just elevated my mood. Monomanical studio Miles: Miles Davis: ON THE CORNER (1972) The one which the recently discussed Stan Getz---another ***hole genius---famously dissed in his 1973 Downbeat blindfold test. (It's mean but funny, and not actually quite as dismissive as I'd remembered....not quite.) I am sympathetic to this, though this time through this record, it sounded more modern than ever. I'm into it. I do know what Getz was hearing, though. This is a maniacally singleminded record.
Midweek Miles on a balmy Melbourne evening . . . Recorded at New York's Philharmonic Hall, part of the Lincoln Center complex, on February 12, 1964. 1966/2013 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab – MFSL 1-376
When one is wide awake after 2AM, it may be time for "cosmic tones for mental therapy". This lovely Saturn records reissue on 33 is of Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra. Every encounter I've had with Sun Ra has drawn me farther in. Ra is underappreciated as a keyboardist in my opinion, and I love the Arkestra's improvisation style. I love how the recordings here are so raw, with a ringing telephone in the background of Adventure-Equation and a kid shouting at the beginning of Voice of Space. The juxtaposition of the earthly, the mundane of a low-fi recording, with the eery otherworldliness of the tunes is oddly meditative. Good for these odd hours.
All I can say is: how have I never listened to Oliver Nelson before?!? Screamin' the Blues, 33 AP reissue.
Lo-fi indeed but still magical. I have these songs via the Getz Roost box and they smoke. Raney is a beast on these tracks as well.
Thanks for the heads up. Dug out “Echoes of a Friend” in his honor. Heavy Heavy Stuff. I could recognize its importance but I wasn’t ready for it in 1973.
I love how the back cover has this blurb: "All rights of the Producer and the owner of the recorded work reserved. Unauthorized copying, hiring, lending and public performance of the record prohibited." So the bootleggers rights are reserved now? Ha ha ha... that's rich.
I have about 25 Sun Ra albums/CDs but rarely play them of late. I’m going to dive into them over the holiday break, so asking for your help. I tend to like his smaller more manageable group recordings (Futuristic Sounds, Other Planes of There, Mayan Temples, etc) versus the full blown Arkestra where his keyboard playing gets lost in the cacophony of sound. The exception is the 20+ Min version of Space is the Place, which I love. Any recommendations of more studio, smaller group albums?
Part of a story that’s way into TLDR territory: In the mid-seventies, Idris came to a house I was living in for a jam. He got out his alto and first thing, he ran up & down the chromatic range of his horn at warp speed to warm up. To this day, its one of the greatest “solos” I’ve ever heard.
...I’m gettin’ up with it. Miles Mode! Or like @SJR says “Midweek Miles”. Yeah!! Miles Davis – Big Fun Label: Columbia – C2K 63973, Legacy – C2K 63973 Format: 2 × CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered Country: US Released: 2000 Genre: Jazz
Some Miles for me as well this morning: Miles Davis: Filles de Kilimanjaro (MFSL hybrid SACD) A photo of 23-year-old Betty Mabry, the future Mrs. Davis, appears on the cover. This young woman, who was at the center of the hip black scene, introduced Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix to Miles and taught him how to dress in something other than a tailored suit. The trumpeter—confirming the turning point signaled in Miles In The Sky— continued to compose almost all the pieces in his repertory. Gil Evans, however, had returned to the studio after Miles In The Sky and added some ideas of his own: for example, he signed the reprise of “Petits Machins,” renaming it “Eleven.” The bluesy wildness of this composition contrasts with the reserved pastoral mood of “Tout De Suite” and “Filles De Kilimanjaro.” In September, when the album was almost finished, Chick Corea and Dave Holland replaced Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter. James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” inspired “Frelon Brun,” and “Mademoiselle Mabry” originated in the first notes of Jimi Hendrix’s “And The Wind Cries Mary.” But, as always, the distance Miles took from his model is proportionate to his talent for creative adaptation. Original issue: Columbia LP CS 9750 on February 5, 1969 Producer: Teo Macero Engineer: Frank Laico June 19, 1968 (a) Miles Davis (tpt); Wayne Shorter (ts); Herbie Hancock (el-p); Ron Carter (el-b); Tony Williams (d) June 20, 1968 (b) Same personnel as June 19 June 21, 1968 (c) Same personnel as June 19 September 24, 1968 (d) Miles Davis (tpt); Wayne Shorter (ts); Chick Corea (el-p); Dave Holland (b); Tony Williams (d) All tracks recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio, NYC, except track 4 recorded at Columbia Studio B, NYC Frelon Brun Tout De Suite Petits Machins Filles De Kilimanjaro Mademoiselle Mabry Tout De Suite* [Album information taken from the Miles Davis main website]
Is Fondamenta a bootleg label? I have a few of their releases (Monk, Brubeck, Dizzy); fwiw, they’re very nicely put together. Discogs just refers to it as a “French classical label,” and evidently they have some sort of distribution deal with Naxos. It looks like they specialize in unearthed lost recordings, like Resonance Records—they even put out a vinyl pressing of Bill Evans/Hilversum 1968, before Resonance got to it, and you can still buy 16-bit or 24-bit downloads of the album from their site. Also like Resonance, maybe they’re properly legit?
Don't feel like streaming Tidal at work today. So I pulled out my trusty Pono Player. All it has on it is Miles Davis. Currently listening to: Water Babies - Miles Davis
