Yeah, I need to get on that! Next up will be Amandla, which spawns a few tunes that would become live staples during Miles' last couple of years. First though, just curious if anyone already has (early) or will be getting the RSD release Early Minor, which appears to be a vinyl pressing of three cuts taken from The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions. Specifically curious about: How is the pressing and sound quality? Do you feel like the three selected songs work well together? Do you like the sequencing and does it hold together well as a standalone item (album or compilation or whatever you'd like to call it)?
It's the two songs from the "Ghetto Walk" session shortly after IASW with Joe Chambers on drums, plus "Splashdown" from the fall 1968 sessions. Based on hearing those pieces in the IASW Sessions CD set, it seems like they would work fine as an album.
The Blue Notes are kind of a dark corner for me; I think I've listened to almost all other Miles album more than Vol. 1 and Vol 2. So I'm having a listening session now. The "Tempus Fugit" and "It Never Entered My Mind" are really good, but especially compared to the 1952 session I prefer the stuff Miles was recording for Prestige at the time.
I believe that most of Miles’ Blue Note sides were recorded at a low point in his battle with addiction, the exception being the Vol. 3 10” with Horace Silver, which is one of the early hard bop records. I agree that Miles’ Prestige sides are better on average, and so are his Capitol nonet sides and his sides with Bird on Dial and Savoy.
Amandla recorded at Clinton Recording Studios, NYC; Right Track Recording, Manhattan; and Le Gonks West, Hollywood, June and September 1987;, September 1988 – January 1989 original issue: Warner Bros. 25873-1 (LP), 9 25873-2 (CD) and 9 25873-4 (cassette), autumn 1989 Executive Producer: Miles Davis; Producers: Tommy LiPuma, Marcus Miller, George Duke 12" promo single: "Jo-Jo" (4:51) | CD promo single: "Jo-Jo (Edit)" (3:37); "Jo-Jo (LP Version)" (4:51) From Miles' autobiography: "On a June 8 [1989] in a ceremony at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, I received the 1989 New York State Governor's Arts Award, presented by Governor Mario Cuomo. I was very proud to be honored again. Around the same time my third Warners album, Amandla, came out. The reviews were good and so were the sales. And Columbia announced that it was releasing Aura in September 1989. I made that album back in 1985 and since then I've moved on elsewhere musically. Something new happens almost every day, it seems. "Today my mind is concentrating and my body's like an antenna. It helps me with my painting, too, which I'm doing more and more of these days. I paint about five or six hours a day, practice a couple of hours, and write music a lot, too. As far as where my music is going, I'm always trying to hear something new. Once day I asked Prince, "Where's the bass line in that composition?" He said, "Miles, I don't write one, and if you ever hear one I'm gonna fire the bass player because a bass line gets in my way." He told me he wouldn't tell that to nobody else, but he knew that I understood that because he had heard that same kind of concept in some of my music. Now when I get musical ideas, I take them right away to the synthesizer. I write down musical figures on anything I can get my hands on when I hear them. I see myself still growing as an artist and that's the way I always want it; I always want to grow. "I'm trying to keep my artistic juices flowing. I would like to write a play someday, maybe a musical. I have even been experimenting with some rap songs, because I think there's some heavy rhythms up in that music. I heard that Max Roach said that he thought that the next Charlie Parker might come from out of rap melodies and rhythms. Sometimes you can't get those rhythms out of your head. I was listening a lot to the music of Kassav, that West Indian group that plays a music called "Zouk." They're a great group and I think they have influenced some of the music on Amandla, which means "freedom" in Zulu, the South African language." Miles in NYC in '88; PC Ebet Roberts From The Last Miles by George Cole: "Amandla would be the third and final collaboration between Miles and Marcus Miller and an album that began life in the same way as Tutu, with Miller writing all the tunes and playing most of the instruments himself. Miles had not wanted to take his working band into the studio during the recording of Tutu, but he was keen to include his new trio of musicians on Amandla. "They had discovered Kenny Garrett at that time, and they felt they had Miles' other voice," said Jason Miles to writer Stuart Nicholson. "I mean, Kenny come on the scene and I heard him play and I knew that this guy was a monster." "Says Marcus Miller: "The difference between Tutu and Amandla came with how many people we brought in to add to it. On Tutu I left it to the drum machine a lot; with Amandla we would replace it with Ricky Wellman or Omar Hakim. And with Tutu I played the saxophone, but now we have Kenny Garrett so I didn't need to bother with that anymore. Then we got into it and started to enjoy bringing different people into the sound and the album grew that way." Jason Miles adds, "Marcus did not want to create another CD like Tutu that just basically relied on all synths creating the parts. The concept was to expand the sound of Tutu using live musicians." Miles at the Nice Jazz Festival, July '89 From The Last Miles by George Cole: "There is no doubt that Miller managed to combine humanity and technology on Amandla and there are many stirring performances to prove it, but one wishes that there had been greater scope for the musicians to play with more grit and adventure. Most experimentation seems to have remained on the cutting-room floor. "Despite Amandla's wide range of musical influences and the various musical collaborators involved in it, some have found many of the tracks too similar sounding. "Somewhat over-produced, the overall impression is of monotony of tone, not helped by short solos and emphasis on studio-generated ensemble textures," says writer Stuart Nicholson. Paul Tingen declares that, "The motifs, arrangements and atmosphere of many of the tracks on Amandla are too similar." Part of the problem is Miles's apparent reluctance to play more with an open horn, which is why "Mr. Pastorius" is such a gem of a track. "But Miller believes that Amandla represents the best of the three albums he made with Miles. "I'm really happy musically and, for me, Amandla and Tutu are the same period of time. If I could have only one album I would take the song "Tutu" and put it at the front of Amandla and I think that would be a very good representation of where I started and what I wanted to achieve. Because we had never done anything like Tutu before you could hear a few tentative steps. With Amandla you could tell we were much more comfortable with the idea of electronics and Miles and the whole concept. "There is indeed much to enjoy and admire on Amandla, not least on tracks such as "Catémbe," "Hannibal," "Mr. Pastorius," and the title tune. But Amandla is just a little too smooth and a little too well refined. Up until this album, Miles' records had a degree of rawness and edge to them. And as Mike Stern points out, the great thing about Miles was he knew that a performance didn't have to be perfect to move you. "He didn't over-work, he had funkiness, it's not all pristine," says Stern. "The best of Miles was the raw stuff that he did – it didn't have to sound like Hollywood."" Miles in NYC in '89; PC Annie Leibovitz
Man, Arsenio makes me cringe in this clip. Miles goes real easy on him and is really trying to help but you can tell Hall is out of his league.
I thought the same. Miles wasn’t the talkative type and was known to be less than forthcoming, but Arsenio’s interview skills just bark. And I don’t remember thinking that back in the 80’s when his show was on the air, but then again I was just a high school student at the time.
Amandla became the first album I listened to this decade. Quite an enjoyable listen but not a lot of surprises. Pretty much what I expected and have gotten used to from that era. A little more light and playfull than the previous albums perhaps? Steel drums in Hannibal adds a new touch.
Amandla is a bit of a let down for me after Tutu. The Miles + synths recipe of Tutu seems more interesting to me than the Miles + a band recipe on Amandla.
I really like the complete on the corner sessions as it fuses jazz, krautrock, heavy rock, prog into that homogeneous whole that Miles somehow managed to create like no other artist ever could. he got away with so much because he had the confidence to try whatever he wanted. As he once said to John Mclaughlin, "play what you can't see." Miles in a nutshell.
I recently picked up the RVG edition BN vols. 1 & 2 and actually enjoyed them more than I thought I would. Vol 1 especially as the back half is Miles in a quartet setting with Silver, Heath & Blakey. Miles fronting a quartet is pretty rare.
They used a few of those Blue Note numbers during the PBS American Masters: Birth Of The Cool film, including"You're My Everything" and "It Never Entered My Mind." I was really only familiar with the Prestige versions on Relaxin' and Workin' and I thought the ones they were using on the film were alternate takes or something, so I Shazammed them. (Me, the self-proclaimed Miles Davis aficionado, having to Shazam Miles Davis tunes ).When I searched my digital library I found that I had the Blue Note versions on 8 different compilations I've accumulated over the years, that I had never listened to because as Gabe mentioned, I had always written-off the Blue Note material as having come from one of the low points in his career and as being 'not that great.' And yet here was this hauntingly beautiful, melancholy playing. Needless to say, the Blue Note numbers are back in rotation at my place.
When can we start this thread again from the beginning? I wasn't here for it Since a lot of us are on lockdown, this might be a good time to do so
