Bitches Brew by Miles Davis

Introduction

When I share my thoughts on albums I usually do it with a Youtube playlist. With this, I am really not sure I can do.

I am not a jazz aficionado and my jazz tastes tend to be more rock-based, like say Return To Forever, Weather Report, Al Di Meola, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Stanley Clarke.

I am fine with Glen Miller, Charles Mingus, Louoise Armstrong, and a lot of more traditional jazz but "Bitches Brew" is in a completely new universe.

One of the first albums I heard by Miles Davis was "Giant Steps". It was remarked on as being an important album but I found it tedious.

This album, well the one I am listening to is the fortieth-anniversary release (it originally came out in 1970), so here goes.

Bitches Brew

I wasn't so sure how the vinyl translated to CD but the first three vinyl sides make up CD one, and the vinyl side four kicks off CD two followed by some alternate takes.

Here is the introduction taken from the Amazon site.:

This is a studio double album by American jazz musician, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis, released on March 30, 1970. Miles Davis experimented in the 1960s and, heavily influenced by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, produced this influential album that fused jazz with electronica. In subsequent years, Bitches Brew gained recognition as one of jazz's greatest albums and a progenitor of the jazz-rock genre, as well as a major influence on rock and funk musicians.

When I first played it I was surprised that it was very easy to listen to, perfect for just listening, especially while I work.

This would be a challenge for most people, feeling like they are somewhere out in an aural representation of space with guitars and trumpets representing comets and asteroids. "Pharoah's Dance" is the twenty-minute opener and once you have listened to it, you can't remember any tunes but you come out feeling just stunned and amazed.

Then you are into the "Bitches Brew" title track which does have a repetitive eight-note bass line from Dave Holland. Incidentally, when checking that out I found that almost all the jazz musicians I mentioned in the introduction play on this album, no wonder it is so good. They are led by Miles Davis' trumpet but this is both a monstrous but welcoming sound stage.

As I write this "Bitches Brew" is around halfway through and the twelve minutes of that and twenty minutes of "Pharoah's Dance" seem to have just flown by, I really don't know how.

It is almost hypnotic and magical, it is unlike almost any other album in my collection. There are sections where the main rhythm stops and we are then treated to sounds from Miles Davis's trumpet with electronic echo.

All the compositions are credited to Miles Davis and the final track on the CD is a four-minute piece called "John McLaughlin", I'm not too sure if it is a tribute to the guitarist on the album. McLaughlin is a Yorkshireman and went on to a very successful solo career even making a record with Carlos Santana

"Spanish Key" is a little closer to the expected form but is still sort of ominous but easy to listen to and, to me, has no Spanish in it at all.

"John McLaughlin" lets the guitarist express himself though at only four minutes he does not have that much time to impress.

"Miles Runs The Voodoo Down" opens side four of the vinyl album and is fairly laid back, and was trimmed from fourteen minutes to three minutes for a single release as was "Spanish Key" so I will leave you with a live take on that from Copenhagen, to get a sort of impression of the album.