What are you listening to?

[The Minsky Moment]

I've been going back through Miles Davis' fusion period (1968-1975) - starting with:

In a Silent Way -

This is basically a jazz album with electric instrumentation and some biting blues licks by guitarist extraordinaire John McLaughlin.  Davis' second great (acoustic) quintet minus bassist Ron Carter is the core here, and there is a clear evolutionary connection to those late Second Quintet performances.  The album divided critics on the jazz side at the time, but now is almost universally praised, and for good reason.  Miles is in top form compositionally, as a leader and a player, and as with the best Second Quintet albums, there is an engaging tension between his cool restraint and Tony Williams' bubbling propulsive energy on drums.  The overall personnel lineup is as strong as it ever would be - every participant is a major musical figure and historically one of the top guys on his instrument.  The whole thing fit onto a single 12" LP and at under 40 minutes in total length, puts less demand on listener endurance than the later fusion recordings.

[garbon]

Lil' Kim - Durty

[The Minsky Moment]

Bitches Brew -

Decades later, this one is still impossible to categorize.  It is sort of a bluesy, electrified Ornette Coleman-style free improvisation - you can hear Miles calling out cues orally (or example about 7 minutes into the title track he whispers "John" at which point McLaughlin peels off some riffs). But there are also clear compositional elements throughout that form the structure here.  The loss of Tony Williams on drums is compensated by using 3 or 4 percussionists throughout. 

It 's an extraordinary album IMO, probably the best argument against the view that this entire period was a creative dead-end.  Less approachable than Silent Way or Jack Johnson but rewards multiple plays.

[Liep]

New Arcade Fire album out.

Okay, there's some Abba going on here... that song's a bit depressing... oh she's singing the whole song? well it's no Sprawl II... that's it?

[Savonarola]

Jacques Brel - Olympia 1964

As Belgian as he wants to be.   

There's a couple of songs on here that inspired David Bowie, Amsterdam (which he covered) and Jef (which provided some of the inspiration for Rock and Roll Suicide.)  Those I liked, the other ones were okay.  The part where he starts twittering like a bird was a little weird.  Overall it's not something I'd listen to often.

[Savonarola]

Bitches Brew -

Decades later, this one is still impossible to categorize.  It is sort of a bluesy, electrified Ornette Coleman-style free improvisation - you can hear Miles calling out cues orally (or example about 7 minutes into the title track he whispers "John" at which point McLaughlin peels off some riffs). But there are also clear compositional elements throughout that form the structure here.  The loss of Tony Williams on drums is compensated by using 3 or 4 percussionists throughout. 

It 's an extraordinary album IMO, probably the best argument against the view that this entire period was a creative dead-end.  Less approachable than Silent Way or Jack Johnson but rewards multiple plays.

This is one album I've never been able to get; though it tends to end up on a lot of critics "Best of" lists.  Maybe I'll try listening to In a Silent Way and give this one another go.

[The Minsky Moment]

Next one is: Tribute to Jack Johnson

If Silent Way and Bitches Brew are jazz sessions with rock instrumentation and sensibilities, Jack Johnson is more of a blues/funk-rock jam session with some jazz-like improv.  It got favorable reviews at the time and has always been a critical favorite, particularly with critics from the rock side.  It is a good record - more approachable and coherent than Bitches Brew, but it lacks the ambition of the earlier recording.

[Eddie Teach]

Love & Rockets- So Alive

[Eddie Teach]

Moby- Extreme Ways

[Eddie Teach]

Boy Meets Girl- Waiting for a Star to Fall. Most 80s song ever?

[The Minsky Moment]

Miles Davis - On the Corner (1972)

This was his musical Waterloo.  Davis, seeking to boost his standing with young Black audiences, tried to make a funk record in the mode of early 70s James Brown or George Clinton.  There are some good grooves scattered about, but overall it just doesn't work.  Miles Davis may have been the most talented, protean musician of the 20th century but he wasn't James Brown.  And paying the likes of Herbie Hancock to bang out single chord grooves for 20 minute stretches wasn't a good use of personnel.  The album didn't succeed commercially, didn't reach the desired audience, and was critically panned.  Miles' career never totally recovered - this was his last real studio album in the 70s. 

Over the years, On the Corner has developed somewhat of a cult following, and its not hard to find very high praise for the album.  But most of the interest is not so much in the music itself as the innovative production and post-production techniques - the album was basically spliced and diced together by Miles and Teo Macero and features tape loops and effects that would be influential in shaping the direction of other kinds of music in the decades to come (e.g. Hip hop, house, electronica).

Agharta (1975)

What if Miles Davis cut an album with Jimi Hendrix?  Back in 69-70, the two jammed together a bit and plans were in the works, but derailed by Hendrix's untimely death.  Miles later hired cult guitar legend Pete Cosey, who played a Hendrix influenced style with even more noise and distortion.  Agharta (along with its twinned release Pangaea) is the last in a series of live albums featuring this sound, and to my ears the most successful.  This is true fusion between jazz, hard rock and funk - the music is dark, dense and rich, and mostly improvised on the spot following Miles' oral cues.  By the time of this date, this band had been playing together for a few years, and it's impressive how they pull off changes in rhythm and time signature on fly.

It can be fatiguing to listen to, though.  -- a problem with this whole period.  I can get through In a Slilent Way at a single sitting no problem.  Bitches Brew - 1 CD at a time.  With Agharta I find myself needing a break between each track to reset.

Overall for this period I tend on the side of those who see it as an artistic cul-de-sac for Davis, but there is some stuff worth listening to.

[Savonarola]

Solomon Burke - Rock 'n' Soul (1964)

Burke coined the term "Soul Music" because he was a churchman, and members of his community thought that "Rhythm and Blues" music was profane.  He ran the term "Soul Music" by them first and they were okay with that.

This album is all over the map, Jazz, R&B, Gospel, Rock and Roll, and country all mix together into a fine Soul album.  Burke's singing varies between smooth and rough; never quite Sam Cooke or Otis Redding, but spanning a larger range than either of them individually.

Burke was a character, serial entrepreneur, serial philanderer, preacher, singer, and had himself crowned "King of Rock and Soul" at a show in 1964.  He's largely overlooked today, but this album is worth listening to.

[Savonarola]

Dusty Springfield - A Girl Called Dusty (1964)

For the album "Young Americans" David Bowie got a group of Philadelphia soul musicians to back him.  If Martha Reeves had gotten a bunch of London studio musicians to back her it probably would have sounded a lot like this.



Dusty is great on this.  She's not quite as soulful as she would become, but she still has plenty of blue eyed soul power.  The band is competent, even if they couldn't turn goat-piss into milk.  The backup singers often leave something to be desired.  Everything on the album is at least worthwhile, except her cover of Ray Charles's () "Don't You Know."  Covering that wasn't one of Dusty's better decisions; and trying to sound like The Genius was really was an even worse one.

[Savonarola]

Boy Meets Girl- Waiting for a Star to Fall. Most 80s song ever?

Certainly very 80s, but more 80s than "Take on Me"?

[Eddie Teach]

That one's too good, it's more what the 80s tried to be than what they were. Also, no sax.