Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Pharaoh's Dance
2. Bitches Brew
3. Spanish Key
4. John McLaughlin

Disc 2:

1. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
2. Sanctuary
3. Great Expectations
4. Orange Lady
5. Yaphet [#]
6. Corrado [#]

Disc 3:

1. Trevere [#]
2. Big Green Serpent [#]
3. Little Blue Frog [#]
4. Little Blue Frog [MST]
5. Lonely Fire
6. Guinnevere

Disc 4:

1. Feio [#]
2. Double Image [#]
3. Recollections [#]
4. Take It or Leave It [#]
5. Double Image

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6444 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2004-05-11
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: 1.11 pounds

Amazon.com
These historic sessions, recorded between 1969 and 1970 and originally released as a 90-minute double LP, merged jazz and rock into the hybrid genre known as fusion. They remain Miles Davis's most controversial recordings. Davis, along with pianists Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Joe Zawinul; bassist Dave Holland; soprano saxophonist Wayne Shorter; bass clarinetist Benny Maupin; drummers Jack DeJohnette, Billy Cobham, and Lenny White; and percussionist Airto Moreira, went electric with rock rhythms, and the rest, as they say, is history, or as some feel, the end of jazz history.

Now, all of the sessions' 265 minutes are contained on this four-CD set, compiled from alternate takes, nine unreleased tracks, and selections from previously released LPs. The superb remastering reveals the spectral power of Davis's amplified, muted, and open trumpet painting on a swirling harmonic canvas created by Hancock, Corea, and Zawinul, especially on Zawinul's impressionistic "Pharoah's Dance," Shorter's elliptical "Sanctuary," and Davis's rocking "John McLaughlin."

The previously unreleased tracks, including "Yaphet," "Corrado," "Tevere," "The Big Green Serpent," and Zawinul's "Double Image," contain some interesting East Indian motifs and inventive arrangements but will probably not change anyone's mind about this well-debated period of Miles Davis's career. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Customer Reviews

the apocalyptic moment for jazz revisted
The release of Bitches Brew in late Spring of 1970 marked the end of an era - not only for Miles - but for jazz as a genre. Jazz would never again revel in the melancholy splendor of bluesy isolation, or the somewhat self-absorbed innocence of groove or `avant-garde'. At the time, I was a devout fan, and I can remember the first time I heard "Miles runs the Voodoo Down" which was the first track I heard - before many, many others would. Jazz would never quite return to the large ensemble swing mix, although Qunicy Jones and Grover Washington did carry on for some years, with albeit muted electricity - but the McLauglin/Miles collaboration - in the final analysis, perhaps more historically significant and impacting for jazz than Miles/Trane, was and remains an extraordinary listening experience. What is more pervasive is Miles' tortured revelation of the apocalyptic sound that is first achieved here and continues notably through Live/Evil and Dark Magus and less stellar moments through the early and mid 1970's. These are the new classics of jazz in which its leading exponent deals with this universally acknowledged feeling of world dissolution - our lives spinning out of presumptions to and pursuit of control - the return to chaos - inexorable and inevitable. The recordings of the initial flowering of Mile's post-modern period collected here en totem for the first time give us an insight into the tension between Miles' supremely rigorous and complex sense of order and the recognition of the endless flux of electricity and being, all too overwhelming in the totality of its energy to be channeled or directed for long. The previously unreleased material here, such as 'Yaphet' and 'Corrado' which followed the original sessions is most welcome in that it presages the future, in which the electric and fusion elements would gain dominion over spent, traditional forms. Simply put, these sessions stake profound claim to being among the greatest of all time, and the extras which are included, regardless of their being more of a coda or an afterthought to the recording dates for Bitches Brew, make the package that much better.

Very nice...
I remember buying this in high school. Miles wasn't particularly popular at the time, and my brother gave me a look and said "why did you buy this crap?". My brother, ironically, would get into jazz when he got into college, yet, never apologised for this insult. As for this music, it's truly outstanding. It's incredibly complicated stuff, sometimes with 3 keyboardists, 2 drummers, 2 bassists all playing at once, with Miles on top of it all. The initial 6 tracks are some of the greatest stuff I've ever heard, with Spanish Key being my favorite. I remember being put off by it a bit at the time. The only Davis albums I had at the time were the mediocre The Man with the Horn, and the better We Want Miles, so I wasn't up on the great Miles. I have around 28 Miles CD's now, and this is definitely top five. I like Big Fun better, but the music there was from these sessions, so it's a bit confusing. The remastering is light years superior to the vinyl, and is definitely worth the upgrade. It also has superlative liner notes, detailing the sessions and some good historical background. As for the bonus tracks, most of this material was released on other albums. The songs Great Expectations, Orange Lady, and Lonely Fire ended up on the original release of Big Fun. Recollections, Trevere, The Little Blue Frog (master take), and Yaphet were also released on the remastered version of Big Fun. Guiniverre ended up on Circle in the Round (in a slightly shorter version), and Double Image (the short version) ended up on Live Evil. So there are only 6 actual new tracks (Corrado, The Big Green Serpent, an alternate take of The Little Blue Frog, Feio, a slightly longer version of Double Image, and Take It or Leave It). These 6 are good, but unless you really adore Miles, you may be able to do without them, even though I think this is a good set to have.

Fascinating groove
I have enjoyed listening to this music both intently and as background. At times it all seemed like so much musical doodling but when I considered the calibre of the musicians playing I became much more appreciative of its musical integrity. Excellent production.