Invented a few kinds of music is all

Prestige stuff is good, distinct, not revolutionary exactly.

Mid-60s stuff is new. It's a little icy for me and I admire it more than I like it, but it's groundbreaking and probably had to happen to set the table for later.

In a Silent Way thru Pangaea unbeatable, enormous records, incalculable influence that changed music forever.

Who cares after that, some of it is fine but it literally doesn't matter, he'd done the hard parts.

I would recommend Circle in the Round as a kind of key to linking mid-60s Miles (up thru Filles) to In a Silent Way onwards.
The late 50s stuff on there is a nice intro before the title track, which is fucking great. basically proto-Can.

Pretty much the opposite of crap. Personally, I'm partial towards the 64-68 era with *that* band though I should mention that I like jazz (tm) just as much as I like rock (sidenote: the older I get, the idea of having a "genre-preference' strike me as quite silly, my absolute favorite music can be found in genres all over the place, any attempt at genre ranking strike me as pointless); the electric stuff obviously have a more general appeal nowadays which is quite a revenge for Miles considering how misunderstood it was at the time and well into the 80s.

From the 90s and onwards though, I think there has been an unfortunate tendency for his 69-75 era to overshadow everything else besides "Kind of blue". It's quite inevitable though and not worth arguing about since it CLEARLY sounds more "contemporary", relevant and timely; the 50s regardless of genre is already irrelevant to 99% of people below senior citizen age, 60s is getting there and only the more forward looking music from the 70s (think Miles) avoids the dad-rock dismissal... it is what it is; I wasn't exactly trying to hear Bing Crosby or Louis Armstrong as a kid/teen in the 80s...

To me, the most unfortunate thing about his electric era is that he was to my ears CLEARLY peaking with the newer recordings on "Get up with it" not to mention Agharta/Pangaea and then... nothing until he yet again reinvented himself as a Cosby-sweater MOR act in the 80s, an era of his music I honestly don't think is worthy of critical reappraisal (sorry Miles but that shit sucks). OH well, not crap

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2024 1:54 pm I was listening to On The Corner when I bumped this

I got deep into this record while laid-up body racked with pain.

NC

The mid-60s stuff would be considered pinnacle for pretty much any other artist. But compared to what Coltrane, Dolphy, free jazzers, etc. were doing by then, the Miles stuff can seem a bit straight laced. Pretty much an unbeatable band talent-wise though.

Circle in the Round is kind of like one of those images that can be seen two ways (old lady vs young lady etc). Is it a swingy thing, or a driving thing in 3. And like the images, if you really fixate on it you can see/hear both simultaneously.

Man, I have spent a lot of times with Miles Davis. Sometimes I think "yeah, I get it." The weird vibes, the flow. The beauty.

But most of the time I feel annoyed. I'm listening to "Circle in the Round" for the first time. Lots to love here. Creepy. Definitely get the Can vibes. I wish Tony would just shut the fuck up and let the music breathe. A lot of Miles' electric music sounds stifling and suffocated to me. I get that maybe that is an artistic choice.

Maybe I just wish Jaki was drumming.

Okay there's a cool vibraphone and guitar thing going now, and Tony shut the fuck up. It's sounding better.

I think I will probably always hear Miles Davis like this.

Not crap!

eephus wrote: Tue Nov 12, 2024 12:36 am Invented a few kinds of music is all.

I'd say he did it three times.

1. The periodic Gil Evans collaborations which go back to the late 40's with sessions that became Birth of the Cool, or later more famously Sketches of Spain. I think this builds on some of Ellington's most innovative thinking. What can a jazz ensemble be with a classical like interest in the timbre of different instruments and the stacking of harmony.

2. The cool/modal jazz thing like Kind of Blue.

3. The psych rock jazz fusion stuff that everyone on here knows about.

The thing for me has always been that my dad and his buddies have always championed phase 2. I can't fault it as much as my punk rock spirit thinks it's the "most mid" or one of the two jazz albums owned by boomers (put in Out of Time, or some crooner for two- no knock on Brubeck he was phenomenal). I've performed some of the tunes and they're great. Hard to match the elegant improvisation and I love how Coltrane almost spoils the party by getting too wild.

My friends have all championed phase 3. There's a real psilocybin and Bitches Brew black light poster society for that stage. Hard to deny Miles' midlife crisis was arguably one of the most musically fruitful in history. At points I feel they caught some of the rock shortcomings of lots of licks without enough actual listening and responding to the ensemble. But that's more the exception than the rule. I have a soft spot for the indulgences on Jack Johnson.

But phase 1 is the underrated one to me. I know Sketches is huge in a "one of five jazz albums in a Long Island summer beach house" kind of way, but Birth of and Miles Ahead both feel like they invented a whole universe that not enough people have explored. I suppose it's because tracking down a french horn player and two tubas, and sitting over a huge score sheet to crunch the compositional numbers has been hard logistically when you can scribble a lead sheet with a head and the changes and drop it in front of a quartet and rip. I think Brad Mehldau has actually voyager into the symphonic-jazz shared universe. I'd like to hear more post-Gershwin work that does it.

It’s sort of insane that they would go in and just knock out multiple albums like this in a day.

Plus, I often think of Van Gelder’s stuff as some of the most beautiful sounding albums going. I’ve read some talk about him sort of… colonizing certain sounds - I don’t know if that’s the exact word Mingus used - but that’s kind of the eternal argument when it comes to making records.

Van Gelder’s records were pretty much the first time I ever felt like cymbals had the potential to sound beautiful, but of course the musical talent of the person playing them can never be denied.