still trying to throw your arms around the world son?
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Miles Davis. Dark Magus (Moja)
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Miles' 'electric period' - I tried (and I do love jazz), but apart from Bitches Brew, I just don't 'get' it. All sound and fury signifying nothing?
Can't shake off the suspicion that he became a bit of a charlatan in the 70s (and magus of muzak by the 80s), compared to the 'early fun ones'. That wardrobe hints at some mid-life crisis desperation.
ha! i hadn't but i almost completely agree...it's almost everyone else involved that makes mile's stuff great.... ( that makes jack johnson so insanely funky, in a silent way so luminous etc)... most of the time he has the decency to stay out of the way... although i question whether with the increased use of the studio and the role of the producer (teo macero) it makes sense to think of electric miles as being "fusion" at all...it feels much more like a set of concepts/projects being worked out/tried out in the studio....so mile's hagiography no.... the records released under his name, yes....
plus i primarily like dark magus for its sheer blustering attack...
Suppose he's the opposite of Coltrane, famously told by Miles to "try and take the fucking horn out of your mouth." To me, there was only one genre more hideous than prog: fusion (there's always exceptions, but never enough).
The whole critical re-appraisal of electric Miles seemed to emerge in the mid-90s, where direct 'authorship' and live harmony became passe - and he was re-cast as a Black Panther Aphex Twin Party - although he was a creature of studio editing from the mid-50s.
God knows who buys those hundred quid box sets though...
3 comments:
Miles' 'electric period' - I tried (and I do love jazz), but apart from Bitches Brew, I just don't 'get' it. All sound and fury signifying nothing?
Can't shake off the suspicion that he became a bit of a charlatan in the 70s (and magus of muzak by the 80s), compared to the 'early fun ones'. That wardrobe hints at some mid-life crisis desperation.
You've probably read this?
http://www.mr-agreeable.net/2001/07/
ha! i hadn't but i almost completely agree...it's almost everyone else involved that makes mile's stuff great.... ( that makes jack johnson so insanely funky, in a silent way so luminous etc)... most of the time he has the decency to stay out of the way... although i question whether with the increased use of the studio and the role of the producer (teo macero) it makes sense to think of electric miles as being "fusion" at all...it feels much more like a set of concepts/projects being worked out/tried out in the studio....so mile's hagiography no.... the records released under his name, yes....
plus i primarily like dark magus for its sheer blustering attack...
Suppose he's the opposite of Coltrane, famously told by Miles to "try and take the fucking horn out of your mouth." To me, there was only one genre more hideous than prog: fusion (there's always exceptions, but never enough).
The whole critical re-appraisal of electric Miles seemed to emerge in the mid-90s, where direct 'authorship' and live harmony became passe - and he was re-cast as a Black Panther Aphex Twin Party - although he was a creature of studio editing from the mid-50s.
God knows who buys those hundred quid box sets though...
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