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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The revolution was recorded: in 1969 Bitches Brew sent a shiver through a country already quaking. It was a recording whose very sound, production methods, album-cover art, and two-LP length all signalled that jazz could never be the same. Over three days anger, confusion, and exhilaration had reigned in the studio, and the sonic themes, scraps, grooves, and sheer will and emotion that resulted were percolated and edited into an astonishingly organic work. This Miles Davis wasn't merely presenting a simple hybrid like jazz-rock, but a new way of thinking about improvisation and the studio. And with this two-CD reissue (actually, this set is a reissue of the original set plus one track, perfect for the fan who's not so overwhelmed as to need the four-CD Complete Bitches Brew box), the murk of the original recording is lifted. The instruments newly defined and brightened, the dark energy of the original comes through as if it were all fresh. Joe Zawinul and Bennie Maupin's roles in the mix have been especially clarified. With a bonus track of "Feio"--a Wayne Shorter composition recorded five months later that serves both as a warm-down for Bitches Brew and a promise of Weather Report to come--this is crucial listening. --John F. Szwed
Product Description
Cd> Brazilian Music > Mpb - Brazilian Popular Musiccd > Popular Music > JazzCD > POPULAR MUSIC > JAZZ
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There are two ways to listen to Bitches Brew, probably, in my opinion, one of the greatest pieces of music ever recorded. One way is to sit and listen and try to analyse and be a critic. This way you have to be knowledgeable about what came before and after in jazz or improvised music. The other way is to walk around whilst you're listening - drink some wine, play with your children (they love the freedom in this music), snarl and grunt like Miles does, play 'air trumpet' in that 'walking on eggshells' way in which Miles played his instrument. This way you will be true to (I think) Miles' intentions in making this album. This music is constantly searching. In the best of the improvised or even the modern European musical tradition, it is all content and form goes out the window. The trick to appreciating this music is to recognise that it is of the moment. You can enjoy repeated listening but each time will not be like the time before. These are not songs, more snippets of melody backed by a gargantuan backing band who push and kick Miles to respond, ever moving, ever reaching. You CAN dance to this music (if you like) and although it was recorded in a time before the modern obsession (in popular music anyway) with style, with standardisation, with safety - you are allowed, I think, to ENJOY it.
The best track on the album for a newcomer to jazz or improvised music is 'Miles Runs the Voodoo Down' which has a compelling vamp kind of rhythmic movement that pulls you into the music. The must hear track however, once you have got to grips with the actual sound, which is quite 'other-wordly', is the title track where Miles plays to himself through the echoplex - quite haunting. Another album that shares a similar style to this with its use of multiple electric pianos is Joe Zawinul's (another player on BB) excellent 'Zawinul' (1971).
The sound on this issue of BB is also much cleaned up from the original which was a bit of a mush. I would advise anyone who is serious about actually appreciating musical sound to buy this album. The tracks really are like little pieces of the great Miles's thoughts cut up and jumbled around and then stuck back together. It is funny though, and it perhaps says something about our rock tradition in music, that if the lead instrument here was an electric guitar (say like Hendrix or Radiohead), nobody would be saying anything about not being able to understand it or it being difficult or 'a noise'. Because it is a trumpet and a trumpet is not meant to sound like this, everyone is not sure. I think this was Miles's intention behind recording this album: ever the musical revolutionary he wanted to say forget about what you know and what has come before, this is a new direction.
This music will linger with you long after you have first heard it and it does repay you - honest. Give yourself a chance and buy this wonderful album.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I mainly want to take issue with some of the other reviewers, who make listening to Bitches Brew sound like hard work. For me it was a pure pleasure from the first spin. Far from being difficult to get into, I found it groovy, dazzling, sumptuous and sexy. If ears could have orgasms, mine would listening to this! Anyone who's open-minded enough to give it a go shouldn't have any problem with it. If the other reviewers have scared you, then ease yourself in with In A Silent Way, the record Miles made just before this with some of the same personnel, which in today's idiom is kind of a chill-out room to Bitches Brew's dancefloor. But if I were you I'd just go for it. In spite of all its experimentalism, its extended jams, and the intellectual baggage it's accumulated over the years, above all Bitches Brew ROCKS. It's a blast!
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There are those who find the journey from "Kind of Blue" to "Bitches Brew" too arduous. That in itself is part of the story of "Bitches Brew". Miles himself wouldn't have had it any other way. [He refused to play material from previous eras. He said it "embarrassed" him.] He made the journey and so must we. The rewards stretch out in front of the listener like a stairway to heaven. The roll-call of the musicians on this album is second to none, not even the great "KoB" quintet. With this music, Miles buried any possiblity that comforting, comfortable covers would be played in hotel lounges or heard over hubbub in airport concourses. This is jazz's Shostakovich, poking Stalin in the eye; Stravinsky erupting in Paris to furious uproar with "The Rite of Spring". Like the trek up Kilimanjairo, nobody said it was going to be easy. But everything Miles stood for is here: the haunting tonality of his own playing, the freedom given to his musicians to reach beyond themselves, the courage it took to take yet another step beyond what anyone expected or even understood. And for us, the fabulous gift that he succeeded.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Bitches Brew: Miles Davis - Miles runs the voodoo down in a gloriously...
I know I am about to be shot down for this, but I have always felt this work from all round jazz great and musical innovator Mile Davis to be less than successful, and is one that... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Victor
a spacey masterpiece
Its difficult to listen to this album without feeling like you've taken a load of drugs and if you have the visual effects of a Window's media player the feeling is even more... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. Robert Marsland
A review from a jazz newbie.
A few years ago, my brother bought me my first jazz album; Miles Davis' 'A Kind of Blue'. After a couple of years of listening to the cool, laid back music of this album, I felt... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Alexander J. Dunn
Your Mileage may Vary
This is a tricky one.
Let's start off with the obvious: the sound quality is excellent and no Miles Davis collection would be complete without this controversial album... Read more
Let's start off with the obvious: the sound quality is excellent and no Miles Davis collection would be complete without this controversial album... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Simon Thomas
Miles' 1970 fusion controversy now acknowledged as an iconic landmark...
Conceived and recorded in late summer 1969, `Bitches Brew' marked a radical repositioning in Miles' musical direction as he for the first time full-bloodedly embraced both... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Dr. Trang
Quite simply: great music
I don't know why I'm reviewing this. There are too many reviews of it here already. But they don't add up to the unambiguous 5 stars that they should. Read more
Published 17 months ago by enthusiast
bitches brew
everything i'd heard of miles davis' music prior to hearing thios album sounded tome like self-indulgent noodling. Read more
Published 20 months ago by C. R. Cooper
Miles Davis invents fusion.
This is where Miles really pissed off the purists. Their finest trumpet player and highest profile artist turns his back on them (litetrally) and goes "rock". Read more
Published on 28 April 2010 by Alister King
I just don't understand it
I have long been a fan of jazz fusion or jazz rock music. On Amazon there are plenty of lists of albums iof this genre and this album often features. Read more
Published on 24 April 2010 by Mr. K. Ballard
Not for All Not for Some Made For Miles By Miles
I am going to start this review on the defensive! At a number of times over the last 15-20 years I have owned and/or listened to almost all of Miles musical output. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2010 by Nick
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