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Product Description
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This is the point in 1972 at which Miles tried to blend the grooves of Sly Stone and James Brown with jazz, just as Herbie Hancock did so differently--and so effectively--the following year on Head Hunters. But Miles's version of jazz-plus-funk lacked the ingenuity, precision, range and jazz content of Herbie's work. Where Herbie devised carefully crafted structures with interlocking, complementary parts, Miles seemed to rely hopefully on one or two chord vamps and one or two rhythmic variations. This is a beautifully produced reissue, but the liner note's talk about the pioneering aspects of the music--tape looping and overdubbing--doesn't alter the outcome. From a jazz point of view, the strongest feature of these pieces is the presence of solos by Dave Liebman, David Creamer and Herbie Hancock in which they use fluent chromatic movement to bring colour to essentially monochrome backgrounds. --Mark Gilbert
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By J. G. Hastie
Format:Audio CD
You either get this or you don't. I got it after a couple of listens and the realisation that the Master had moved on yet again. With this album Miles left many jazz purists behind - understandable, perhaps, as this was the most radical experiment in his electric period so far. I've always preferred the first track - or the 4 tracks which make up the one piece. It has a hypnotic, circular groove which is funky yet spacey at the same time. There is much less of the soloing that jazz listeners would expect - instead trumpet, sax or guitar (John McLaughlin is brilliant on the opening track - or 4 tracks) rise to just above the surface only to disappear again into the mix/mesh. The rhythm section is essentially a drum choir, and Michael Henderson once again shows that he is one of the all-time great bass players, this time holding it all together with the zen-like economy of Aston "Family Man" Barrett. It would be interesting to hear a Bill Laswell reconstruction of the whole album, as he opens Black Satin up to great effect on Panthalassa.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
This album is really one long piece which improvises around a certain funky groove with tablas, bells, drums, clapping, bass and, yep, horn. Though hardly the definative Miles album it is certainly very enjoyable with jerking funk repetition and heady swirl of familiar 70s sounds captured warmly with growling bass and dynamic percussion.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
Out of all Davis' albums, I personally think this is amongst his best. The 70s grove and originalty means that it is not to everybodies taste - often the chin stroking crowd. I've been listing to the LP for 20 years and still think it is extremely fresh. Highly recommended and great value at £7.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Too many people are extremely angry about it, and too many people dismiss it without a moment's notice. People write of this album, that you will either love it or hate it; that it is impossible to just like it without recognising its flaws, or appreciating its strengths. Then, those people are just wrong. It is a great album, but its also flawed from my point of view. Some critics write about it being a harbringer of a zillion genres like ambient, hip-hop and the like. I can certainly see the influence On the Corner has had on 'Nu-Jazz', and 'Hip Hop', but the guy who was molding ambient into what we know it today was not on this album, and that is Brian Eno.
Anyway, the music. It's a funky mix, with Indian drones, jazz-influenced solos, drums which sound sampled, funky, stripped basslines, all thrown together in one melting pot. For all Miles' attention to the groove, there is always enough attention thrown on the solos, and the soloists really cut loose. For me, McLaughlin is the one who is most inspired, and Miles' himself of course. I do have a problem with the album however, but my hangup is not that 'It's not jazz', or, that 'It's a sellout to the pop crowd', because its way too weird quite frankly to be called anything like a sellout. Instead, its the sheer repetition of the pieces, which ultimately go nowhere. Why did Miles, who had Al Foster at his disposal, a very fine drummer at that, have him endlessly play a banal funk beat for minutes on end, with no variation whatsoever? This so-called 'hypnotic state' in actuality goes nowhere, allowing itself to become a passive backdrop for some similarly uninspired noodlings on keyboards. The main culprit for this is 'Helen Butte', by far the worst track on the album.... Read more ›
Anyway, the music. It's a funky mix, with Indian drones, jazz-influenced solos, drums which sound sampled, funky, stripped basslines, all thrown together in one melting pot. For all Miles' attention to the groove, there is always enough attention thrown on the solos, and the soloists really cut loose. For me, McLaughlin is the one who is most inspired, and Miles' himself of course. I do have a problem with the album however, but my hangup is not that 'It's not jazz', or, that 'It's a sellout to the pop crowd', because its way too weird quite frankly to be called anything like a sellout. Instead, its the sheer repetition of the pieces, which ultimately go nowhere. Why did Miles, who had Al Foster at his disposal, a very fine drummer at that, have him endlessly play a banal funk beat for minutes on end, with no variation whatsoever? This so-called 'hypnotic state' in actuality goes nowhere, allowing itself to become a passive backdrop for some similarly uninspired noodlings on keyboards. The main culprit for this is 'Helen Butte', by far the worst track on the album.... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
In the early 1970's, Miles Davis noticed that all the young black kids had abandoned jazz and were listening to Sly Stone instead. He decided that the best way to reach out to them was to make a funk record influenced by the ideas and techniques of Stockhausen. If you can't recognise this sort of thinking for the pure unfettered genius that it is, there's something wrong with you.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Earthshaker
Format:Audio CD
Nothing, nothing polarises people like "On the Corner". It's Miles's "Metal Machine Music", either a work of genius that changes our thinking about music, or an unlistenable folly; there are rarely any in-between positions. You may well hold both at one stage or another. I first encountered Miles's music of this period in the late 1970s, on the 1973 "Miles Davis in Concert" LP: to someone who only knew the 1950s quintet's music it made no sense whatsoever. Some years later I'd worked through the late 60s electric Miles, "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew", and I thought I was ready: I bought "On the Corner" and once again put it to one side as baffling. Then suddenly in the late 1990s the penny dropped and it became one of the LPs I listen to again and again, including in the car or the kitchen. So, be prepared to buy this and then lay it down for 20 years before it hits you. One way or another you will have a strong opinion.
First impressions: it begins with a brutal edit, the equivalent of dropping the needle at a random point on the vinyl. Bass and guitar are trading chattering figures whilst Miles blows four high staccato notes, clearly from the end of a solo, and then disappears for the next few minutes whilst the rest of the band continue. Listen carefully and you pick up a guitar solo following him, but the mix is dominated by the bass (an eight-note repeated figure, over and over), clattering and rattling percussion, and multiple drummers. Scarcely audible in the background are an electric sitar and a synth adding washes of sound that fill up any remaining holes in the music. Everything is saturated in wah-wah: at this stage Miles would have had wah-wah on the drums if that were possible.... Read more ›
First impressions: it begins with a brutal edit, the equivalent of dropping the needle at a random point on the vinyl. Bass and guitar are trading chattering figures whilst Miles blows four high staccato notes, clearly from the end of a solo, and then disappears for the next few minutes whilst the rest of the band continue. Listen carefully and you pick up a guitar solo following him, but the mix is dominated by the bass (an eight-note repeated figure, over and over), clattering and rattling percussion, and multiple drummers. Scarcely audible in the background are an electric sitar and a synth adding washes of sound that fill up any remaining holes in the music. Everything is saturated in wah-wah: at this stage Miles would have had wah-wah on the drums if that were possible.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice sleeve, but...
Described by Lester Bangs as an album for "trendies' with no ears, he had a point. 4 tracks, three of which are basically interchangeable save for some different bass and... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2009 by Steve
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another MILEStone
It is hard to believe that this musical UFO is, indeed, 37 years old. Miles set, once more, new paths for jazz: indian citars crossed with funky rhythms that could be listened to... Read more
Published on 1 July 2009 by Luso
4.0 out of 5 stars
Listen to the music - not the critics
I have to disagree that you either love this or hate it. As a big fan of much of Miles' stuff from Birth of the Cool through to Bitches Brew, I of course was willing to give this... Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2009 by Ercis Plim
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterpiece LP
It skronks! It honks like an evil electric goose! It never lets up. If you need your head clearing out, this is the album for you.
Published on 22 Jan 2009 by Dave Gilmour's cat
5.0 out of 5 stars
Miles excelling in his Sly guise
This is the sound of Miles Davis really embracing the different music and grooves he was into at the time. Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2003 by Brian Croney
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Failed Experiment
No, no no.... do NOT buy this CD.
This was where Miles tried to blend Stockhausen, Sly Stone and Miles together... and it fails miserably. Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2001 by A. Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars
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On the Corner is an album people will think is either musical genius or trash (yeah, that old polarism!). Ever since I first heard this album I have wrestled with both assessments! Read more
Published on 24 Feb 2001 by abunour@aol.com
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