Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A slab of a thing ! It could kill someone in more ways than one..., 2 Nov 2007
This is a sumptuous package, and completes the magnificent boxed set series which has been underway for more than ten years, illustrating Miles Davis' complete history of Columbia recording sessions. This set covers Miles' studio work between 1972-75, after which he stopped working for a while having exhausted so many possibilities in his relentless quest for something new that he literally wore himself out.
The (ahem) cornerstone upon which this is built is the 1972 album which divided the critics at the time, but the material also takes in the massive `Get Up With It' and some of `Big Fun'. Music on this grand a scale deserves to be heard in context, and here it is for the first time presented in chronological order with a very generous proportion of this material being previously unreleased. I can't for the life of me see why other reviewers on here are carping about Sony releasing the same stuff over and over when there is a HUGE amount of new material on here (some 2 hours' worth for god's sake !) and the familiar material has been noticably cleaned up. `Get Up With It' was always pretty murky but sounds well polished now.
This music is not for everyone, but if you want huge slabs of visceral and darkly energetic exploration you've come to the right place. Most of the music here was recorded in Miles' favoured way: all the musicians in a circle all playing and vamping together while he sprays and scribbles heavily wah-wahed Trumpet splashes of colour over the top of an already dense and intense tapestry. He didn't so much make `albums' by this time, as record music whenever he felt like it, and it really makes sense to trace his development through boxes like this.
Not all of the new material is a total success (which is why it was not selected in the firsat place) but it's all part of the big picture, and is never less than interesting. The original album is more of a blueprint/starting point for Miles' musical direction up to 1975, this 6CD box shows each development as it unfolded in the studio in an atmosphere where nobody, not even Miles, knew exactly what was going to happen. Rather than hearing various choice cuts assembled as the albums of the time, it makes much more sense to hear the whole lot, thanks to the generous playing time of CDs. Pick any one of the 6 discs and it'll be a great listen.
This was as wild as Miles would ever get. On his return to active service in 1981 the age of fretless basses, skinny ties and DX-7 keyboards was upon us and the music would never again have the dark demonic freedom and power captured in these immaculate recordings. The sound is mixed to modern day standards and is superb.
This is therefore a slab of history in every respect, and the killer vibes within are more than complimented by the embossed metal box it comes in, with which you could easily despatch an intruder with one swift blow if you had to.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
One For The Cognoscenti, 16 Nov 2007
Although I had reservations about buying this (after reading some of the other reviews on this and other sites) I succumbed as usual as I have done for every other box set Sony/Columbia has released.
Like the other boxes in this reissue series, there are many things to enjoy, but also a few "duffers". It's engrossing if you are a fan of Miles, but to be honest, it doesn't shed too much new light on his early `70s work (which is excellent when you listen to those works actually released at the time).
Aside from the "On The Corner" takes, the other highlights are the pieces which feature Pete Cosey and Dave Liebman. Liebman especially shines on the pieces he features on, with some excellent improvisation from him. Miles' improvisations sound a little familiar, in that some of his signature "motifs" can be heard on some of the new takes featured here. So in a way, these tracks do illuminate his working methods. It's certainly of interest to people like me, but for the casual listener, perhaps not!
There's a very enjoyable and illuminating essay from Paul Buckmaster, who worked with Miles in the realisation of the "On The Corner" music, but it's unfortunate his informed commentary is rather brief, in comparison to the longer, but disappointing, notes from Tom Terrell. The other box sets have produced better notes and session analyses, but in mitigation there's a lot of good photography of Miles and his bands from the period included in this release.
So, in conclusion, those of use who are completists may buy this anyway, but if you're a newcomer to this music I would recommend you buy "On The Corner", "Get Up With It" and maybe "Agharta". They're simply better works and you'll be playing them in 10 years time rather than the "add ons" provided by this set.
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53 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Provisional Review, 15 Sep 2007
Well folks, this is it. Allegedly the last of Columbia's Miles studio box sets, and the one around which there is the most confusion.
Firstly, let's get the name out of the way -- this box covers On The Corner, Get Up With It, and one track from Big Fun. Looking at the track listing, approximately 2 and a half hours of this box set, which totals 6 and three-quarter hours of music, is from the June 1972 sessions which yielded the album 'On The Corner.' The rest covers 1973 to 1975, when the album 'Get Up With It' was recorded.
What this means for you, paying out £50 for new material is that 3 hours and 13 minutes of this record has been issued in the last 10 years on CD, so if you already own the albums On The Corner, Big Fun and Get Up With It, you're only getting three discs of unreleased material.
There is much more in the vaults. I have an extra 2 hours of material from 72 through to 76 from various trades and boots which could have been included. There is even more out there, probably another 3 or 4 hours worth from the murky period between 74 and 76. An unfortunate omission.
Even the tracks that do appear here have, in some ways, been bungled. Many are incorrectly titled (blame Miles' nephew for that), and Calypso Frelimo has been included only as the issued version, when there's a 45 minute version in the vaults. On the other hand, the full 55 minutes of He Loved Him Madly fragments may not have too good to listen to, so their exclusion is understandable.
On the plus side, listening to the unedited masters of the On The Corner sessions may well be enlightening and help appreciation of the issued versions. Also, several tracks included have never made it onto bootlegs, so the thrill of hearing some Miles for the first time will be back!
As a whole, the box sets dealing with Miles' electric period have all been middling. In A Silent Way should have been a 2-disc set, since the last two discs were the only ones relating to that album. It was the most successful electric box though, as it revealed the most. Bitches Brew omitted at least 40 minutes of alternate takes of album tracks, and instead crammed in six months extra material of a totally different nature. Jack Johnson simply proved that Teo did a stunning job of grabbing good material from hours of reels, and that the album released was far more than the sum of its part.
And now we have On The Corner. I've heard 3/4 of this box, and reports indicate the rest of it is rather special, but can only give it a provisional 3 stars since half of it is a re-release, several titles are misnamed, and it apparently has the weakest set of liner notes of any of the boxes.
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~ Miles Davis
~ Miles Davis
~ Dennis Wilson
~ Miles Davis
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