I remember when "BITCHES BREW" first came out. I remember hearing about it
first on New York City's "free form rock station" WNEW-FM. And I remember
all of the Jocks there like Scott Muni, Rosko and others raving about it on
the air. "BITCHES BREW" picks up where "IN A SILENT WAY" leaves off and the
disc #1 isn't much different than "IN A SILENT WAY". That is no surprise,
since the personnel isn't really much different then the personnel that
Miles used on "IN A SILENT WAY".
It's when you get to disc #2 that you start to hear the level of STANK begin
to grow because Miles begins to let the players groove and the proceedings
become less dominated by the trumpet.
"BITCHES BREW" is a great example of "electric jazz" and it's a great follow
up to "IN A SILENT WAY", but it's NOT a Rock n' Roll" album at all. I dunno
why those "rock jocks" got all excited about it? Perhaps they just dug the
electronic sounds? Perhaps it was the "payola" of the Columbia Record
Company? Fundamentally "BITCHES BREW" is really just a "regular jazz album
played with electric instruments". Despite all of the hype about this album,
Miles is really still evolving this whole thing. I don't think that Miles
had yet started checking out Jimi Hendrix or had even met him yet.
And I think that this is part of the problem today for people who say that
Miles Davis doesn't belong in the RRHOF. The problem is that in all
likelihood the ONLY Miles Davis album they have ever listened to is "BITCHES
BREW", and if that is the case, then I might be inclined to agree with them.
I remember that later in the 1970's just about every white guy whose dorm
room I went into had a copy of "BITCHES BREW". I guess they must have
listened to all of the "free form rock" DJ's around the country and brought
the album so they could "feel cool". Here in 2006 my guess is that most of
the "rock audience's" only knowledge of Miles Davis, prior to the 1980's
when there were Miles Davis video's played on VH-1, is "BITCHES BREW"?
The most revolutionary thing about "BITCHES BREW" in my opinion was the
album cover. It surely must have been one of the very first "afrocentric
album covers" and in that respect was the beginning of something quite
significant.
NEXT UP:
"A TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON"
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Bob Davis
earthjuice_at_prodigy.net
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Received on 2006-03-05 05:09:07