> keith is wrong here. i'm pretty sure that "sketches of spain" by miles davis
> went gold. i believe it was the biggest selling record (in any genre) up to
> that time--'61? i'd have a hard time saying that miles flopped, he's a
> household name... a friend of mine knows keith, i'll have to ask him about
> this quote.
But in terms of his jazz fusion albums, which is moreso what we're talkin'
about here, Miles never sold particularly well. BITCHES BREW was the best
seller of 'em all, but even then sales weren't spectacular. A better
example might be Herbie Hancock, who disbanded his
brilliant-yet-commercially-nonviable septet and formed Headhunters. The
first Headhunters was considered to be the best-selling jazz album of its
time. Anyone know if these numbers were ever exceeded within the genre?
> the reason they run is because people don't
> know their history. they don't think of jazz as dance music--which it was
> until bebop
What about those funky jazz albums documented in the Rare Groove reissues?
This was post-bebop. Then again, maybe the fact that they're now considered
"rare" also means that they weren't particularly popular at the time...
Doug
dwatson@cyberus.ca