Malcolm Fraser 2010-02-04

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

The original album was great music in any genre. Although largely improvised and then spliced together by Miles and Teo Macero, the finished product was finely crafted, because "Miles knew what he wanted once he'd heard it", as John McLaughlin said. One advantage of the ensemble playing, is that even when one instrument takes the lead, everyone else fits in behind - it's not one person going off in his own direction for 5 minutes. This was an exceptional double LP on initial release, and the music is still a work of genius.

So why one star? The first 6 tracks were a balanced whole. If you want to listen to the outakes, buy the Complete Bitches Brew Sessions. Even then, you probably won't listen to CD's 3 and 4 more than once. Sony have trashed it with the addition of Felo. I'm ticked because I wanted to buy it as a present, but the extra track is an artistic disaster. How soon can we go back to the 24-bit version without someone messing with perfection?

T. Egnoto 2010-01-21

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

All the other negative reviews are right. This album is *literally* a collection of random noise, and not much more. Whether not it's "music" or "art" depend completely on your definitions of music and art.

If the noise a busy city makes is music, then this album is music. If paint splattered randomly on a canvas is art, then sure, this album is art. But be forewarned; most of this album lacks any discernible beat or key. You will not be able to tap your foot to it, and when each song is over, you're not going to know whether or not it ended on the tonic.

I don't personally consider this album a work of art, or a collection of music. Sure, the timbre of miles' trumpet or the keys can be pleasing to the ear just for their own sake; but there is no musical organization in the traditional sense to be found anywhere on this album, and like the reviewer above me said, listening to this album is more of an endurance test than an enjoyable experience.

Nova137 2010-01-16

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Bitches Brew
Miles Davis

Released in 1970, Bitches Brew is a controversial album. Some have lauded it while at the same time criticizing it, "The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave Bitches Brew a four-star rating (out of four stars) describing the recording as `one of the most remarkable creative statements of the last half-century, in any artistic form. It is also profoundly flawed, a gigantic torso of burstingly noisy music that absolutely refuses to resolve itself under any recognized guise.'" (Quote from Wiki article "Bitches Brew").

I've listened to this CD off and on (mostly off) for more than a decade. It is just starting to be easy on these ears. I like my jazz "Kind of Blue" and only that way, really. That is, easy, continuous rhythms. Bitches Brew is discordant and discontinuous. "One critic writes that `Davis drew a line in the sand that some jazz fans have never crossed, or even forgiven Davis for drawing.' Bob Rusch recalls, `this to me was not great Black music, but I cynically saw it as part and parcel of the commercial crap that was beginning to choke and bastardize the catalogs of such dependable companies as Blue Note and Prestige.... I hear it 'better' today because there is now so much music that is worse.'" (Quote from Wiki article, "Britches Brew").

Miles introduced the Jazz world to what has come to be called Jazz Rock. It still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I can enjoy it all the way through now. When I first listened, I put it away not making it through the 1st disc. A year later I picked it back up and listened through the 2nd disc in its entirety, skipping the 1st one. It was only years later that I was able to get through both discs and this at some loss of pleasure. This last time, I put my iPod in its player (mStation) and really couldn't tell, all that much, what it was that bothered me. I heard what I didn't like originally in disc 1, but I enjoyed it more. Maybe it's because the other times, I was ready to let my senses be transported by the music. I didn't like where Bitches Brew took me, initially. This last time (1/15/10) I was in my office working. Maybe for me Bitches Brew is good background music. I'm not sure what that says about me or the music, but it is what it is.

If you are a jazz aficionado, surely you have this work of art. If you are new to jazz and looking for some comforting sounds and basic jazz rhythm, don't start here. I recommend this for anyone who loves jazz but simply hasn't added it, yet, to their collection.

Denevi 2009-11-18

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Man I love this song: "Spanish Key"

I first heard this song in the movie Collateral (Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx), where Vincent takes Max to a jazz club in Los Angeles.

This song is genius, the beat and passing tones are crazy. A true piece to the art of improvisation....this is on the spot, in the moment, off impulse, straight up hardcore jazz. Get the album and listen to it.

Expand your horizons...

MamboCha. 2009-10-07

1 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

If you want to be annoyed by incoherent instrumental notes that never amount to absolutely anything, this is for you. Even saying that this "music" reflects the mental state of a drunk is a stretch, drunkenness still maintains a better sense of consciousness and purpose. Finding the fortitude needed to endure this tedious absurdity in its entirety is no easy task and one sure to provoke a headache and anger; because if this album achieves anything, it is being incessantly annoying by having no emotion, energy, melody, or anything that constitutes any musical value. At the end, this is nothing but trash recorded with good audio equipment, over-rated pretentious trash that is; and the claim of many that this album has elements of rock, funk, and soul is more absurd than the album itself. However, if you are a pretentious fool who likes to pretend to "get it" or an individual intrigued by random abstract noise to the beat of an overly monotonous percussion then this is also for you.

Here rather are various instrumental recordings that indeed deserve a look. Dave Brubeck - Time Out, Ruben Gonzalez - Introducing..., Cachaito, Herb Alpert - South of the Border, The Ventures, Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban, Beastie Boys - Mix up (you'll be surprised), Augustus Pablo - East of the River Nile, Jan Hammer - Escape From Television, etc.