100 Sideway Miles

A beautiful way to experience the early work of Miles Davis - all 14 of his 50s albums for Prestige Records, presented in a special box that contains each album in a tiny replica LP-styled sleeve. The music here is the stuff of legend - trumpet material that really transformed the way the instrument was used in jazz - as Davis really comes into his own as a leader, after time spent recording with Charlie Parker, and doing a bit for Blue Note - then really taking off in the full length space offered by the album format on Prestige. Some of these sets feature classic collaborations with the young John Coltrane, and others include work with Sonny Rollins on tenor, Milt Jackson on vibes, and JJ Johnson on trombone - as well as the famous rhythm section of Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums…

Buddy Miles was not only a great soul singer, and all-around music men, he was also one of the best drummers ("The Baddest Of The Bad") of an era. He was a founder member of the Electric Flag and played the drums on Jimi Hendrix best-selling album Electric Ladyland. Live is a tour de force of funk drenched rock and soul. The intro is a manic reading of "Joe Tex" and "Take It Off Him And Put It On Me" followed by a killer version of Neil Young's "Down By The River". The album closes with a rousing reading of "Them Changes" and a funky "We Got to Live Together," almost unrecognizable from the earlier version that Miles recorded with Hendrix.

This set features most of Davis' earliest albums for Columbia (some still recorded when he was with Prestige, but with their permission.) The sound quality is very good, and the albums selected for inclusion are nearly all essential in my opinion.

This set features most of Davis' earliest albums for Columbia (some still recorded when he was with Prestige, but with their permission.) The sound quality is very good, and the albums selected for inclusion are nearly all essential in my opinion.

That’s What Happened 1982-1985: Bootleg Volume 7 is the next installment in the celebrated, award-winning archival series that began in 2011, shining an in-depth light onto different eras of the legendary career of Miles Davis. In the 1980s, popular music had moved to a smoother, electronic-based sound that traded the steam of previous years for subdued arrangements meant to elicit peace and deep reflection. Miles Davis embraced this era, pulling inspiration from FM radio and an upstart music video channel called MTV. He was searching for the next frontier, letting his creativity roam. This music on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 captures that exploration, and finds Miles beginning to re-emerge in a creative landscape far different than the one he left in 1975.