Miles Davis Silent Sessions

Miles Davis - Get Up With It (1974) {2006 DSD Japan Mini LP Edition Analog Collection SICP 1228~29}
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© 1970-74, 2006 Sony Music Japan / Columbia | SICP 1228~9 | DSD | HQD High Quality Disc
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Jazz Rock / Trumpet

Released in 1974, Get Up With It is a follow-up to Big Fun, which appeared in the same year, offering an overview of the recent period and revealing new directions. The funk genre started with “Honky Tonk” from the Jack Johnson sessions, ran through On The Corner with “Rated X” and “Billy Preston,” and ended up in the groovy structures of “Mtume” where, with the help of the wah-wah pedal, the electrified trumpet abandoned phrasing to work exclusively on timbre and rhythm.

The bulk of the DVD is this Berlin concert of 6 November 1971. This is one of the last recorded concerts with this band, which disbanded totally later that month. It features Miles on electric trumpet, Keith Jarrett on electric piano and electric organ, Michael Henderson on electric bass, Leon Chancler on drums, and Mtume and Don Alias on percussion. This band is the last one that has direct links to the "Bitches Brew" era, with Gary Bartz still in the band and Jarrett having taken over the two keyboards when Chick Corea left the band in 1970.

Miles Davis - Big Fun (1974) {2CD Columbia C2K 63973 rel 2000}
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© 1969-72, 2000 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | C2K 63973
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Fusion / Trumpet

Despite the presence of classic tracks like Joe Zawinul's "Great Expectations," Big Fun feels like the compendium of sources it is. These tracks are all outtakes from other sessions, most notably Bitches Brew, On the Corner, and others. The other element is that many of these tracks appeared in different versions elsewhere. These were second takes, or the unedited takes before producer Teo Macero and Miles were able to edit them, cut and paste their parts into other things, or whatever. That is not to say the album should be dismissed.

The Jazz Revue is a musical artist that performs jazz interpretations of classical music. The group was founded in 2010 by pianist and arranger Michael Brown. The Jazz Revue has released two albums, "Cello Suite No. 1" and "Dance of the Cygnets." The group has performed at a variety of venues, including the Kennedy Center and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A set of outtakes released during Davis's retirement, three songs recorded during sessions for Nefertiti, and two cut during exploratory sessions for In A Silent Way, with Chick Corea and Dave Holland added on electric piano and bass respectively. It's a weird set because the Nefertiti side has the anything-can-happen combustibility of the Shorter-Hancock-Carter-Williams quintet ("Capricorn"), and the second side has the mostly absent Miles and endlessly raining electric pianos of the Zawinul-Corea-McLaughlin group ("Two Faced"). The first side isn't up to Quintet standard - the title track is a simple sequence outlined by block chords from Hancock, with unremarkable solos from Davis and Shorter - but the gently unhinged "Sweet Pea" (a tribute to Billy Strayhorn) is a classic, and I like even the later tracks better than most of Davis's fusion, because Williams keeps things from drifting entirely out to sea, and there are recognizable tunes and a minimum of tape manipulation. All the tunes are Shorter's except for "Mr. Tillman Anthony (William Process)"; the 2002 reissue also includes Davis's "Splash" (I believe the same take that's on on the Silent Way Sessions boxed set).

David Bertrand Wilson