Miles Davis - In A Silent Way

xpost, never mind, I read upthread

someone hook us up, don't make me beg. i have a newborn baby, i can't afford japanese imports are you kidding me.

Herbie's solo stuff immediately following his stint with Miles is amazing too, but in a different way, not as out there. more pop hooks tho

Are you talking about the stuff he did from Head Hunters on? Because the three albums he did with the Mwandishi band (Mwandishi, Crossings, and Sextant) after leaving Miles but before moving to jazz-funk with Head Hunters are certainly as "out there" as Miles' records of the era. And, like I said upthread, they're great stuff and certainly worth checking out if you like In a Silent Way.

yeah I was ref'ing the Headhunters (and post Headhunters) stuff, I haven't heard the Mwandishi band albums

Sextant is fantastic, still never heard the others.

You should. They're awesomely experimental and groovy and trippy and cosmic stuff, especially Sextant, which I think the best album Herbie has ever made.

(x-post)

All three of the Mwandishi albums are fantastic, and so is the live Headhunters album Flood. Of course, that one's a Japanese import, too, but it's totally worth it.

The other two are less synth-y as Sextant (Mwandishi has no synths at all, I think), but they're pretty similar otherwise: trancey extended grooves combined with bursts of free playing and cosmic noise. The last tune on Crossings has one of the weirdest, most disorienting use of vocals I've ever heard on a jazz record.

That was x-post to Nick B.

Most of the Mwandishi band (including Herbie) also appears on Eddie Henderson's Realization and Inside Out, which were reissued as a two-disc comp a few years ago. They're mostly quite good, though I think compositionally they're a bit weaker than the Herbie albums, and the lack of Julian Priester hurts the sound of the band. Certainly worth getting anyway, if you like the Mwandishi era Herbie.

Yeah, those Henderson albums are quite good. A bunch of the Mwandishi members released albums under their own names in the early '70s that are worth checking out, including Julian Priester's Love, Love and Buster Williams' Pinnacle.

Got Pangaea, been listening a lot. I actually am more excited about this music than I have been about any records for a long time. Can't get enough of it.

You should. They're awesomely experimental and groovy and trippy and cosmic stuff, especially Sextant, which I think the best album Herbie has ever made.

Yeah. I think the band changed drummers for Sextant, to pretty amazing results.

They didn't change drummers, Billy Hart was the drummer on all three albums. Sextant has an added percussionist (whose name escapes me) though, maybe that's what you're referring to?

You're right. I was thinking of Thrust. From the Rolling Stone review:

Yet where Headhunters was undergirded by the capable, facile drummer Harvey Mason, Thrust's drummer was jazz-funk genius Mike Clark, a scrawny little fiend who'd rather play music than eat. On extended jams like "Palm Grease" and "Actual Proof," Clark and bassist Paul Jackson are a two-headed computer disgorging off-kilter but irresistibly fat-bottomed licks; Hancock's Fender Rhodes and Bennie Maupin's reeds, meanwhile, dance on the ceiling. Thrust is a great album: brave, risky music making.

i'm trying to think of other artists who i fall back on so regularly and easily -- if the 'what record should i put on next' thought process goes on longer than 5 minutes for me, i feel like i end up putting on miles. his records pretty much never leave the 'recently played' stack next to my stereo, and they haven't since i've bought em

this one especially

Tried finding it myself, cos I'm sure I've seen you guys talk about it before somewhere on here, but couldn't:

Agharta & Pangaea - is there bonus material on the Japanese versions, or is it just better sound quality?

No bonus, just an altered tracklisting ('Prelude' is one track, not two, the second disc is one track, not two). I hear the 2006 Japanese remaster is pretty incredible sonicwise (it's released on the 'Blu-Spec' $50–60 CD).

Er, I was speaking of Agharta specifically there

No bonus, just an altered tracklisting

Nope. Agharta's second disc has about 10 minutes of music not on the US edition; Pangaea's second disc has about four minutes of music not on the US edition. Or maybe vice versa, but either way, the Japanese editions do have more music and a radically improved mix.

Oh man, I have to have those then. You're talking about the blu-specs?

There's a <a href="http://legacyrecordings.uservoice.com/pages/6333-reissue-requests/suggestions/76713-miles-davis-complete-live-in-japan-1975?ref=title";>petition</a> up to persuade Columbia to make a 1975 Tokyo box the next Miles box. If you're curious and you have Agharta and Pangaea, the rest of the Tokyo nights were compiled onto various bootlegs. Another Unity is a pretty easy one to find.

Listening to Another Unity now. Man, forget all that "strangle Hitler in the crib" shit; if I had a time machine, I'd go back to Japan in 1975 and see every show Miles Davis played. Holy fuck.

Did the Agartha and Pangeo original Japanese vinyl releases have different material too?

I just found Big Fun on vinyl and absolutely love it. I also voted on that Legacy/Columbia Tokyo box, excellent idea.

Sorry that should read Pangaea.

I'm quite surprised no one comes up with any Scandinavian ECM or Rune Grammofon stuff, they made a carreer out of re-using Miles' work from the early seventies. A release well searching for is a Dutch cd made by Eric Vloeimans and Erik Voermans called 'Nocturnal Ghost Songs', with guitar soundscapes and trumpet with in fact a cover of 'In A Silent Way'.

Something very 'In A Silent Way'-esque is the track 6.2 on Supersilent's album '6'. Arve Henriksen's trumpet solo is just stellar on that tune.

Eric Vloeimans new group 'Gatecrashin' is also similar to Miles Electric band. And I just fell in love with that beautiful title track from Wayne Shorter's 'Moto Grosso Feio'. Just gorgeous, well worth hearing if you like 'In A Silent Way'.

Thanks for the Agharta & Pangaea info, folks.

I'm quite surprised no one comes up with any Scandinavian ECM or Rune Grammofon stuff

I like to think of Khmer as the record Miles would have eventually made if he'd continued in the Tutu vein.

If you have Spotify
http://open.spotify.com/artist/7rZR0ugcLEhNrFYOrUtZii

Scored a excellent condition second hand copy of the Complete In A Silent Way Session box set today.

Extra pleased as it is the original short box, rather than the tall version. Aye, I'm a saddo like that.

The box sounds cool though kinda inessential since I already have 5 of the 7 Columbia sets (still gotta get the Gil Evans box and the Seven Steps box).

However this sounds cool: "The release of the MILES DAVIS COLUMBIA box set coincides with a three-month exhibition at the Museé de la Musique in Paris (October 16, 2009, through January 17, 2010) entitled "We Want Miles." The exhibition follows the evolution of the artist from his birth (May 26, 1926) and childhood in East Saint Louis to his final Paris concert in July, two months before his death on September 28, 1991."

I hope it's better than the jazz museum in KC, though, which is sadly kinda silly.

― Euler, Monday, September 28, 2009 2:46 PM (8 months ago)

Saw this exhibit on the weekend, and its got me listening to IASW nonstop.

I just discovered this album last week. Completely hooked.

http://jazzsermon.com/wp-content/uploads//2009/09/wreport1971.jpg

I presume everyone who likes In A Silent Way also has the first Weather Report album? Cos it's great.

Oh he'll yes. There's a great thread around here "stuff that sounds like in a silent way" that hipped me to a bunch of great records.

iPhone always subs "he'll" for "hell" dammit

Joe Zawinul's debut album is better.

xp

I recommend Richard Williams' recent book about Kind of Blue and the subsequent music he describes as continuing the spirit of that record.

hmm, yeah i was curious about that book, though I'll admit that the cover made me lol.
http://www.gaudeamus.fm/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/the-blue-moment-richard-williams-198x300.jpg

and here's that thread mentioned above -- cool stuff throughout: In A Similarly Silent Way

Joe Zawinul's debut album is better.

xp

― hipity-hopity muzik ftw! (Ioannis), Friday, December 10, 2010 3:27 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i like that almost as much as in a silent way

that is a very bizarre cover, had to look at it a while before I realized what it was

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/miles-davis-in-a-silent-way-round-21-nicks-choice/

Melody Maker around 1988 were trying to tout a scene called Oceanic Rock which had In A Silent Way as a benchmark/icon. Included things like A.R.Kane , Saqqara Dogs, Hugo Largo, Bark Psychosis, Butterfly Child, Long Fin Killie, Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom among others.

Turned me onto some good stuff even if it was just a fabricated movement

Really digging IASW at the mo. Think some more recommendations could include later Talk Talk, things like My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, and possibly the latest stuff by Ulver/Sunn O))). Not exactly the same but similar in execution.

If you haven't heard Deep Listening or Crone Music by Pauline Oliveros, I highly recommend them for IASW fans.

Joe Zawinul - Zawinul

(this is zawinul post-miles, pre-weather report....this album has a lot of the same players, very similar feel

also has zawinul's arrangement of the song "in a silent way" apparently more like how he envisioned it..

this basically is the sister album to in a silent way in a lot of ways

good recs there, Deep Listening is amazing but I have never heard the Zawinul album

lineup on zawinul speaks for itself:

Joe Zawinul – acoustic and electric piano
Herbie Hancock – electric piano
George Davis (tracks 1-3 & 5), Hubert Laws (track 4) – flute
Woody Shaw (tracks 1, 2, 4 & 5), Jimmy Owens (track 3) – trumpet
Earl Turbinton (tracks 1-3 & 5), Wayne Shorter (track 4) – soprano saxophone
Miroslav Vitouš, Walter Booker – bass
Billy Hart, David Lee, Joe Chambers – percussion
Jack DeJohnette – melodica (track 3), percussion (track 4)

(not as much crossover as i remember except shorter and hancock)