Miles Davis - In A Silent Way

Spot on about ´Zawinul´. But what about John Surman´s ´Way Back When´? It´s in the same class as IASW.

don't know that one, will investigate

The edit of IASW/Shh Peaceful and It's About That Time on Panthalassa is worth checking out.

Harold Budd's Pavilion of Dreams and Eberhard Weber's The Following Morning both share an IASW-esque nocturnal ambient fusion vibe.

think i mention this every time IASW sound-alikes come up, but this really is the closest thing i know to ssssh/peaceful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv7zSbmQt1o

What about Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, is that relevant here? I've always wanted to hear that based on its title alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqYkosktnmg

What about Afternoon of a Georgia Faun, is that relevant here? I've always wanted to hear that based on its title alone

it's a great rec, but it's not especially like IASW (guess the closest point of comparison wld be like a less zany art ensemble)

Surman is really good, thanks

To me Afternoon of a Georgia Faun really sounds like Americans binging on the already emergent Euro improv aesthetic, particularly that of the John Stevens/SME variety.

Shuggie Otis' Freedom Flight sounds a huge lot like IASW (the quieter sections from side two + a couple bluesy licks, basically)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rL-pE0xNC4

this been posted yet? apologies if I missed it.

Ray Moore (mixing and editing engineer): The mixing and editing took place between September 22 to October 24, although I did not work on the project exclusively. What was unusual was that Miles came in five times during this period. The first time on September 24. He didn’t say very much, but wanted certain things taken out. He was unhappy with Harvey Brooks’ solos. At one point he said to me, ‘I want all the C’s taken out.’ I looked at him and said, ‘You have to tell me which C’s and how to do it without breaking the phrases.’ He also wanted me to cut the tape at a certain point, and then specified another place where he wanted me to come in again. I said to him, ‘Miles, if you do that, there will be a ¾ measure, instead of 4/4. He looked at me, a bit taken aback, and then said, ‘Cut the fucking tape! Who is going to know?’

http://www.miles-beyond.com/iaswbitchesbrew.htm

wow @ teo:

Teo Macero: Miles would record his stuff, and then he’d just leave. He would sometimes say, ‘I like this or that,’ and then I’d say: ‘I’ll listen to it and I’ll put it together. If you like it, fine, if not, we’ll change it.’ So I was the one with the vision. Miles also had a vision, but he wasn’t really a composer, he didn’t compose in an organized way. It was happenstance. He played with these great musicians, and when they had played enough, I was able to cut out the stuff that wasn’t good, and piece something together from the rest. When we began editing In A Silent Way we had two huge stacks of 2” tape, 40-something reels in total. They were recorded over a longer period. It was one of the rare times Miles came to an editing session, because I’d told him, ‘This is a big job, you want to get your ass down here.’ So Miles said, ‘We’ll do it together.’ And we did. We cut things down to 8 ½ minutes on one LP side, and 9 ½ on the other, and then he said to me, “That’s my record.’ I said, ‘Go to hell!’ because it wasn’t enough music for an album. So I ended up creating repeats to make it longer. A lot of the stuff we cut was bullshit, and some of it is put out on this new boxed set. I raised hell at Columbia the other day and told them it was ridiculous they’re putting this bullshit out.

lol 'repeats to make it longer' somewhere stanley crouch is just sooooo vindicated, he thinks

brb gonna go remove all the C's from some records

the 18 minute version would probably be amazing.

well since the repeats were added it should be easy to recreate

loooool

while we were standing in the hallway John came over and whispered to me, ‘Can I ask you a question? I answered, ‘Sure’. He then said, ‘Herbie, I can’t tell... was that any good what we did? I mean, what did we do? I can’t tell what’s going on!’

In A Short Sweet Way xp

The Down Beat review (by Martin Williams, iirc) took the repetition to be a sloppily-overlooked technical error.

so he noticed that it was verbatim, that's sharp

Gleefully anticipating the Sony Legacy 60th anniversary "Miles' Cut" Silent Way 7" already.

followed by the box set of bill laswell remix 7"s

slightly off-topic: Bobby Previte put together an orchestra that plays Miles' electric stuff. A clip:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrEwbgzSeog

Miles At The Fillmore - Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3 4CD Box Set To Be Released March 25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrEwbgzSeog

so intensely, maniacly focused on such minimal material

jon l otm

and then he said to me, “That’s my record.’

^^

because this record never ever gets old and there are no substitutes for it

― j., Wednesday, February 5, 2014 11:12 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

^^^^

^^^^
x3

Not sure it's been mentioned in the thread but there was an excellent article on Stereogum by phil freeman about the best and worst of Miles Davis in which he mentions how part of the album is just the first part repeated - literally replayed. I can get my head around the studio work, but I find the idea of repeating the same section just really hard to parse. What was the decision behind that? How do others justify it?

wow @ teo:

Teo Macero: Miles would record his stuff, and then he’d just leave. He would sometimes say, ‘I like this or that,’ and then I’d say: ‘I’ll listen to it and I’ll put it together. If you like it, fine, if not, we’ll change it.’ So I was the one with the vision. Miles also had a vision, but he wasn’t really a composer, he didn’t compose in an organized way. It was happenstance. He played with these great musicians, and when they had played enough, I was able to cut out the stuff that wasn’t good, and piece something together from the rest. When we began editing In A Silent Way we had two huge stacks of 2” tape, 40-something reels in total. They were recorded over a longer period. It was one of the rare times Miles came to an editing session, because I’d told him, ‘This is a big job, you want to get your ass down here.’ So Miles said, ‘We’ll do it together.’ And we did. We cut things down to 8 ½ minutes on one LP side, and 9 ½ on the other, and then he said to me, “That’s my record.’ I said, ‘Go to hell!’ because it wasn’t enough music for an album. So I ended up creating repeats to make it longer. A lot of the stuff we cut was bullshit, and some of it is put out on this new boxed set. I raised hell at Columbia the other day and told them it was ridiculous they’re putting this bullshit out.

― festival culture (Jordan), Tuesday, 18 February 2014 20:50 (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

How do others justify it?

because it sounds fucking amazing!

dl that literally has been known and liner-noted and factoided about this album since forever

justify it? like… what, are you mad about not getting your money's worth? bored that you're hearing the same sounds again? (do you also only play the record once?)

(they're not the same, if you're hearing them repeated - let alone after other sounds intervene)

The whole repitition thingy makes it all sound very classical. Bach would also always just go back from the beginning.

how did bach justify that

He was paid by the minute.

hey hey hey, don't get me wrong - i love it, and there's a strange feeling similar to a 'rewind' in dance music. but shit, i hadn't relaised it was just the first part played over again; I thought they were just playing it very very similarly.

hang on, so is it the same or not?

also, i mean, if there was so much stuff cut out of it, it surprises me that they'd just repeat a whole part of the record again... but yeah, i didn't know if they altered the repeated part or not - as in you get to the end of Benefit of Mr Kite and it just starts playing the first three songs from Sgt Peppers all over again or whatevs...

well if you eat the same breakfast next monday you had this monday, is it the same or not

i don't throw up last monday's breakfast and eat it again?!

what i'm asking is - are the two parts EXACTLY the same or are they different? I've never been able to tell.

I think the amazing thing about the record is that Miles had only met John McLaughlin for the first time the evening before, and invited him to the session the next day. Such a chance thing, and yet the music is unimaginable without his contribution.

McLaughlin's playing on those few Miles records is some of the best work he ever did imo.

yea i agree.

i've found it very difficult to get into mahavishnu orchestra. i put on birds of fire here and there but i never make it through.

are the two parts EXACTLY the same or are they different?
they're exactly the same

but you're different

Love that Miles supposedly told McL, a technician supreme, "Play like you don't know how to play," so Go Ahead John had to unravel himself on the spot.