Agharta [Live]

Miles Davis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 29, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Live
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000027DZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,561 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dinner music.. for a pack of cannibals, July 8, 2002

By 

spiral_mind (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Agharta (Audio CD)

Like the most challenging music out there, this album is both a blessing and a headache. For musicians and jazz aficionados it's a, ever-changing stew of grooves, rhythms and blows to get lost in; for those more accustomed to the easy stylings of Miles's first quintet and the like, this is no more difficult a listen than an hour of jackhammering outside the window. Miles himself doesn't show the easy, soothing playing that made him famous in the first place; he sounds clipped, ragged and mad at the world. Considering that he had hip problems and had previously broken both legs in an accident, this might not be far from the truth.

His band might not have been quite as angry, but they still played with the same divine fire. The double-percussion team of Foster and Mtume lay down one dense African groove after another full of rhythms so thick you could wade through them; Cosey and Lucas bend their six-strings to some of the most primal wails this side of Hendrix; Henderson provides just the anchor on bass that everyone needs. Playing opposite Miles on sax was Sonny Fortune, and while he's no Wayne Shorter (but who could be?) he lays down a couple solos that I'm still trying to get my head around after a year of listening. The music was largely improvised and loosely sketched out, but rooted in some previous Davis sounds. "Maiysha" shows up in the track list, but I also hear pieces of "Right Off" and "Ife" among others. You'd probably have to be familiar with his entire body of work from this period to catch them all.

By the time of the two final concerts documented on Agharta and its counterpart Pangaea, Miles and crew had become a well-oiled machine, adept at weaving rock, jazz and funk into a head-spinning jungle brew that still confuses and amazes listeners 27 years later. It's jazz taken in a direction no one else had gone; it's a batch of hot rock grooves with tribal rhythmic underpinnings; it's the angry burning of a man in pain and a top-notch crew flourishing under his direction. And this show is only the Jekyll to Pangaea's Hyde; the later concert was even darker, heavier and closer to chaos. I'd recommend Agharta first of the two, but if you haven't heard any electric Miles it may be easier to start with B-Brew or Jack Johnson first. Agharta is a trip through the dense African bush, not for the faint of heart but those who love a good challenge.

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Agharta has never sounded better, June 16, 2006

By 

Joey Joe Joe Jr. Shabadoo (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Agharta (Audio CD)

I first heard the old, unremastered release of Agharta about 10 years ago, and I have been transfixed by Miles' electric recordings ever since. The only way I could describe this album to the uninitiated- imagine the thickest, dirtiest funk you've ever heard, like early Funkadelic times Infinity. Heavy wah across the boards. Now imagine a legendary trumpet player (Davis), an extremely funky sax player (Sonny Fortune), and an insane guitar player, Pete Cosey, A.K.A. 'Evil Hendrix', trading off solos over a constantly shifting background. Now imagine a drummer and percussionist (Al Foster and Mtume, respectively), banging away into eternity, like this music could. Imagine all of the accompaniment emulating percussion, from the bass to the rhythm guitar, and even to all the other players when they are not tearing solos. Now add to this a brooding, dark undercurrent pervading the proceedings. The result is a storming, mindbending and addictive stew that is Agharta.

Enough about the music. On to the sound quality, the only reason you would even be looking at this ridiculously expensive import: It really is no hyperbole to say that the Japanese remastering is light years ahead of the original release. There are instruments brought up in the mix that you couldn't hear before, and much of the murkiness surrounding the original release has been corrected. The solo lines are no longer quiet and obscured, and in fact this edition features the sort of sound you might expect from a studio release. I would recommend this edition to true Davis fans who already know what they are in store for and are looking for the best possible sound for his live electric documents. For those who haven't heard it, I would listen to it first since not everyone is going to like music this intense and, for lack of a better word, extreme (and I don't mean that in a Mountain Dew kind of way). As far as I am concerned, music doesn't get any better than this.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the Contrary, May 10, 2002

By 

R. Williams "code slubber" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Agharta (Audio CD)

I love this album, and contrary to the reviewer who claims this goes sour after a few listenings, I just keep going back to it. The first disc is amazing. In a lot of ways, it is a minimalistic fusion of rock and jazz, and many of the solos are about sound more than chops, but it has an incredible groove to it and a lot of intensity. It's amazing this was the morning show and Pangaea was the evening show of the same day. I've been unable to see to the bottom of that disc through its dark, turgid murmurings. This one is not sunny by any means, but just more joyous in its savagery, like Rite of Spring or Miraculous Mandarin.