Bitches Brew LIVE

Miles Davis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 8, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony Legacy
• ASIN: B004ENAC4I
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,277 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down

2. Sanctuary

3. It s About That Time/The Theme

4. Directions

5. Bitches Brew

6. It s About That Time

7. Sanctuary

8. Spanish Key

9. The Theme

Editorial Reviews

BITCHES BREW LIVE offers 3 PREVIOUSLY UNISSUSED TRACKS recorded July 5, 1969 at NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL including the first ever professionally recorded live version of "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down" and the first known recording of the revamped electric version of "Sanctuary" just over a month before Miles went into the studio to record what would become his fastestselling album of all time, BITCHES BREW. Fast-forward one year ... August 1970, ISLE OF WIGHT FESTIVAL in the U.K. where Miles is playing with a much more electric, rock-oriented sound in front of 600,000 people! This incredible full set includes the title track "Bitches Brew" and "Spanish Key" played by Davis s remarkable all-star group captured live at the peak of its powers Gary Bartz (alto sax, soprano sax), Chick Corea (electric piano), Keith Jarrett(organ), Dave Holland (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Airto Moreira (percussion).
Author Michael Azerrad s original liner notes incorporate NEW INTERVIEWS with legendary Newport Festival founder GEORGE WEIN, and filmmaker MURRAY LERNER, who captured one of the most spectacular music festivals in history on film in Message to Love: Isle of Wight Festival. Now, on BITCHES BREW LIVE, Fans get first-hand, behind-the-scenes insight into an incredible point in Miles s career when he was headlining alongside some of the then new rock groups including Sly & The Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and more!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Tracks 1-3 Are a Revelation February 18, 2011

By rfusillo

Format:Audio CD

Tracks 4 through 9 of this CD are from the same performance as the DVD "Miles Electric - A Different Kind of Blue," a fine, frenetic performance recorded in front of an enormous crowd at the Isle of Wight Festival.

Tracks 1 through 3, though, were the reason I bought this CD. This is the 1969 band early on, and without Wayne Shorter, who was stuck in traffic and missed the Newport gig. So, first of all, how many live recordings are there of Miles Davis with only a rhythm trio behind him? Second, this is a clean, professional recording, unlike some of the bootlegs that are in circulation. Third, this band was still somewhat in transition. The performance is less jazz-oriented than the Blue Coronet gig from just a few weeks before. It really does sound like the Bitches Brew band, only stripped down. Chick Corea's electric piano sounds (could it be a Wurlitzer?) like it did in the studio recordings. He is not using the ring modulator effect that he overused later in the year. Dave Holland is playing double bass -- in later recordings of this band, he uses only electric bass. Jack DeJohnette is breaking out of the Tony Williams mold. Overall, the music is more spacious, has more "air" in it than the recordings from the European tour.

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars MORE LIVE PROOF IN A NEW DIRECTION FROM DAVIS February 8, 2011

By Stuart Jefferson TOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

This release contains about one hour of live music. The tracks were originally produced by long time Davis friend/foil/producer Teo Macero. Some of this music (the Isle of Wight tracks) has been around on video, and there's also some audience bootlegs of these titles floating around. But these tracks (especially the Newport tunes) have at last been officially released. The booklet contains notes and photos on Davis and the festival era.

For fans of Miles Davis during this period, this collection of tracks (1-3 from The Newport Jazz Festival in 1969-the remainder from the Isle of Wight Festival-1970) is an exciting, important release. Yes, there are some who will feel that Sony is putting out product merely to squeeze some more money from consumers, but there's a good amount of worthwhile music from this exciting period in Davis' career. A Davis fan reminded me (which I'd forgotten) that the Isle of Wight date can be found on the 3 CD set "Munich Concert". Most of the music is from 1988 in Germany, with a different band (Davis, Kenny Garrett-sax, Bobby Irving and Adam Holzman-keyboards, Ben Rietveld-bass, Marilyn Mazur-percussion, "Foley" McCreary-guitar, and Ricky Wellman-drums), with yet again a different sound and feel to the music. The "Wight" track is a bit over 35 minutes long, and is titled "Call It Anything", with good sound. The entire set has some good, late sounding Davis, the only minor quibble is that there's no booklet, which would have been nice.

The first three tracks, from Newport, were recorded just prior to the jazz changing set "Bitches Brew". Beginning with the Davis composition "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down", which left little room for speculation on Davis' new direction, the music is dense and alive.... Using a deep, rhythmic bottom end, the music pulses with a combination of relatively light nuances and sharp edged shards of sound. "Sanctuary", which has been played in the past, is a different tune from the one people had heard previously. "It's About That Time/The Theme" holds the rhythm patterns similar to other versions (listen to the difference between the version on "It's About That Time Live From The Fillmore West, 1970", with Wayne Shorter), but, as always, there's a few twists and turns which give this track it's own edge.

The remaining music from the Isle of Wight is hypnotic, yet altogether harder sounding. At this point Davis was solidifying his sound and upping the firepower ante. The only non-rock performer at the festival, Davis had been listening to popular performers (and watching them make a lot of money) Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, and other attention grabbing, powerful sounding bands. Using the core rhythm section of Dave Holland-bass, Chick Corea-keyboards, and Jack DeJohnette-drums (shortly after this Holland and Corea would leave Davis to form CIRCLE, with Barry Altschul-pecussion, and noted reedman Anthony Braxton), Davis added Keith Jarrett-organ, Airto Moreira-percussion, and most significantly, Gary Bartz, a relativeley unknown player, on alto and soprano sax. With this band Davis brewed up a bit of funk (James Brown), soul (Sly's group), and pure firepower (Hendrix, et al), and added his own new sound on trumpet. For comparison, listen to the same tunes on the live Davis set "It's About That Time", with Wayne Shorter on sax and hear the difference.

It's telling to hear separate versions of "Sanctuary" and"It's About That Time", and hear the difference from 1969 to 1970. "Directions", "Sanctuary" and "It's About That Time" have a level of intensity arguably approaching the versions on the "Live From The Cellar Door" set, from the same year. "Spanish Key", heard on "Bitches Brew", seems a bit more focused and intense (which may be my ears), which separates it from the studio version. Using relatively simple bass patterns for the band to work off of, the rest of the group could expand and contract their sound as called for. And the use of two keyboard players gives the music even more depth-something else people were skeptical of in the beginning-which was nothing new for Davis.

The "Bitches Brew" era was yet another turning point for both Davis and jazz in general. Davis lost a number of fans when he went in this new direction. But he also gained a new, younger audience (which is what he wanted) who liked exciting, powerful groups like Hendrix, Zeppelin, and others, and funky, soulful groups like James Brown or Sly Stone. The music on this release is another important and exciting documentation of the last true, new direction Miles Davis would take. A combination of never wanting to "play the past" as Davis has said, and the desire to make more money (which he felt he deserved), forced Davis (and jazz) in another direction. And for many (myself included) this direction has proved exhilarating, innovative, and important. This set is a good example of that turning point. With both the Newport '69, and Wight '70 tracks together on one album, it's further proof of how Miles Davis changed jazz (and along with it our conception of jazz), and forged a new and exciting sound. This is dense, challenging music, but the rewards are ample. Read more ›

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Miles Lives! OMG Does HE LIVE! One Thousand Stars! February 11, 2011

By Talking Wall VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

These blistering, scorching sets from The Isle of Wight and Newport Jazz festivals are worth more than you're paying for them... because this music is priceless.

Newport:
The first three tracks are from a 1969 appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival.
If you think you've heard It's About That Time and haven't heard this then you just have to buy this! I'm listening to Bitches Brew Live as I write this review and this is what I'm hearing:

DeJohnette is playing a wild syncopated shuffle and it's impossible to understand how get is getting all that sound out of a little 5 piece kit. Holland is playing in the upper register of his bass and it sounds like an African log drum played at the speed of a hot red Ferrari. Folks, this music is just nuts! It's very exciting stuff. I admit that I had some trepidation when I purchased this CD, after all, Wayne Shorter missed the gig as he was stuck in traffic in NYC. I had to wonder how the "Lost Quintet" was going to sound as a quartet. This version of It's About That Time is just mind blowing - and yes, I've heard the versions on all three of the Fillmore releases. This is pounding, driving music. Miles is spewing fire at this point. It's intense and more focused that those three Fillmore releases. The band here is pre-Airto and maybe that's part of the difference. I like Airto but he can be a little distracting at times. This is just straight ahead and in your face. Rather like what you see on the DVD from Copenhagen that came with the Legacy Edition of Bitches Brew in 2010. The whole thing wraps up with the usual closer - The Theme

Now we're off to The Isle of Wight 1970. The crowd actually seems to know who Miles is and all 500,000 go wild as the band starts and Miles walks on.... I've heard this session before on the DVD A Different Kind of Blue. Maybe it's because there isn't any picture but somehow this just seems far more intense than it did when I was watching it on the DVD player. This band is in SMOKIN' form! Think Live at the Cellar Door Smokin'!

At this point Gary Bartz had taken over the saxophone duties from Steve Grossman but the rest of the band is the same group as the Miles At Fillmore band. Overall I think this band is more driving and more " up in your face" than what we hear on The Cellar Door Sessions. Perhaps it's because Holland is in this band and it's Henderson at the Cellar Door. This band is just scary scary good. Directions is raising the hair on my neck! the horns are in tight unison unlike other recordings of this piece I've heard (with and without Bartz) Gary Bartz is just so expressive, he's just perfect in this band. His playing on Spanish Key is just so off the hook. His vocalese technique of screaming and hollering through the horn is just breathtaking, thrilling! DeJohnette and Holland form the finest rhythm section of all time as far as "rock" music goes, it's hard to believe that DeJohnette is playing a little 5 piece set and bringing more sound and rhythmic variety than the so-called super drummers of the day with there 12 piece (and often more) kits. Miles is breathing fire everywhere over Chick's spaced out, ring-modulated Rhodes and Jarret playing his funky lines on what I think is an RMI piano, he isn't playing organ in this performance like he did on Miles At Fillmore.

I've only listened to this one time and I'm coming back to write more, I always like to give Miles and his musicians their props. I can tell you that this is one of Miles' hottest bands ever and one of the better live releases. It's just so intense it's ridiculous. If you love electric Miles YOU MUST HAVE THIS!!!! This thing gets 100 stars! I'm so glad I bought it! Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pictures at an Exhibition February 21, 2011

By County Lineman

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

It would be easy to casually dismiss one CD with a running time slightly under one hour after the wealth of "box" sets from the vault, since it would seem that the number of tapes which can be cleaned up are thinning out. But this is a solid release which shows the creative electric prowess of Miles Davis and the musical energy that saw no limits on the fusion superspeedway.

The hook for even casual collectors is the initial trio of unreleased tracks from the July 1969 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, which features Chick Corea (keyboards), Dave Holland (bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums) in a jazz/rock setting that is driven hard by the latter. Wayne Shorter was missing from the lineup due to getting stuck in traffic. The six numbers from the August 1970 Isle of Wight Festival finds Davis bolstering the sound through an expanded group - Gary Bartz (sax), Airto Moreira (percussion), Keith Jarrett (keyboards), Corea, Holland, DeJohnette - which take themes introduced in the landmark album to new heights. Corea is essentially the lead guitarist in this sonic attack of jazz/rock/funk.

The liner notes provide an interesting historical perspective and perhaps - just perhaps - this is going to start a new focus on issuing material without placing a premium on the credit card limits of fans.