Customer Reviews

Pangaea

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pangaea; "the total land" (in Greek), the giant supercontinent (in geology and tectonics). Gondwana[land]: the portion of Pangaea that became western Africa, southern Europe, North and South America. Zimbabwe; a nation on the east African plate, near the Great Rift Valley system of southeastern Africa-- the plate separated from Africa following the breakup of Pangaea, but is now rejoined.

Once in a while, you encounter a created work that makes you realize that you have encountered a talent of ineffable depth and intensity. PANGAEA is such a work.

For many years, this (like "Agartha") was only available as a Japanese import. For reasons I caon not fathom, American jazz seems to have a more dedicated and intense following in Japan than in this country. Miles Davis is

Recorded as a second set the same day as "Agartha", it sounds like a completely different band. "Agartha" is a fusion CD; well crafted and structured, musically sophisticated, and thematically complex, yet unified. "Pangaea" is an intense, driven, harsh performance where Miles Davis and his colleagues have cast aside the polite and aesthetic qualities of 'good' musicians, and sound like theya re trying to call forth the lords of darkness to do their bidding.

If you expect a live set that sounds like an extended version of "Kind of Blue", this is not your CD. This is a CD for the people who like to listen to what's on the edge; and even though this was recorded in 1975, it's still so far out on the edge that it jars even the most jaded jazz fans even today. Unlike a lot of "avant garde" jazz which seemed to be just art-for-art-sake material, with its deliberately atonal, non-melodic, non-rhytmic compositions, "Pangaea" was clearly intended to be listened to, and compel listeners to pay close attention.

On the surface, it sounds unstructured and wild, but upon repeat listnings, it's clear that Miles Davis has something he wants to say musically: erven if it is driven out of him by his internal demons. At the time, he was using drugs to keep going, and his personal life was disintegrating. It was shortly after playing this set that he announced his (first) retirement from music.

While "Dark Magus" and "Agartha" can thrill you, "Pangaea" stuns and with its unrelenting force. Driven by the bass lines of Michael Henderson. Sonny Fortune blows some intense saxophone, but it's Miles Davis, with his funk-laden trumpet blasts who's clearly in charge of this voodoo ceremony.

Normally, bass lines are either disco-ish or they're so innoccuous that they work more like background. here, they are in dynamic competition with the sax & trumpet, and yet the whole work sounds like it's more 'together' than many more structuerd and planned pieces.

Like the MIR, which streaked across the skies of the southern Pacific, before crashing into the sea in early 2001, "Pangaea" sounds like the aural equivalent; a man who's life is about to crash, making sure that he exits public view in a blaze of glory.

This is a totally incredible CD. And from Miles Davis, a man who never feared to take chances or experiment, "Pangaea" remains a landmark in the iconology of jazz.

Like its counterpart "Agharta," (each double lp set represented a day and evening concert in Osaka Japan on 1 February 1975..."Pangaea" represents the evening concert), "Pangaea" is the pinnacle of where Miles wanted his deep, dark, African grooves to go to, and the cd is unlike anything he did before or since.

Divided into 2 parts, "Zimbabwe" (which consists of 2 parts unto itself, focusing on a piece Miles called "Turnaroundphrase") and "Gondwana (also a piece in 2 parts, focusing on the piece "IFE" from "Big Fun"), Miles brand of jungle funk flows like mollasses, the bass phrasings of longtime stalward Mike Henderson deep and muddy. Guitarists Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas add to the mix with their distorted wah wah stylings, and Miles, going between his wah wah trumpet and organ. Drummer Al foster and percussionist Mtume add to the mix with their deep African funk grooves. Sax/flautist Sonny Fortune chimes in with very intense soloing of his own.

The key to these lps is the group, and not the soloists- Fortune and Miles both blow solos- the collective jungle groove that they all help to obtain is what's key here, and man, do they hit it and quit it. The grooves are unlike anything you've ever heard before, and they rarely quit playing those grooves for the entirety of the 2 pieces (each piece over 40 minutes long). The results are trancy and very hypnotic.

This lp is not for beginners, nor for purists, but for Miles fans who understand what he was trying to (and did so ) accomplish. A masterful performance that tops all of his mid 70s live efforts ("In Concert," "Dark Magus," and "Agharta") "Pangaea" is a keeper.

I don't understand this record.

I remember the first time that I ever heard Pangea. Miles Davis was just sort of "there" for me. Like Led Zeppelin 3 (or the Wedding Present or Sonic Youth)is just there. Right? Anyway, I had Sketches of Spain (beautiful and perfect in its own way), Kind of Blue, blah, blah, but I was really into the heady stuff: Coltrane, Eric Dolphy. Then I picked this one up because I realized I knew virtually nothing about Miles' 70's stuff. I really expected something like Steely Dan or something.

Of all the music I have ever been introduced to, I have never been more taken back, more surprised than when I heard Pangea the first time. I didn't know that music like that existed. It doesn't sound like anything else and everything else at the same time. Primal funk. Dirty, swampy, thick, dense, flowing primal wah wah smack dream funk (It sounds like Miles met the devil).

Agharta, recorded on the same day (an earlier set), is roughly the same, maybe a little less intense, maybe more ambient. I didn't know stuff like this existed.

I like this better than the earlier 70's stuff like On the Corner, Dark Magus, Big Fun (different but more "understandable")because every time I listen to it I hear something else. It just flows like nothing else I know.

(In thinking about this, I am actually reminded of My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless." Both have the same kind of "fluff on the needle" ambience. Stuff to look deeply into. Stuff that, unless you're prepared, scares.)

This is it folks, the last piece of great music that Miles Davis ever made. His post-retirement music isn't fit to stand in the shadow of the music that happens on this cd.

For my ears, heart, soul, and money, this is the best electric album that Miles ever made. Michael Henderson's bass is thick and while I usually get bored with "vampy bass playing" I in no way get bored with Henderson's playing on this cd. He anchors these deep-groove experiments-in-rhythm like no one else could have done.

Maybe some of you don't like jazz but you've been told to look into Miles Davis... this would be a great cd for you. If you've heard most all Miles except this, then this is also a great cd for you. The music here is deep, dark, tribal-funk that can space your face and rock your socks off all at the same time. ZIMBABWE is one of the best pieces of music I've ever heard and Sonny Fortune takes a solo during it that is for me, hands-down one of the greatest solo's that a saxophone ever had the priveledge of releasing. Sonny is absolutely on fire! There is one specific point in his solo that gives me chills and makes me want to scream in ecstacy every time I hear it and I first heard this music about 9 years ago.

I do have DARK MAGUS and AGHARTA (the 2 other cd's most closely related to this one) but I haven't listened to them in a while. I must admit though that I do remember my overall impression being that neither of them came close to the magic that we are blessed with on this cd, PANGAEA.

This music makes me feel like being present at the birth of the universe, as it grows and churns of its own accord with a kind of expansive joy and collective satisfaction at the beauty of its own meticulous order amidst spontaneity (and vice versa); overlapping rhythms, wheels within wheels, everything in its place.

The improvisational acumen of this group is astounding. The most amazing thing to me is that at no point does it remotely sound as if they've become simply bored of one vamp or riff and ham-handedly try to come up with another, which is probably how I would sound if I attempted something of this scope. Everything blends together in sequence so that it's as if the whole thing were scripted in advance, yet no amount of planning or scrutiny could have produced music this ineffably magical; indeed, the harder you'd try, the farther away you'd probably get. This is a testament to the strengths of Miles as a bandleader and mastermind; time and time again he put together bands of unparalleled chemistry. Speaking of which, it seems a bit odd that the musician whose name appears as the artist on this album is hardly prominent as a performer on it. Lounging to and fro between trumpet and organ, Miles' contributions are spare and subdued, yet it sounds kind of like the other musicians are hanging on his every phrase, so to speak. And by the way, there is a guitar solo, I guess by Pete Cosey, about two-thirds the way through "Gondwana" that is absolutely mindblowing. Just one of many examples of beauty in its parts as well as its sum to be found on this album.

This music suggests infinite possibilities and indeed it sounds as though this band could have pulled off a dozen or more performances just like it, each with its own special charms and flavors, just as "Pangaea," as well as "Agharta," companion to this one, recorded earlier the same day, have all their own. I'd buy each and every one of those CD's.

I would have to think that if you were in attendance for this concert, it would almost be like a car wreck in front of you. You don`t want to look, but you can`t help yourself. This music is at once, tremendously beautiful, and extremely frightening. This is what Godzilla really sounded like trashing Tokyo. I have the other Electric live CD`s but they all pale in comparison to this incredible masterpiece of Fusion. The band was hot, funky, and loud. It is the keystone to build your late era Miles collection on.

Pangaea: the title implies something vast and all-encompassing, just like the landmass it comprised before it split into the continents we know today. Whether this music lives up to it is in the mind of the listener, but I say Miles Davis's last (and possibly best) album from his electric 70s phase makes a convincing run for it. This is the Davis band that took his by-then-customary fusion of sizzling jazz chemistry and high-voltage rock and ran with it all the way to the heart of the African jungle. It's earthy, it's wild, it's dynamic; in 87 minutes it ranges from all-out electric frenzy to soft peaceful beauty with twists and turns around every corner. Agharta (the companion album recorded at a matinee concert that same afternoon) made a wonderful warmup, but at the evening show represented on Pangaea.. all chaos broke loose.

We're treated to the whole yin and yang of Miles's work at the close of his electric period. The majority of "Zimbabwe" is a mad churning froth of evil voodoo funk, more edgy and electrifying than any other Davis recording from this time. On the other hand, the first fifteen minutes of "Gondwana" float along with simple percussion and flute, providing one of the most simple and beautiful passages to be heard on any Miles album since In A Silent Way. While Agharta is more solid and cohesive throughout, Pangaea better shows both these extremes and the range between. Hints of previously released songs are present, but they're basically just used as a starting point for the band to dive off the deep end into all-new territory. Everything's so artfully woven together that it comes out as one long piece continuously flowing from one groove to the next. Disc 1 ends with a fade, the same way disc 2 begins and ends; it gives the impression that the music goes on forever.

Every member of the band shines, from Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas wringing wails from their guitars that sound almost human, to Al Foster and Mtume building rhythmic percussive grooves thicker than chest-high vegetation in the deep Congo, to Sonny Fortune blowing his head off with the most far-out sax work he'd provided in his time with Miles. And yet they all shine together, so the group's strongest point isn't their individual contributions but the way they're all woven into the whole. If there's anyone who seems to be lurking in the shadows here it's Miles himself. He picks his shots on trumpet and organ, darting in for a couple quick licks and then quietly sitting out while choosing his next note. His signature less-is-more philosophy adds an element of subtlety on top of the band's all-out mayhem, which (as usual) is exactly what fits best.

Between Agharta, Pangaea, Dark Magus and Live-Evil all the live Miles released from this phase may seem like overkill, but really, they're all so different from each other that every recording is fresh and new. Agharta probably makes the best first pick for the uninitiated, but Pangaea is every bit as dynamic and challenging in its own right. Today it sounds just as cutting and vital as it did that winter evening in 1975, and I have no doubt I won't be the only one hearing new things in these shifting grooves for years to come.

This sounds like Miles meets Jimi meets Sly meets Ornette meets Beelzebub. This is the heaviest, funkiest band ever to set foot on stage anywhere at anytime. If someone told me the conert hall burned to the ground during this show, I could believe it. But I still can't decide which is better, Agharta ("...a wallpaper shredder" - Robert Fripp) or its late night twin Pangaea. Both were recorded (born) on the same day at a Tokyo concert hall. Both are so good, so intense they are almost frightening. While the band does jazz it up a bit on disc 2 (we even get some very jazzy dom7b5 chords) I don't know if I would call this jazz or not, probably not. It's something else... other-worldly, if it's jazz then it's jazz from hell. Mtume and Cosey are wonderful on the percussion, there is one point where Mtume has the conga drums moaning while Cosey plays a kalimba, very cool. Sonny Fortune's alto, soprano, and flute are just amazing.

At the 33 minute mark in Zimbabwe there is truly bizarre stuff going on that I can't even describe, it's the weirdest sounds I have ever heard anywhere, period. A log drum is playing, Miles is soloing over something that sounds like a weed whacker - snoring! A page out of Frank Zappa's book! ha ha! Reggie Lucas is playing some very pretty aural stuff in the background and there's, get this, sleighbells! At the end of Zimbabwe it's just log drums and some very faint vocal that almost sounds like doo-whop! Presumeably that's Mtume doing the vocal.

This CD is a must have for bass players everywhere. Henderson is just spectacular from start to finish. Foster too! Gosh they're all brilliant! It's almost overwhelming. I am not kidding. I'm listening to Cosey's second solo on Zimbabwe as I type this and it is just mind-blowing! There really just wasn't anywhere for Miles to go after this, nothing can top this intensity, hence retirement followed by "Time After Time" and "You're Under Arrest".

If you like wild, heavy, abstract music, you need this disc and you need Agharta too! Of the two, Pangaea is definitely more intense. No question.

For untrammeled Pete Cosey, PANGAEA is nonpareil and about as epochal as out-guitar has ever gotten (although I think this group's best music was "Calypso Frelimo" on GET UP WITH IT). Unfortunately, the scant few lucky enough (or not, in this case) to have heard the original once-difficult-now-impossible-to-find Japan-Sony LP, will lament the CD remix that puts Cosey dimly in the left channel, where he had previously been front, center, and thermonuclear. Probably the worst of Sony's many and various Miles reissue screw-ups - right up there with the first CD version of MILES AHEAD.

I don't know where to start. First off, this is music that requires listening, and paying attention. Many people just don't have the time to try and digest it all. But if you can take the time then you just might find a whole new world of music. Second, the music just doesn't compare to anything else out there.

It's fusion at its most wild and out of control. There's nothing friendly and jazzy or really smooth going on here. But in the end it really is great.

5 starts but seriously way beyond any rating system.