js Miles Davis’, “Filles Des Kilimanjaro”, is one of the most experimental and forward looking albums in his vast discography, and it is also one of his most misunderstood. Most reviews of this album talk about it being a transitional album in between his post bop years and his fusion years, but really it is not exactly either of those musical tendencies. It is a fusion album of sorts, but not the ‘jazz-rock’ fusion that will bring Miles much money and fame in the coming years. Instead, on this album Miles begins his exploration of static musical forms, music that is somewhat the same from beginning to end, much like traditional African music, or also similar to Stockhausen’s Momente form which is based on the idea of a musical continuum with no particular beginning or end. All of this is in difference to Western notions of linear musical progressions. In Momente form, each moment is as important and pertinent as the next. Miles was influenced by Stockhausen, but also by the very African sound of James Brown’s new funk style. It all ties together. After this album, Miles will get a lot of attention with some star-studded jazz-rock fusion albums that got a big advertising push from Columbia, but after the hoopla dies down, Miles will get back to his experiments in static music with albums like “On the Corner”, “Big Fun”, “Get Up With It” and a trio of live albums recorded in Japan.

On the back liner notes of the album, Ralph Gleason offers one take on this album as being a concerto for drummer Tony Williams, and in many ways, Tony is the central glue here with everyone else backing him, or interjecting on top of him. Album opener, “Frelon Brun”, is sort of a funky RnB jam until Tony just keeps taking it further out there. The next two tracks that fill side one are almost free jazz, although they are more or less tonal and seem to hang with an implied pulse, but very little literal time keeping. If you are familiar with the barn burning, “Miles Live at Fillmore”, than you may recognize these two “Filles” tracks as supplying the scattered material that happens on the live “Fillmore” album in between the sections that have a more pronounced groove. On the side one closer, Miles plays some melodies that will show up later on “In a Silent Way”, as well as melodies that will show up in various live jam tracks and from the “Directions” album.

Side two opens with the album’s title track and is the one track where the band hits a familiar groove. It has an ear grabbing melody and an overall relaxed atmosphere. This side closes out with “Miss Mabry”, which uses a static compositional tool that is a favorite for Miles. On this track different sections repeat and come around again, but the song never really gets anywhere. This compositional technique will hit a zenith for Miles when he records “Great Expectations” for the “Big Fun” album. Its important to note that Miles wrote everyone of these tracks, instead of leaning on Wayne Shorter as he had in the past. Only Miles had the vision of what he wanted here, it would take others some time to catch up to this concept of music, and apparently very few have.

js In the late 60s, Bill Clayton was working on a documentary about the life and times of boxer Jack Johnson and decided he would contract Miles Davis and producer Teo Macero to provide the soundtrack. Rather than compose any specific music, Miles invited some of his favorite musicians over in the early months of 1970 for some loose jam sessions which Teo could then edit into a soundtrack and a soundtrack LP. The resulting jam sessions were a mixed bag, far from Miles’ best work, and often he and Teo left everything in there, warts and all. Warts including bassist Michael Henderson catching a key change a couple bars too late and Herbie Hancock trying to get a Farfisa organ to react so he lays his arms across the entire keyboard when it suddenly comes alive and plays Herbie’s massive tone cluster.

Side one opens with a rather mundane boogie from the rhythm section. Hard to believe that’s Billy Cobham on drums as this sort of thing is kind of beneath him. The saving grace on this side is the interplay between Miles and guitarist John McLaughlin. This is the pre-Mahavishnu McLaughlin, back when his playing was much looser, funkier and wonderfully gnarly. Coping John’s rhythm playing on this side should be a course requirement for an aspiring jazz and RnB guitarist, its just about the most inspiring and inventive rhythm playing one could hope for and Miles responds with a strong solo, but this does go on for a long time. Teo inserts a nice ambient break in the middle before the standard bar band boogie returns. Apparently Herbie happened to drop by for a visit so Miles directs him to a Farfisa organ in the room. A Farfisa is a hardly a pliable jazz instrument but Hancock gets some really cool kitsch garage band riffs out of the cumbersome beast adding to the sort of ‘off-the-wall’ nature of this album.

Side two opens with a much more sparse number, bordering on Miles’ experiments in ambience and static music, only this time the effect does not hold interest for long. John inserts some well timed funky riffs and just when the jam might take off, Teo fades the track into an excerpt from “In a Silent Way”. Oh boy, talk about cheating, trying to improve a mediocre album by inserting moments from a great album is just a really bad idea and it sticks out like a sore thumb, its like they are admitting this soundtrack needs all the help it can get.

As we move into the last part of the second side, Macero fades in a different jam, one with Dave Holland on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. With those two on board, things pick up considerably as we are now in classic syncopated jazz fusion over drive in a style similar to Miles’ excellent ‘Live at the Fillmore” album. This jam also features the very intense and avant-garde duo of Sonny Sharrock and Chick Corea using ring modulaters and echo feedback to build a Stockhausen like background for Miles’ solo. “Jack Johnson” is a not a great album, but fans of Miles’ fusion playing can find enough good on here to make it worth the purchase.

js Miles Davis’ sextet that existed from 1973 to 1975 is one of the more misunderstood and under appreciated bands in Miles’ career. By the mid 70s, very little was left of Miles’ mid 60s post bop, and he was even starting to move further from the fusion he adopted in the late 60s. Instead, this group, which consisted of Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas on guitars, Mtume on percussion, Al Foster on drums, Michael Henderson on bass and Sonny Fortune on saxophone, was experimenting with static music, ambience, Stockhausen’s momente form, and layering multiple rhythms ala African music. Much of what they did often sounded like jazz fusion, but closer listens reveal a band that was exploring unknown terrain with their attempts to create music without specific form, music that was based on short melodic and rhythmic ideas that could be utilized and layered by any of the musicians at any time.

This brave new combo was best represented on the studio album, “Get Up With It”, and two live albums that took place on February 1, 1975, “Agharta” and “Pangaea”. The “Agharta” concert took place in the afternoon, while “Pangaea” went down at night. Of the two concerts, “Agharta” shows the band in top form, while “Pangaea” has some strong moments, but also some disorganization and fatigue. Apparently Miles was sick for the evening concert and the loss of energy is apparent, but still the band manages some excellent passages all the same.

Side one of “Pangaea's four sided concert starts strong with some relentless psychedelic funk rock. Guitarist supreme, Pete Cosey, is in fine scorching form as the band pummels the audience with a fierce assault. Notice as this side progresses, the funk starts to fracture and the more avant-garde side of the band comes through as the musicians layer almost incongruent rhythms and tonalities. Side two continues with more psych funk until Reggie and Michael take over for a somewhat mundane rock jam that is really not up to par for this group.

Side three gets things back on track as Sonny Fortune performs a mysterious exotica flute solo over a well known Henderson bass vamp. Later, Reggie starts playing something that almost sounds like a real song with chord changes amongst the cosmic ‘no chord changes’ murk and finally Pete Cosey kicks in with another searing blues soaked guitar extravaganza. On side four the band seems to run out of steam as Sonny has pretty much disappeared, while Reggie tries various riffs that no one picks up on and Mtume plays with his bizarre rhythm machine and Cosey toys with his synthi and various odd percussion instruments. As mentioned earlier, Miles was not feeling well during this show and his playing takes on the cries of a wounded spirit with very little semblance to the jazz soloing he had been known for in the past. Still, a lot of creativity went into his attempts to make the trumpet into something entirely different and his sound oriented approach is a big part of many modern horn players.

This is a fascinating sextet and well worth checking out further. “Pangaea”, may not be their best moment, but there is enough good on here to make it worth picking up. Besides the other two albums already mentioned, you can also hear this band on various Miles collections and complete boxed sets.

js Well if you are keeping score at home, “Miles in the Sky” is the album on which Miles started mixing rock and RnB into his music. Now if you think Miles was the first jazz artists to do this, well then you have a lot of music history to catch up on as jazz artists had been mixing rock n roll and RnB into their music since the early 50s when rock and RnB were birthed from a combination of jump blues and African American church music. The main difference between soul jazz and fusion was the fact that rock and RnB itself changed considerably in the late 60s, but that’s a subject for a whole nother essay.

“Miles in the Sky” opens up with Tony Williams cutting a persistent rock beat on “Stuff”, but this isn’t your standard pop rock of the day, no, this is Miles Davis and this track is far more abstract than what most rock bands were playing at the time. Herbie Hancock is playing the Fender Rhodes with his best gospel/RnB riffs and Miles is working out his ‘angry trumpet’ sound that will become full flower on “Live at the Fillmore”. Side one closes out with the somewhat experimental, “Paraphernalia”, that hints at the ‘static’ music Miles will feature on “Get Up With It” and “On the Corner”. Guest guitarist George Benson turns in one of the more interesting solos in his career.

Side two kicks off with, “Black Comedy”, an aggressive post bop number that recalls the “Miles Smiles” album and is the closest thing to straight up jazz on the album, but there is still that unsettling rage lurking in the background. We are a long way from “My Funny Valentine” at this point. The album closer, “Country Son”, is the most ambitious number as the band shifts from RnB riffs to floating ambience and back again in a rotation of compositional ideas. So much of what we hear in jazz in the 2020s can be traced back to this album, the mixing of genres, the tendency towards abstraction and the unexpected twists and turns in arrangement. On this album Miles does away with an opening melody on all of the songs, and instead just cuts straight to the improvs and compositional structures. In many ways, ‘In the Sky’, is more forward looking than many of the more celebrated Miles Davis albums that will follow it. The one drawback is the sound and production, the entire album just sounds a bit flat and grey, but that still can’t stifle the amazing creativity at work here.

as1978 The only release for Charles Mingus 'Debut "Blue Moods" is Miles Davis' second LP 12 "and was recorded on July 9, 1955 and released the same year. The style is Cool Jazz, which is a very relaxed and relaxing Jazz more pushed towards the listener than to demonstrate skills and complicated and, in some cases, incomprehensible solos, typical of other forms of Jazz. One of the things to note about "Blue Moods" is the fact that none of the musicians who join Miles Davis on this album are true Cool Jazz experts and, admittedly, this fact can hear it. In fact it is precisely this having to adapt to a genre that is not really that makes "Blue Moods" really explosive and that still makes it fresh and engaging today.

Musically "Blue Moods" consists of four tracks arranged by Teddy Charles (except "Alone Together" which is arranged by Charles Mingus, who also produces the album). As mentioned "Blue Moods" is made up of very relaxed compositions which are easy to listen to and which feature great work by the band and not by a soloist or group of soloists. I don't see it as a Miles Davis album but a band where Miles Davis is the head of operations.

"Blue Moods" is an album, therefore, also suitable for those who are not an expert in Jazz but are looking only for a relaxed and relaxing music and do not want the complexity of certain Jazz. And, because it is the truth, it would have in front of it an authentic masterpiece for how fresh and engaging it is still.