MILES DAVIS — A Tribute to Jack Johnson (review)

MILES DAVIS — A Tribute to Jack Johnson album cover

Album · 1971 · Jazz Related Soundtracks

3/5 · 2023-09-02
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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.