MILES DAVIS — The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (review)

MILES DAVIS — The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions album cover Boxset / Compilation · 1998 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Slartibartfast
An album which probably needs no introduction for most older jazz fans.

This box set entered my collection around the time of the 30th anniversary of the recording sessions. I didn't get to know this album in it's original release format. By that time I had barely gotten to know the music of Miles but had been well acquainted with the work that many of the artists present in these sessions had gone on to make later- Corea, McLaughlin, DeJohnette, White, Shorter, and Zawinul, in particular.

The danger of getting a complete sessions set of Davis' music is that you will get tracks that show up on other albums in the same version. This one overlaps with Big Fun. But what fun sprawling four CD box set this one is. About a third of the material is "newly discovered".

If you can judge a book by its cover, this one's got a thick silk covered outer sleeve which contains a slide out hard back book with a metallic blue spine. The book is 148 thick pages on the album and the sessions and includes, remembering Miles by Carlos Santana,an introduction by Michael Cucuna, an overview essay by Quincey Troupe (the co-author of Miles' autobiography - a must read if you haven't), and session-by-session analysis by Bob Belden. A nice mixture of reminiscences and the original liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason. Of course the most important component: four sleeves containing four discs of music.

For those writing looking back, the album brings back the era. For me the music is untethered to that period and has a timeless quality to it.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Taylor Ho Bynum, Jacqueline Kerrod : Simple Ways Such Self Jazz Related Improv/Composition
TAYLOR HO BYNUM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sanyas Hard Bop
STEVE TURRE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Pianohooligan : Critique of Swing in Two Parts, Pts. 1 & 2 Third Stream
PIOTR ORZECHOWSKI (PIANOHOOLIGAN)
Buy this album from MMA partners
Jason Stein, Marilyn Crispell, Damon Smith, Adam Shead : Spi​-​raling Horn Avant-Garde Jazz
JASON STEIN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Utopia Jazz Related Improv/Composition
OLIVER LUTZ
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Stablemates
RON BLAKE
js· 22 hours ago
Critique of Swing in Two Parts, Pt. 1
PIOTR ORZECHOWSKI (PIANOHOOLIGAN)
js· 1 day ago
FULL ALBUM - Oliver Lutz - Utopia w/ Leif Berger, Constantin Krahmer
OLIVER LUTZ
js· 2 days ago
Lift
DAVE WILSON (US/NZ)
js· 4 days ago
Nature is a Mother
CHARLIE PYNE
js· 4 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed