MILES DAVIS. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN MICK TAYLOR... Reviews of EPs, broken stereotypes, imaginative ethics and crazy psychedelic album covers. Take a look inside the heads of these incredibly innovative musicians.
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KEEPING IT TIGHT WITH MILES DAVIS & BITCHES BREW
HIGH SQ MARKS FOR BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S LP HIGH HOPES
WHY I OWE MICK TAYLOR AN APOLOGY
JUST A REMINDER
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KEEPING IT TIGHT WITH
MILES DAVIS & BITCHES BREW BY KEN SWAUGER
KEEPING IT TIGHT WITH
MILES DAVIS & BITCHES BREW BY KEN SWAUGER
DEVELOPING AN INTEREST IN JAZZ can be very rewarding but knowing what artists to seek out can be somewhat bewildering. One way to avoid this problem is to begin with a single acknowledged masterwork and then use it as a stepping-stone to widen your Jazz horizons and collection. A great example is the Miles Davis studio double album Bitches Brew released in the spring of 1970. In his autobiography Miles said he was worried his audience-drawing ability was on the wane; that he was no longer completely filling the larger performance venues. His record label, Columbia, was reluctant to advance him large sums of money for future projects. In response he said, “…I wasn’t prepared to be a memory yet”. Miles had seen what had happened at Woodstock and believed he could appeal to a younger audience if he made a few changes. He said, “I had seen the way to the future with my music and I was going for it like I had always done”. Miles formed a new band with talented young jazz musicians, toured with this group throughout 1968, and began working on Bitches Brew in August of the next year. Davis’ concept was to inject rock-style rhythm and urgency into jazz improvisation. The composition of the group was different from jazz traditions as well. There were two electric pianists, two bassists (one electric and one acoustic double bass), and two, sometimes three drummers. Typical of the way he worked with musicians Miles only gave them the mood he was aiming for, the tempo, a few chords and snippets of melody. He expected them to improvise from that vague starting point and most of all pay close attention to one another. On one point in the recording you can hear Miles extoll, “Keep it tight!”
The complexity of the Bitches Brew album cover is believed to capture the multi-layered and tangled understandings of jazz fusion and particularly Bitches Brew. For many, the sounds and images of Bitches Brew were intrinsically linked to the political climate, and specifically the racial climate of the early 70s. The cover’s decidedly Afro-centric and psychedelic undertones reverberated within both the Black Power movement and the progressive counterculture of the early 70s, but for different reasons.
BITCHES BREW IS CREDITED WITH STARTING A NEW GENRE OF POPULAR MUSIC: “FUSION”. FUSION MELDED THE IMPROVISATIONAL FRESHNESS AND CREATIVITY OF JAZZ WITH THE YOUTHFUL, DRIVING FIERCENESS OF ROCK AND ROLL.
The result, Bitches Brew, is credited with starting a new genre of popular music: “Jazz-Rock Fusion” or simply “Fusion”. An amalgamation of the strengths of both musical types, Fusion melded the improvisational freshness and creativity of jazz with the youthful, driving fierceness of rock and roll. Bitches Brew was the template for jazz into the 70’s and 80’s. The record won a Grammy in 1971 for best large jazz ensemble and is ranked number 95 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 500 greatest albums of all time. Once you’ve listened to Bitches Brew you can use it as a foundation to discover additional worthwhile recordings by the individual band members. The soprano sax player is Wayne Shorter and he and Joe Zawinul (the electric piano player heard from the left audio channel on the recording) formed a group called Weather Report, who became one of the most successful fusion groups. Listen to their album Heavy Weather not only for Shorter and Zawinul’s compositional wizardry but also for the virtuoso bass playing by Jaco Pastorius. Next is Chick Corea (the keyboard player coming from the right audio channel on Bitches Brew) and listen to his recording Return to Forever, a Latin influenced jazz masterpiece that features vocalist Flora Purim and bass player Stanley Clarke. Another Bitches Brew alumnus is British electric guitarist John McLaughlin. His fast playing speed and exotic harmony sensibility added a glimpse of what the future would be for the electric guitar. His groundbreaking album Birds of Fire should be next on your list. Fellow English musician Dave Holland plays the double bass on the Miles recording and his near perfect tone and precise timing add a rock-solid foundation. His record Conference of the Birds is a prime example of his skills. Rounding out the rhythm section are the drummers Jack DeJohnette (heard from the right audio channel) and Billy Cobham (the left audio channel). DeJohnette’s recording Album Album is a fine example of his drumming and band-leading ability. Billy Cobham’s incredible power and precision can be heard on both Crosswinds and Spectrum the later recording has rock guitarist Tommy Bolin (T-Rex) playing on it as well. Now that you’ve heard what each of the major performers created go back and listen to the amazing talent captured on Bitches Brew and how skillfully Miles Davis reinvented himself and gave the world a completely new musical expression to enjoy. Bitches Brew is available as 180-gram audiophile vinyl, Hybrid SACD, CD and MP3 formats.Weather Report's Heavy Weather can be found as 180-gram audiophile vinyl (45rpm), SACD, CD and MP3 formats.Chick Corea's Return to Forever is available as 180-gram audiophile vinyl, SACD, CD and MP3 formats.John McLaughlin's Birds of Fire is found in 180-gram audiophile vinyl, CD and MP3 formats.Dave Holland's Conference of the Birds is available in CD and MP3 formats.Album Album is available in CD and MP3 formatsBilly Cobham's Crosswinds can be found in CD and MP3 formats.Billy Cobham's Spectrum is available as 180-gram audiophile vinyl, CD and MP3 formats.
HIGH SQ MARKS FOR BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S LP
HIGH HOPES By Mike Mettler
Could there be a more apt title for an album in this day and age than High Hopes? While there are those who continue to loudly (and, well, annoyingly) ring the death knell for the long-player concept, Bruce Springsteen once again proves the viability of the format by making every song count on his 18th studio (ahem) album.
Sonically speaking, Springsteen and co-producer Ron Aniello open up the High Hopes soundstage on CD by exploring the boundaries of the stereo field with their bold placements of a wide variety of instruments – including cello, pedal-steel guitar, and Uilleann pipes – alongside generous dollops of loops and beats. This expands on the approach the duo took with their let-it-breathe production style for 2012’s Wrecking Ball. Both Hopes and Ball are much better demo discs than Springsteen’s recent works with another producer, Brendan O’Brien, whose mixes for Magic (2007) and Working on a Dream (2009) were both overly bright and too dense to let the nuances of most of their tracks shine. If you want to demo the range of what a sound system has to offer, the following three highlighted Hopes tracks will best help you do so: For stereo separation: “High Hopes,” the title track, opens with a Nine Inch Nails-like loop before Springsteen’s main foil, the ever-adventurous and innovative guitarist Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave), joins the song with his signature saddle-squall tone. Acoustic guitar takes root in the left channel while Charlie Giordano’s accordion stays centered during the chorus. And Morello’s squealing guitar solo dances quite nicely around the horn lines, supporting the intent of the arrangement rather than overpowering it.
"THE THING WITH BRUCE IS THAT HE ACCEPTS HIS INSPIRATION WITHOUT QUESTION, HE DOESN'T ANALYZE IT. BUT WHEN IT COMES TIME TO ANALYZE, THAT'S WHEN HE TURNS THE SCREWS ON EVERYTHING. THEN HE'LL GO BACK AND FORTH WITH SEQUENCES FOR MONTHS AND MONTHS UNTIL HE GETS IT EXACTLY WHERE HE WANTS IT. I DON'T SEE THAT IN ANY OTHER ARTIST THAT I WORK WITH.” -RON ANIELLO, HIGH HOPES CO-PRODUCER For production quality and detail: “American Skin (41 Shots),” a longtime livewire E Street live staple, opens in a foreboding manner, with Bruce’s repetition of the phrase “41 Shots” embedded in a vacuum in the right channel before his stark lead vocal moves front and center. A brief vocal echo at 5:30 recalls vintage ’70s Bruce production values, and Morello takes a page from longtime E Street guitar wiz Nils Lofgren for his guns-a-blazing soloing choices. For musician interplay and overall dynamic range: “The Ghost of Tom Joad” is a 7½-minute barnburner that follows the aggressive live version put forth by the E Street Band over the past decade more than the template of Bruce’s stark acoustic take on what was originally the title track for his folk-centric 1995 solo album. From the outset, a wall of metallic chords leads into a fine mesh of Soozie Tyrell’s violin and Giordano’s accordion. Bruce’s world-weary vocals grab the initial lead, then Morello takes over the singing before the pair share in some great harmonies. Guitar solos duel in each channel in the middle section before Morello goes into a frenzious, ping-pong-across-the-channels mode. Note Max Weinberg’s cymbal crashes throughout the onslaught, which resonate true and clear in the mix. High Hopes (Columbia) is available on CD (44.1 kHz/16-bit), LP (180-gram vinyl), and digital download (44.1 kHz/24-bit on HDtracks.com).
WHY I OWE
MICK TAYLOR AN APOLOGY BY DANIEL KUMIN
I WAS TRAINED AS A
“SERIOUS” MUSICIAN. Yet across all those years of contemporary-classical composition and theory, and then, later, writing about AV and technology, I’ve always led a double life, playing guitar in one or another blues, blues-rock, folk-rock, or some other compound-genre band. And like a lot of guitar players, I always quietly sneered, a bit, at Mick Taylor, the British wunderkind conscripted into the Rolling Stones in 1969 following Brian Jones’ watery death. Sure, his work on Exile on Main Street was exemplary, and his chops self-evident, but his oddly four-square, self-contained, almost fussy playing never lit my bulb. Then I discovered Wolfgang’s Vault (www.wolfgangsvault.com), an online keyhole into a vast archive of recorded rock and roll. The site is a bottomless well of live recordings (many but by no means all no-fi sound-board tapes) amassed by Bill Graham’s many enterprises over the years, all now available for online streaming for a nominal subscription. If you care about the music, you need to sign up. And amongst all this wealth, one evening, I found myself listening – mesmerized – to the Stones’ famous Forest National small-arena date (Brussels, Belgium, Aug 17, 1973): Keith’s on the right; Mick Taylor left-center. And Taylor’s playing is just about as I’d always heard it: careful, clean, contained, un-swinging, un-shuffling, rhythmically unadventurous, almost academic. But listen closer. He weaves, effortlessly, seamlessly, brilliantly, with Keith; with Mick; with Charlie’n’Bill. Never “soloing”; almost-in-the-background, rarely soaring or stepping forward, but contributing an amazing tapestry, a vibrating, breathing pattern that raises the music up. Up, until as the set reaches the incendiary, closing medley (“Rip This Joint”/Jumpin’ Jack Flash”/”Street Fighting Man”), it reaches a place that transcends the dumb, dope-fuelled delivery of expected spectacle it would otherwise have been. Now, I’m pretty sure Keith wasn’t putting much conscious effort into sensitive musicianship – in those days the simple fact that he remained upright and played (mostly) in the correct keys was a small nightly miracle. And we can assume that Jagger had his hands full doing his thing; the Stones follow Jagger. Period. But Taylor is listening, really listening, and reacting, or more accurately, anticipating every note, every accent, every stop. Everything he plays, whether on slide or frets, elevates the proceedings, from the opening of “Brown Sugar” to the encore’s rave-up. It’s a miracle of rock’n’roll guitar (in an interview Taylor once said he recognizes no difference between “lead” and “rhythm” playing, a view I strongly endorse), and better still, as song follows song you can clearly hear Keith raising his game till by the crazed medley ending the set they are transcending their instruments, their fingers, their very selves, approaching that purity for which the best jazz players and -- very, very rarely -- the best rock players, strive. So, Mick T.: my apologies. You knew exactly what you were doing, all those years ago. And thanks to you, for a brief season the Rolling Stones really were The World’s Greatest Rock’n’Roll Band.
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