In 1970, Miles Davis brought out his jazz-rock fusion album, Bitches Brew. It became Miles Davis’ first gold record. Now, 40 years later, we have this 40th Anniversary collection in two formats. The first format, the “Collector’s Edition,” includes 4 CDs, the original album on CD, and an audiophile vinyl pressing on 2 LPs. Also included are previously unissued material including extensive live performances of much of the same music including a DVD of the entire Copenhagen performance from November 4, 1969. More bonus material: a 48-page 12×12 book, memorabilia envelope, and large fold out poster.
Or, you can go with Bitches Brew in the Legacy Edition [2 CDs and a DVD]. Here are all the original material plus alternate takes and bonus cuts. A DVD of the Copenhagen performance is included. Bitches Brew is one of those seminal recordings. These editions are completely remastered and sound great!
Track Listings
Disc: 1
1. Pharaoh’s Dance
2. Bitches Brew
3. Spanish Key
4. John McLaughlin
Disc: 2
1. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
2. Sanctuary
3. Spanish Key (alternate take)
4. John McLaughlin (alternate take)
5. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (single)
6. Spanish Key (single)
7. Great Expectations (single)
8. Little Blue Frog (single)
Disc: 3
1. Directions (Copenhagen concert of 11/4/69)
2. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (Copenhagen concert of 11/4/69)
3. Bitches Brew (Copenhagen concert of 11/4/69)
4. Agitation (Copenhagen concert of 11/4/69)
5. I Fall In Love Too Easily (Copenhagen concert of 11/4/69)
6. Sanctuary (Copenhagen concert of 11/4/69)
7. It s About That Time (Copenhagen concert of 11/4/69)
8. The Theme (Copenhagen concert of 11/4/69)
I love this record! Would it really be considered “forgotten”? How sad!
It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years since BITCHES BREW was released, Deb. None of my students would be able to identify it or Miles Davis. So, for this generation and perhaps the generation before that, BITCHES BREW and Miles Davis are forgotten.
Hm. Maybe, George (students might surprise you). Even though Davis still ranks high on my pantheon of the worst people to have been widely influential artists, and BB wasn’t the first fusion album (as so many would like to natter), it was certainly a harbinger.
BITCHES BREW achieved iconic status as soon as it was released, Todd. But the decades have eroded its stature as well as Miles Davis’.
Love this record. I was a long-time fan of Miles but hated his electronic stuff. Then, in 2003, I bought the Essential collection. Still, I skipped over the electronic stuff. One day, while I was busy at work, listening to that CD, I forgot to skip ahead. The one major track on this collection, “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down,” played all the way through. Holy moley! I sat there, at my desk, entranced. I know what he was getting at. Immediately–I mean, that day at lunch–I went out and bought the Complete Bitches Brew boxed set. I have never looked back. Now, I mostly listen to his electronic music more so that his traditional jazz. While Bitches Brew is still magnificent, I am partial to Get Up With It and Jack Johnson.
From BB, my favorite track is “Spanish Key.”
Some of Miles Davis’ music is haunting, Scott. He never stopped innovating (which annoyed many of his fans who wanted him to just play the same jazz over and over). “Spanish Key” is great!
Sounds like way too much “special stuff you get to pay for” to me, I’ll take the straight original contents, which I just happen to have right here… um, well, it’s packed just now but you get the idea. I don’t need a DVD, album, multiple CD set, I really don’t, and I doubt anyone does. By the way, whether it sounds dumb or not, my favorite Davis album is still Kind of Blue.
I love KIND OF BLUE, Rick. Record companies have resort to this “mega-rerelease” strategy to rake in the dollars. Ardent fans will buy all that extra stuff. Like you, all I need is the music.
Cool. Just put a library hold on it.
And I put a library hold on THE BLACKADDER DVDs, Evan.
I love Bitches Brew and all Jazz music Miles. Miles Davis was constantly reinventing his music as a pioneer and trendsetter.
Miles Davis never stood still, Nate. None of his albums sound alike.
At least Rick still has some musical taste, if nobody else. Miles in the Sky was the harbinger of this crap trend, and Bitches the full realization. “Listen, listen, I’m pushing 50 and really wasted but I’m still cool and with it, honest!”
Yes, Art, plenty of jazz fans feel that way about BITCHES BREW. Yet, it opened up new audiences for Miles Davis’ music. I agree with you that his best work came earlier in his career.
IN A SILENT WAY was an earlier fusion-flavored album by the David group before this one. But while BIG FUN and much of the live fusion performance I’d seen of Davis, including in person around the turn of the ’90s, bored my ass off, I can still appreciate the better fusion work by his groups…it’s just that such offshoot projects as Weather Report did more and better. Much as I like KIND OF BLUE, and the album that it was based on, the George Russell Smalltet’s JAZZ WORKSHOP, even more. Davis was rarely a true innovator, so much as one of the cult-centers who seemed for some reason to gravitate to CBS Records, who could be credited with innovations, and certain promoted as their source.
As Art Scott points out, Todd, Miles Davis released BITCHES BREW as his career, wracked by drugs and diminishing skills. Maybe Miles wasn’t a true innovator, but he sure was restless. He changed his style like Cher changed clothes during a concert.
I think Bitches Brew contains everything that was going on in his life at the time of the recording. Its very chaotic and tribal, yet there is an underlying rhythm and method to its madness. It represents the times and the man.
I think you’re right, Nate. BITCHES BREW captured what was going on in Miles Davis’ life at that moment in time.
Davis was a junkie on and off, mostly on, from the years with Parker in his youth. Oh, I know all about the life of Davis…and it’s difficult not to hold it against his music. But he had so many good people willing to work with him…for a while. Return to Forever being another offshoot that did more with fusion.
Miles Davis and his career went into a death-spiral in the 1970s, Todd. The drugs didn’t help.
I heard Miles at Stanford during this phase. He still had the greatest rhythm section of the decade, maybe two or three decades: Hancock, Carter & Williams, plus Keith Jarrett on an electric piano/synthesizer, and I think an electric guitarist, plus Wayne Shorter (overrated but certainly a decent sax player). The set was the most colossal waste of top rank musical talent I’ve ever heard. If Miles hadn’t been fronting it, it would have (& should have) been booed off any stage on the planet. Worse for Miles, the other band on the bill was Duke Ellington & His Orchestra, which by then was without nearly all of his stalwart soloists, and despite which absolutely killed for an hour with superb music & playing. I suspect most of Miles’ musicians were wishing they were riding Duke’s bus instead of Miles’ pretentions.
And George, sometimes continually changing your act isn’t innovation, it’s just floundering around.
Miles Davis was moody and cantankerous, Art. As his album sales dwindled and his reputation suffered, Davis rolled the dice on BITCHES BREW. It brought him some new fans and an infusion of much needed cash. But his career was pretty much over by this point. Changing directions wouldn’t help him in the following decade of decline.
Miles Davis wasn’t just “moody and cantankerous,” George. He was a serial abuser of his female companions and actively used his cult-figure status to sabotage the careers, the livelihoods, of musicians he decided he didn’t like, and would then imitate in later years, only less impressively (much of his fusion echoes the early free jazz he disdained). He was an ass, to put it kindly, and he never lost his cult, could easily have been as rich as he could’ve wanted to be in his last years, and brought most if not all of any suffering he met upon himself, to a greater degree than almost anyone you could name. A spoiled brat who never grew up, and was continually indulged…pity he was as talented as he was, if never as much so as his cult would insist.
Everything you say is true, Todd. Miles Davis became more petty and vindictive as his career declined. The drugs didn’t help things. But, we have only to listen to his early work to see what talent he wasted.
So george is the guy who agrees on everything, with no input from his side. he started with : Some of Miles Davis’ music is haunting, Scott. He never stopped innovating (which annoyed many of his fans who wanted him to just play the same jazz over and over). “Spanish Key” is great
And surprisingly ended agreeing: He was an ass….A spoiled brat who never grew up, and was continually indulged…
Miles Davis evolved (or devolved, depending on your perspective), Majedelamine. It’s not illogical to agree with perspectives from different times of Davis’ career.