Victor Svorinich - Listen to This: Miles Davis and Bitches Brew

Listen to This

University Press of Mississippi

Jackson

www.upress.state.ms.us

The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of American University Presses.

Frontis image on : Miles Davis, 1970s, courtesy of Photofest

Copyright 2015 by University Press of Mississippi

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

First printing 2015

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Svorinich, Victor, author.

Listen to this : Miles Davis and Bitches brew / Victor Svorinich.

pages cm. (American made music series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-62846-194-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-62846-195-4 (ebook) 1. Davis, Miles. 2. Davis, Miles. Bitches brew. 3. JazzHistory and criticism. 4. Jazz musiciansUnited States. 5. Popular musicUnited States19611970History and criticism. 6. Popular musicUnited States19711980History and criticism. I. Title.

ML419.D39S86 2015

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

For my father, Big Vic

Music is strange. Why does it change so frequently? Is it because my life is always changing? My life could never be an open book, so there are many secrets in my life. People dont understand mode, Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, electronics, etc., just like they dont understand us. But its ok, since they dont understand my music, they get surprised. Isnt it great that you can experience surprise through music?

Miles Davis (as told to Kiyoshi Koyama for the shelved liner notes to Agharta, 1975)

Almost everyone in my life has made this possible including my parents Vic and Nancy, my wife Anna, my aunt Debbie Biber, Les Kennedy, Lewis Porter, the crew at Columbia/Sony, the University Press of Mississippi, the photographers, and all the other contributors found throughout this book. THANK YOU

Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (Columbia GP-26)

Recorded: August 1921, 1969, Columbia Studio B, New York City.

Release Date (U.S.): March 30, 1970

Track Listing:

1. Co103313: Pharaohs Dance 20:04 (Josef Zawinul) Zawinul Music BMI

2. Co103745: Bitches Brew 26:58 (Miles Davis) East St. Louis Music/Jazz Horn BMI

3. Co103750: Spanish Key 17:31 (Miles Davis) East St. Louis Music/Jazz Horn BMI

4. Co102951: John McLaughlin 4:22 (Miles Davis) East St. Louis Music/Jazz Horn BMI

5. Co103747: Miles Runs the Voodoo Down 14:01 (Miles Davis) East St. Louis Music/Jazz Horn BMI

6. Co103746: Sanctuary 10:57 (Wayne Shorter) Miyako Music BMI

Personnel:

Miles Davis, trumpet

Charles (Don) Alias, drums

Harvey Brooks, Fender bass

Chick Corea, electric piano

Jack DeJohnette, drums

Dave Holland, bass

Bennie Maupin, bass clarinet

John McLaughlin, guitar

Jumma Santos (Jim Riley), percussion

Wayne Shorter, soprano sax

Lenny White, drums

Larry Young, electric piano

Joe Zawinul, electric piano

Additional personnel:

Produced by: Teo Macero

Engineers: Stan Tonkel (August 19, 21), Frank Laico (August 20),

Ray Moore

Cover painting: Mati Klarwein

Art director: John Berg

Original liner notes: Ralph Gleason

Many sources list the record release as April 1970. Discographer Peter Losin narrowed it down to the March 30 date.

Listen to This

I dont play rock. I play black.
Miles Davis, 1969

Between 1969 and 1975, Miles Davis went through the most productive period of his career. In no other seven-year span had he produced as many studio and live recordings. This was yet another period marked by the intense experimentation and innovation that was already a hallmark of his then thirty-year career. He was on a mission. The high-water mark of this expedition happened during three summer days in August of 69: the double album Bitches Brew. The backdrop: New York City in the late 1960s, Woodstock wrapping up two hours north the morning before, a group of some of the greatest musicians, and a whole lot of baggage.

Bitches Brew is a reflection of and response to what was happening at the time in Daviss life and everyone elses. It is a social commentary on African American culture during a very turbulent time in America, delivered by one of the most prominent voices in jazz. Between the civil rights movement, race riots, black militant movements, changes in the African American artistic culture, and weighty personal matters, Davis had much to draw and reflect upon. His previous work never had to contend with the kind of disillusionment, anger, and fear that dominated the late-sixties social landscape. Daviss record certainly has a sense of hostility and change. This music came at the end of the 1960s... after all the chaos, wrote Davis biographer Quincy Troupe. Bitches Brew summed up an era that was going out, with something new on the verge of coming in. This summation is neither mass-audience friendly nor a small-niche production. This commercially hyped and heavily produced album delivered social commentary on a grand scale by a consummate artist who explored the complexities of the issues of the times in a profound manner.

Miles Dewey Davis III was born on May 26, 1926, in Alton, Illinois, and moved to East St. Louis the following year. His father, a dentist, provided his son with an affluent upbringing. The family even owned a large farm in Arkansas where young Miles rode horses. Upon graduating high school in 1944, he moved to New York City to study music at Juilliard and carve a niche for himself. However, entranced with the fast, thriving bebop club scene, Davis soon dropped out of school in pursuit of a career on stage. Although Juilliard was a top music conservatory, Davis became bored and felt the program was too white and could never give him the education he could find on the streets. Shit, I could learn more in one session at Mintons [Playhouse] than it would take me two years to learn at Juilliard. He obsessively followed his hero Charlie Parker in hopes of playing with him and making the scene.

Gigging fanatically, Miles eventually made a name for himself and began cutting his own records. In the late forties he befriended composer/arranger Gil Evans and began work on the album