Miles Davis - Bitches Brew Live (2011)

La versión en vivo del disco que cambió la música para siempre. El rompe-cabezas por excelencia en su versión "natural", una de las máximas obras del dios flaco para que se les termine de reventar el moog que llevan sobre los hombros.

Artista: Miles Davis

Álbum: Bitches Brew Live
Año: 2011 (1969-1970)
Género: Jazz Rock, Fusión
Duración: 59:41
Nacionalidad: Estados Unidos

Lista de Temas:
Newport Jazz Festival, 5 de julio de 1969:
1. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
2. Sanctuary
3. It's About That Time/The Theme
Isle of Wight, 29 de agosto de 1970:
4. Directions
5. Bitches Brew
6. It's About That Time
7. Sanctuary
8. Spanish Key
9. The Theme

Alineación:
En Newport:
- Miles Davis / trompeta
- Chick Corea / piano eléctrico
- Dave Holland / bajo
- Jack DeJohnette / batería
En Isle of Wight, los mismos más:
- Gary Bartz / saxos alto y soprano
- Keith Jarrett / órgano
- Airto Moreira / percusiones

El jazz ha sucedido en vivo. Los discos de estudio son como hitos o señales que marcan momentos en los que se fija alguna de las ideas que en realidad surgen en el escenario: el jazz es improvisación que se cocina ante el público. Por eso, aunque las grabaciones de estudio tengan altas dosis de improvisación, esta, hecha ante micrófonos en cabina y con productores y agentes disqueros al otro lado del grueso cristal, no es la misma que la que se desarrolla ante una audiencia. Hace cerca de un año posteamos el Bitches Brew de Miles destacando que no hay floro, rollo, discurso o narrativa textual capaz de dar con la riqueza de ese disco. Así que aquí les dejamos este registro de dos conciertos entre 1969 y 1970 en los que Miles y su séquito de chamanes mostraron la riqueza de la poción mágica ante públicos que no se lo podían creer.

Bitches Brew Live compila parte de los registros de dos recitales en los que Miles llevó la obra básica de la fusión jazz/rock a las orejas de la gente reunida en sendos festivales, incluso antes de grabarla en el estudio (en el caso de Newport). Quién sabe cuánto influyó esta puesta en escena en lo que sería poco después Bitches Brew; yo creo que mucho. El contexto, según cuentan las notas del disco, era el de la primera vez que el festival de Newport incluía rock (Zeppelin, Zappa, Sly Stone, etc.), y a ese público le habló Miles en la ocasión, el público psicodélico y hippy, sediento de volumen y locura escénica. No quedaron defraudados. Miles fue a demostrar que en plena era del rock, el jazz no habría de morir, y que en plena era de "no confíes en nadie que tenga más de 30 años", este genio de 44 fue profeta.

El segundo registro, quizá más maduro, sí es posterior a la grabación en estudio de Bitches Brew. Se trata de la presentación de Miles en el festival de la isla de Wight en agosto de 1970, y en esa ocasión nos encontramos con el Miles eléctrico en la cúspide de su poder. En Newport la presentación es en cuarteto, porque cuenta la anécdota que el quinto miembro, el tremendo saxofonista Wayne Shorter, no llegó al concierto, se quedó atorado en el tráfico. Además de Miles, los miembros del cuarteto son nada menos que Chick Corea, Dave Holland y Jack DeJohnette, y no puedo quedarme en silencio ante las ganas de contarles que ese bajista y ese baterista han conformado durante años el trío fabuloso de Keith Jarrett, del que prometo traer discos al blog.

En Isle of Wight la actuación fue septeto: en lugar del Shorter que no llegó a Newport, el saxo queda en manos de Gary Bartz, un verdadero genio (escuchen "Directions" si lo quieren comprobar); Corea al piano eléctrico y la dupla Dejohnette-Holland en batería y bajo respectivamente, y para completar (agárrense la cabezademoog para que no les vuele), Airto Moreira en percusiones y el mismísimo gigante Keith Jarrett ante el Hammond (en uno de sus últimos aporreos de teclado enchufado, pues poco después se decidiría para siempre por el dios de los instrumentos musicales, el Steinway Grand Piano, que no necesita pilas). La producción, al igual que en la versión de estudio, es de Teo Macero.
 
Groove, improvisación libre, explosión eléctrica, ruptura de lo armónico y lo rítmico, jazz visionario, uno de los más altos logros en la historia de la cultura sobre este planeta y circunvecinos galácticos. Una remasterización de 2011 de dos presentaciones históricas del mejor Miles Davis, el de 1969-1970, cuando ya se había sacudido, afortunadamente, los clichés del cool y había hecho madurar la aproximación modal a la tonalidad.

En serio: cuando quieran saber qué rayos es una revolución, pongan este disco. (Como nota final, el gusto de compartir este discazo viene de que hace un par de semanas fue mi cumpleaños y este fue el regalo que me hicieron mis hijos, ¡nomás!)

Wikipedia dice:

Bitches Brew Live is a live album by Miles Davis. The album was released in February 2011, and contains material compiled from two concert performances. Most of the songs on the album originally appeared on Bitches Brew. The first three tracks were recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1969, nine months before release of Bitches Brew, while the rest of the album was recorded at 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. The three cuts from Newport -- "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," "Sanctuary," and "It's About That Time/The Theme"—are previously unreleased. This recording marks the first known time that "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" was professionally recorded. The final six cuts appeared on the box set Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection, but have not been widely circulated.
The band on the tracks recorded at Newport includes Davis, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. Wayne Shorter missed this date because of traffic into Newport, so the group performed as a quartet. The group for the Isle of Wight concert featured Davis, Corea, Holland, DeJohnette, saxophonist Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett on RMI Electronic Piano, and percussionist Airto Moreira.
AllMusic editor Thom Jurek deemed Bitches Brew Live "essential" for "Davis fans", writing that "it's inspired, full of surprise twists and turns, and showcases the artist at a high point of both creativity and energy." Jurek praised the band members' performances and wrote of Davis' playing, "Despite electricity and the beginning of the vamp style he would perfect later, his trademark lyricism as a soloist is ever present." David Fricke from Rolling Stone said, "Davis was moving – and documenting that motion – faster than most folks, rock or jazz, in that crowd realized." Andy Gill of The Independent commented that the concerts featured on the album "capture Davis on the cusp of creating another jazz revolution" and described its music as "jazz reconstituting after meltdown, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis: free-wheeling, edgy, unpredictable and coruscating, and about as hot as this legend of cool ever got."
Los Angeles Times writer Chris Barton remarked that "this album could be the choice for anyone who's heard all the (justified) hype and acclaim behind the jazz-meets-rock amalgam 'Bitches Brew' but hasn't been able to crack its dark and sometimes thorny code", adding that "Along with the six-disc 'Cellar Door Sessions 1970,' this recording beautifully showcases the fire-breathing power of Davis' band onstage." Despite noting "other documents—particularly Live at the Fillmore East—that’ll give you a similar, and perhaps better, experience", Matthew Fiander of PopMatters believed the 1969 concert set "shows the lean power under [Bitches Brew]'s hefty atmosphere" while calling the album "a document meant to show the evolution of Davis’s electric sound, and it does that well."

Thom Jurek de Allmusic:

Before looking into the musical quality on Bitches Brew Live, it's important to note for cost-conscious consumers that none of this material appeared on the Bitches Brew: 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition or the 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition. The material contained here is compiled from two concert performances. The first three tracks were taken from the Newport Jazz Festival in July of 1969, preceding the release of the album by nine months. The last six were recorded at 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, four months after the album hit store shelves. The three cuts from Newport -- "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," "Sanctuary," and "It's About That Time/The Theme" -- are previously unreleased. (In fact, "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" is the first professionally recorded version of the song, and this disc provides the first-known recording of the radically rearranged -- and electrified -- "Sanctuary.") The band on these tracks includes Davis, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette. Miles is firing on all cylinders on these tunes. Despite electricity and the beginning of the vamp style he would perfect later, his trademark lyricism as a soloist is ever present. Corea's pianism walks a beautiful line between physical comping and atmospheric harmonic counter statements on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down." The final six cuts did appear on the massive box set Complete Columbia Albums, but have not been widely circulated. The group for the Isle of Wight gig featured an expanded lineup that included saxophonist Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett on organ, and percussionist Airto Moreira, in addition to the players mentioned above. The fascinating thing about the 1970 band was its intensity and ambition. The versions of "Directions" and "Bitches Brew" are slightly more abstract; edgier, darker, more ambiguous. The reading of "Spanish Key" is downright funky thanks to the rhythm section. It also provides a fine showcase for Bartz's alto soloing, which is soulfully modal even when it makes conscious nods to Coltrane. One would think that because Davis was playing in front of different audiences, these two performances would contrast, or even clash. Not so; the music here feels continuous, of a piece. For Davis fans, Bitches Brew Live is essential: it's inspired, full of surprise twists and turns, and showcases the artist at a high point of both creativity and energy.

Gillian G. Gaar en Goldmine:

Miles Davis’ classic “Bitches Brew” album was just reissued last year with some nice bonus material. This new release features two live sets that draws on numbers from the album, both before and after its original release in April 1970.
Miles Davis Bitches Brew LiveThe first four numbers are from a previously unreleased 1969 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. The music of “Bitches Brew” was rooted in jazz, but had a decided rock edge that was also influenced by the psychedelic rock of the late ‘60s. This is immediately apparent in the wild vamping of the opening “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down,” as Davis and keyboardist Chick Corea try and out do each other on their respective instruments, with drummer Jack DeJohnette pushing the musicians on. The number segues naturally into the slower paced, dreamy “Sanctuary,” and “It’s About That Time/The Theme.” The latter is a nervy, hyped up number that has Davis and Corea jousting once again, Davis showing particular confidence in his solos.
The rest of the album is filled out by a set from the 1970 Isle of Wight festival, first released in its entirety as part of the 2009 set “Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection.” It’s a fine performance that stretches musical boundaries even further; a jazz/rock/funk/avant garde blend that constantly surprises. The set doesn’t end as much as implodes, Davis’ trumpet bowing out, leaving the other instruments to burn themselves out until there’s nothing left but a musical shimmering that has the audience cheering even before the final notes have died away.

Doug Collette en All About Jazz:

Bitches Brew Live documents Miles Davis, as he moved off the cusp of acoustic and electric jazz. The hour-long disc contains two live performances that constitute concert corollaries to the studio albums of their time, with which The Man With The Horn revolutionized modern jazz.
The three recordings from the Newport Jazz Festival in 1969 have the streamlined clarity of In A Silent Way (Columbia, 1969), in part because saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter missed the gig. There is none of the hypnotic languor of the aforementioned album, however, but rather a noticeably insistent pace to the quartet's playing set by the leader: Davis may have well been demonstrating some impatience as he was about to begin recording Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969) the very next month.
From that album comes a ten-minute version of "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," followed by an unusually truncated 'Sanctuary" and "It's About That Time"/"The Theme," the former of which segue reappears on the August 1970 set list from the Isle of Wight Festival, albeit offered in a much more densely arranged version. Miles-o-philes who may have felt cheated because a Tanglewood concert with this same lineup was only available in Bitches Brew 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition (Legacy, 2010) are vindicated here.
There's an even sharper edge to this music and, in actuality, multiple edges: Chick Corea isn't content just to play his electric piano, but uses devices on various occasions to create tones even harsher than the braying of the trumpet at certain intervals.
Still, there's no lack of dynamic contrast in the musicianship. Jack DeJohnette is as disciplined in his roiling rhythms as he is slowing down the pace and opening up space in the instrumental textures to allow Airto Moreira's integration. And, for his part, Davis carefully orchestrates the set so the ensemble navigates peaks of intensity equally skillfully at both high volume and low, particularly during "Spanish Key."
Given the plethora of concert recordings already available in similarly electrified style as Bitches Brew Live, only time will tell if it becomes a truly essential piece in the Miles Davis discography, despite the Newport recording having never seen official release (the Isle of Wight performance was only available in a heavily edited version prior to its inclusion in The Complete Columbia Album Collection in 2009). But the graphic design for the CD and accompanying booklet, from the handsome period photos to Michael Azerrad's astute essay, only adds class to the package.

Andy Gill en The Independent:

The two concerts featured on this album – from the Newport Jazz Festival in 1969 and the Isle Of Wight Festival a year later – capture Davis on the cusp of creating another jazz revolution.
Though largely performing the same material, the difference between the two shows is extraordinary – due partly to the expanded palette offered by the electric keyboards of Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, Gary Bartz's sax and Airto's fervid percussion, not forgetting Dave Holland's switch to electric bass. While inaudible at Newport, Holland's lines writhe funkily through the IOW set as Miles's trumpet hunts down new sounds. It's jazz reconstituting after meltdown, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis: free-wheeling, edgy, unpredictable and coruscating, and about as hot as this legend of cool ever got.

Stuart Nicholson en Jazz Wise:

Last year was the 40th Anniversary of Bitches Brew, prompting sumptuous re-issues that included a package that included a new vinyl pressing of the album and a double CD-plus-DVD set. Now add Bitches Brew Live whose contents include three previously unissued tracks from Davis’ appearance on 5 July 1969 at the Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI with just Davis, Corea, Holland and DeJohnette and Davis and the complete performance at the Isle of Wight in 1970.
The Newport tracks include – according to the liner notes – “the first professionally recorded live version of ‘Miles Runs the Voodoo Down’ (there are lo-fi audience recordings of the tune from clubs in New York during May and June 1969) and the first known recording of the revamped electric version of ‘Sanctuary’.” The remaining six tracks are from Davis’ 29 August 1970 appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival. These have previously been issued (and reissued) – the first time was in heavily edited form (some 17 minutes only) on the vinyl The First Great Rock Festivals of the Seventies: Isle of Wight/Atlanta Pop Festival released in August 1971.
The first official release of the complete concert (this album is the second) was as a part of Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection which was released in November 2009. Davis’ Isle of Wight Festival performance had also previously appeared on the superb DVD Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue which included the full 38-minute concert in both vision and sound. That said, this is essential Miles Davis, more so than the studio Bitches Brew since live performance provides jazz’s most vivid life studies. At the Isle of Wight the band was on fire – Corea and Jarrett were going for it, Bartz probably never played better on record than he did here, DeJohnette is at his imperious best and Davis is wholly in the moment – his playing on ‘Directions’ and ‘It’s About That Time’ riveting. With the possible exception of the Jack Johnson track ‘Right Off’ this is the best representation of Miles Davis’ electric period.

Matthew Fiander en Pop Matters:

Bitches Brew Live captures two performances—one nine months before the release of Bitches Brew, the other four months after the album came out. It’s a document meant to show the evolution of Davis’s electric sound, and it does that well. The set from July 1969, played at the Newport Jazz Festival (and available for the first time ever here), shows the lean power under the album’s hefty atmosphere. The disc opens with an incendiary take on “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down”, and never looks back from there. The quartet—Davis, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, and Wayne Shorter—knock these songs out with a frayed energy that almost feels like precision, even if each vamp is as unpredictable as the last. The 1970 set, from the Isle of Wight, adds Gary Bartz on sax and Airto Moriera on percussion, and you can feel the band stretch out with the new players. The power is still there, but the sound has more of that atmosphere, more rabbit holes to fall down into. There are hints of the more untethered sounds to come from Davis later in the 70’s, but this also sounds like Bitches Brew coming to live fruition. The band grew into the album’s space as a live outfit, and the results are pretty amazing—once they get to “Spanish Key”, even if you’re exhausted by all this intricate sound, it’s a funky shot in the arm. That said, this disc is still little more than a companion piece to the album itself, a curious look at how Davis translated those patchwork studio recordings to cohesive wholes on stage. And there are other documents—particularly Live at the Fillmore East—that’ll give you a similar, and perhaps better, experience. Still, just because this isn’t essential, doesn’t mean it isn’t a hell of a thing to listen to.

David Fricke en Rolling Stone:

On July 5, 1969, a month before he recorded his pioneering jazz-rock confrontation, Bitches Brew, Miles Davis previewed that convulsion at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. It was a fateful setting. Promoter George Wein had broadened the bill, booking Led Zeppelin, the Jeff Beck Group and Sly and the Family Stone alongside B.B. King, Herbie Hancock and Dave Brubeck. Oversized crowds – and a bum rush down the hill one night by kids without tickets – tested the festival's historic poise and the patience of the wealthy neighborhood. (Wein moved the festival to New York – and got out of booking heavy rock bands – after a riot at Newport in '71, during a Dionne Warwick performance. He wouldn't return for a decade.)
Davis appeared on the afternoon of the second day in 1969 – on a motley bill with John Mayall, Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, vibraphonist Gary Burton and trumpeter Ruby Braff – and played for only 24 minutes. But that set, just released as Bitches Brew Live (Columbia/Legacy) was a fantastic accident. Davis' saxophonist Wayne Shorter didn't make the the gig; he was stuck in traffic. So the leader went on with a quartet and stayed up front, firing silver gunbursts of trumpet over the stark power-jazz tumult of electric pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette. a rhythmic core of the larger band that would cut Bitches Brew in August. Davis did exactly what the title promised in "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," while Shorter missed playing on his own "Sanctuary". The show ended with Davis blowing high and hard over rough free-funk waters in "It's About That Time," recorded earlier that year for In a Silent Way. That album finally came out three weeks after Newport. Davis was moving – and documenting that motion – faster than most folks, rock or jazz, in that crowd realized.
The brevity of the Newport set leaves you wanting more – a lot more. But there is compensation. Bitches Brew Live includes Davis' full show from the 1970 Isle of Wight festival in Britain, with a bigger band (including percussionist Airto Moreira and pianist Keith Jarrett before he swore off electric keyboards) and more evolved fury. An edited medley from that performance first appeared on a 1971 Columbia triple LP of live festival recordings. When Davis' producer, Teo Macero, asked the trumpeter about a title for the track, Davis told Macero, "Call it anything.' So he did. It's the last cut on Side Six: "Call It Anything."

Chris Barton en Los Angeles Times:

The latest in a recent string of newly packaged music from jazz’s past, "Bitches Brew Live" combines only the second CD release of Miles Davis' 1970 performance at Isle of Wight (issued on DVD in 2004 and on recent complete catalog CD sets) and three previously unheard live tracks from the 1969 Newport Jazz Festival. Tempting stuff for Davis completists.
Given the music industry's ongoing addiction to reissues, jazz fans could be forgiven for suffering a bit of Davis fatigue. They recently have seen the release of two complete catalog sets, no less than eight boxed collections of album outtakes and, most recently, a sumptuous 40th anniversary edition of "Bitches Brew" similar to 2008's "Kind of Blue" collector's set -- and that doesn't even get into the many two-disc "Legacy Collections" out there. All in all, a pretty busy release schedule for a guy who's been dead almost 20 years.
The question is, does the average jazz fan need yet another Miles Davis set?
In a word, probably. In fact, this album could be the choice for anyone who's heard all the (justified) hype and acclaim behind the jazz-meets-rock amalgam "Bitches Brew" but hasn't been able to crack its dark and sometimes thorny code. Along with the six-disc "Cellar Door Sessions 1970," this recording beautifully showcases the fire-breathing power of Davis' band onstage.
Backed by an all-star band of Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette (weirdly, Wayne Shorter got stuck in traffic and missed this set), Davis' trumpet is a fluid, nimble presence on Newport's opener "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," which carries a more boisterous edge than the album's version recorded six weeks later. Holland can be tough to pick up here given that he was still on an acoustic bass, but his battery mate DeJohnette shines, playing off Corea's keyboard punches on the "In a Silent Way" track "It's About That Time" with the controlled fury of an oncoming train. The complete picture of "Bitches Brew" wasn't in place yet, but hearing Davis and his band open up the throttle in these early stages is often remarkable.
By the time the Isle of Wight set was recorded in August 1970, Davis' vision for merging jazz, rock and funk was in full bloom. Saxophonist Gary Bartz has taken over for the departed Shorter (whom you can hear on the 2001 live release from 1970, "It's About That Time") and the band has expanded to a six-piece with Keith Jarrett joining Corea as a second keyboardist and Airto Moreira adding percussive spikes and blurts.
The title track from "Bitches Brew," a tough sell for neophytes with its spaced-out trumpet flares on the 26-minute studio version, here reveals its heavy funk heart with Corea grinding out guitar-like tones from his keyboard over its economical 10 minutes. The swaggering groove of "Spanish Key" is highlighted by an unhinged solo from Bartz, and the duplicate takes on "Sanctuary" and "It's About That Time" hardly feel like the same song with the many new colors added by this lineup, underscoring the constant invention and reinvention of this period for Davis.
Certainly, it's easy to grow weary of all the reissues that have been scraped from the vaults over the years and targeted to deep-pocketed collectors. But when a single album documents a period this influential and sounds this good doing it, it's even easier to come back for more.

"Spanish Key" en Isle of Wight


"Bitches Brew" en Isle of Wight