# Bitches Brew is a Favorite Album of Mine



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Along with Gould's Mozart, I find these recordings to both be stunningly unique and that's the appeal. I haven't found much other music that does it for me as much as these two.

I also love On the Corner and Big Fun!


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

IMO, *In A Silent Way* is Miles' best electric-era album. I do enjoy Bitches Brew and On the Corner, but there is nothing like the vibe of *In A Silent Way. *


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

prlj said:


> IMO, *In A Silent Way* is Miles' best electric-era album. I do enjoy Bitches Brew and On the Corner, but there is nothing like the vibe of *In A Silent Way. *


I like Silent Way, but to me it's not as creative.


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

You're looking for creativity, I'm looking for vibe. That's the hep thing about jazz...it's all there for everyone.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

You persuaded me to download Silent Way and A Tribute to Jack Johnson.


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

Captainnumber36 said:


> A Tribute to Jack Johnson.


How could I forget *Jack Johnson? *Fantastic album...

Thanks for causing me to revisit Electric Miles on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. 👍


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Do yo have the Legacy Edition , two hours of gorgeous music?


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

I dislike Bitches Brew with a passion. I love Miles Davis, one of my absolute favorite Jazz musicians, but he really loses me from about 1964 to 1980. I love his first quintet/sextet with Bill Evans, Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, and love his collaborations with Gil Evans. I actually like or love most of his 1980s partly electronic material (The Man with the Horn, Tutu, You’re Under Arrest)_._

His output from1964 to 1980 with his second quintet and the Bitches Brew era is to me frankly unpleasant. Too dissonant and weird for my taste.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Bitches Brew is just immense even allowing for the fact that it and In a Silent Way were products of both Miles and Teo Macero’s imaginations.😎


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## khoff999 (Oct 31, 2018)

_In a Silent Way_ and _Jack Johnson_ are my two favorite 'electric Miles' albums primarily because they are the albums where Miles does a lot of his hallmark melodic trumpet improvisations that characterized his career up to that point. On the other electric stuff, the trumpet is more of a sound effects device. Not that its a bad thing, but I always feel a loss that he doesn't really open up and play on many of these albums. Given that, I still like _Bitches Brew_ quite a bit and prefer it to _On the Corner_ because it has more diversity between calmness and intensity where the sameness of _On the Corner_ starts to bore me before the album is over. 

What I don't understand is the claim that _Bitches Brew_ is more 'inventive' than In a _Silent Way_. _Silent Way_ seems to me to be a bigger departure from what came before it than _BB_ is from _Silent Way_. 

If you want to hear some great free-form improvisational music that came out between those two albums, check out the Art Ensemble of Chicago's _People in Sorrow _(July 1969). Its not electric, but it has a stunning ambience that rivals' what Miles was doing at that point.


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## prlj (10 mo ago)

khoff999 said:


> What I don't understand is the claim that _Bitches Brew_ is more 'inventive' than In a _Silent Way_. _Silent Way_ seems to me to be a bigger departure from what came before it than _BB_ is from _Silent Way_.


Totally agree with this. _In A Silent Way_ was a game changer.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I think in the end I prefer Kind of Blue.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I think in the end I prefer Kind of Blue.












Now we are talking


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

IMO, elegance and emotional appeal are important in ideas/actions. Much like E=MC^2 or a beautiful meal. Simplicity that concretizes a lot with emotional appeal is genius!


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

The thing about Bitches Brew is that it just came out of nowhere. Back then you had to be able to actually find a record in a shop to buy it, so we had never come across any copies of Silent Way, so this record really blew our hair back. Been in my record collection since I was a teenager

I saw Miles in 1980 on his "Star People" tour. The band had John Scofield and Mike Stern. You could tell from the stage set up that we weren't going to be hearing any standards that night.

the thing I always respected about Miles was that he was always on the fore-front. Think about it....Dizzy Gillespie moves to piano so a young Miles can play with him and Charlie Parker, then Miles practically single handedly ushers in the cool jazz movement in the 50s, then he has the quintet with Wayne and Herbie in the 60s, and then....in the 70s he's doing this. 

For me its not so much his playing, but his vision


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## Bone (Jan 19, 2013)

haziz said:


> His output from1964 to 1980 with his second quintet and the Bitches Brew era is to me frankly unpleasant


uh, the second quintet is probably the greatest jazz group of any era, especially the live Plugged Nickel recordings.
Agree about bitches brew and early electronic stuff. Really enjoyed “Amandla” and Tutu.”


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## khoff999 (Oct 31, 2018)

Nate Miller said:


> The thing about Bitches Brew is that it just came out of nowhere. Back then you had to be able to actually find a record in a shop to buy it, so we had never come across any copies of Silent Way, so this record really blew our hair back. Been in my record collection since I was a teenager


 As a teenager in 1970 living only 30 miles from Manhattan, my situation was different. Every Miles album from Kind of Blue to In a Silent Way was readily available in record stores. On top of this my music friends and I were listening to many types of progressive / experimental music including Tony Williams Lifetime, the Don Ellis Orchestra, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Stockhausen, Hendrix's use of sound effects, and more. So rather than coming out of nowhere, Bitches Brew was just another stunning, highly inventive album that pushed the boundaries in the milieu of the era.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

There is nothing quite like Bitches Brew. Miles made loads of great albums, each inventive and new in its way, but BB is something else and, for me, one of the greatest albums ever.


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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

khoff999 said:


> As a teenager in 1970 living only 30 miles from Manhattan, my situation was different. Every Miles album from Kind of Blue to In a Silent Way was readily available in record stores. On top of this my music friends and I were listening to many types of progressive / experimental music including Tony Williams Lifetime, the Don Ellis Orchestra, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Stockhausen, Hendrix's use of sound effects, and more. So rather than coming out of nowhere, Bitches Brew was just another stunning, highly inventive album that pushed the boundaries in the milieu of the era.


you lucky, lucky *******


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## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

Personally I think Miles is one of the greatest musicians that ever lived, but I hold that opinion more for his cool era stuff than his later stuff. Bitches Brew is a good album, but I'm partial to Kind of Blue...Birth of Cool...58 sessions era Miles..


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## khoff999 (Oct 31, 2018)

BlackAdderLXX said:


> Personally I think Miles is one of the greatest musicians that ever lived, but I hold that opinion more for his cool era stuff than his later stuff. Bitches Brew is a good album, but I'm partial to Kind of Blue...Birth of Cool...58 sessions era Miles..


 Seeing as how Kind of Blue has sold over 5 million copies compared to Bitches Brew's 1 million plus, I think a lot of people probably agree with you.


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## BlackAdderLXX (Apr 18, 2020)

khoff999 said:


> Seeing as how Kind of Blue has sold over 5 million copies compared to Bitches Brew's 1 million plus, I think a lot of people probably agree with you.


I think I've seen at least a dozen lists with it as the #1 jazz album of all time. All I know is my jazz teacher turned me on to it when I was 20 and it has been at the very top of my favorite albums list ever since. That was over 30 years ago. 

Not crapping on Bitches Brew either. It's a good album and it's freeking Miles Davis. My taste in Jazz was always toward the more bebop old skool stuff. And the bluesy modal style of Kind of Blue just ticks all the boxes for me.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

BlackAdderLXX said:


> And the bluesy modal style of Kind of Blue just ticks all the boxes for me.


I just listened to Grant Green's "Idle Moments" today. Lovers of KoB should love this too.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'm enjoying a Byrd and Davis disc on this Thanksgiving evening!


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Not a fan of Jazz. I was in a jazz band to. I like music more precise. Not random notes.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

haziz said:


> I dislike Bitches Brew with a passion. I love Miles Davis, one of my absolute favorite Jazz musicians, but he really loses me from about 1964 to 1980. I love his first quintet/sextet with Bill Evans, Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, and love his collaborations with Gil Evans. I actually like or love most of his 1980s partly electronic material (The Man with the Horn, Tutu, You’re Under Arrest)_._
> 
> His output from1964 to 1980 with his second quintet and the Bitches Brew era is to me frankly unpleasant. Too dissonant and weird for my taste.


to me it's like you're taking out the best part of his career, especially the second quintet. But also Bitches brew, even if there was just Sanctuary on that album it would be a masterpiece.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

my favorite of the electric period in any case is Filles De Kilimanjaro, followed by Bitches brew.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> Not a fan of Jazz. I was in a jazz band to. I like music more precise. Not random notes.


It's music based on fear


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

norman bates said:


> It's music based on fear


Lots of improvisation. Not exacting. Which makes it different from Classical.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> Lots of improvisation. Not exacting. Which makes it different from Classical.


I thought you were doing an impression of the guys of your avatar


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)




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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Dark Magus and Live at the Philharmonic are terrific companions to Brew and Big Fun. Ife, in all it's versions, is a song I kinda seek out...


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> Not a fan of Jazz. I was in a jazz band to. I like music more precise. Not random notes.


Jazz improv does not consist of random notes. If that were true a monkey could play a solo. Many jazz pieces have composed melodies as anyone knows if they've listened to Ellington, Monk, Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, Bill Evans, etc.


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