Bitches Brew

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Directions in Music - Miles Davis
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
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Disc One:

1. Pharoah’s Dance (20:05)
(Joe Zawinul)

2. Bitches Brew (26:58)
(Miles Davis)

Disc Two:

1. Spanish Key (17:32)
(Miles Davis)

2. John McLaughlin (4:22)
(Miles Davis)

3. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (14:01)
(Miles Davis)

4. Sanctuary (10:56)
(Wayne Shorter)

5. Feio* (11:49)
(Wayne Shorter)

*Bonus Track Not On Original LP
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Bitches Brew
John McLaughlin
Sanctuary:
COLUMBIA STUDIO B, NEW YORK CITY - AUGUST 19, 1969

Miles Davis - TRUMPET
Wayne Shorter - SOPRANO SAXOPHONE
Bennie Maupin - BASS CLARINET
Joe Zawinul - ELECTRIC PIANO - LEFT
Chick Corea - ELECTRIC PIANO - RIGHT
John McLaughlin - GUITAR
Dave Holland - BASS
Harvey Brooks - ELECTRIC BASS
Lenny White – DRUMS - LEFT
Jack DeJohnette – DRUMS - RIGHT
Don Alias - CONGAS
Jumma Santos (Jim Riley) - SHAKER

ON "JOHN MCLAUGHLIN" OMIT BROOKS
ON "SANCTUARY" OMIT MAUPIN, BROOKS AND WHITE
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Spanish Key
Pharaoh's Dance
COLUMBIA STUDIO B, NEW YORK CITY - AUGUST 21, 1969

Miles Davis - TRUMPET
Wayne Shorter - SOPRANO SAXOPHONE
Bennie Maupin - BASS CLARINET
Joe Zawinul - ELECTRIC PIANO - LEFT
Larry Young - ELECTRIC PIANO - CENTER
Chick Corea - ELECTRIC PIANO - RIGHT
John McLaughlin - GUITAR
Dave Holland - BASS
Harvey Brooks - ELECTRIC BASS
Lenny White – DRUMS - LEFT
Jack DeJohnette – DRUMS - RIGHT
Don Alias - CONGAS
Jumma Santos (Jim Riley) - SHAKER
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Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
COLUMBIA STUDIO B, NEW YORK CITY - AUGUST 20, 1969

Miles Davis - TRUMPET
Wayne Shorter - SOPRANO SAXOPHONE
Bennie Maupin - BASS CLARINET
Joe Zawinul - ELECTRIC PIANO - LEFT
Chick Corea - ELECTRIC PIANO - RIGHT
John McLaughlin - GUITAR
Dave Holland - ELECTRIC BASS
Harvey Brooks - ELECTRIC BASS
Don Alias – DRUMS - LEFT
Jack DeJohnette – DRUMS - RIGHT
Jumma Santos (Jim Riley) - CONGAS
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Feio
COLUMBIA STUDIO B, NEW YORK CITY - JANUARY 28, 1970

Miles Davis - TRUMPET
Wayne Shorter - SOPRANO SAXOPHONE
Bennie Maupin - BASS CLARINET
Joe Zawinul - ELECTRIC PIANO - LEFT
Chick Corea - ELECTRIC PIANO - RIGHT
John McLaughlin - GUITAR
Dave Holland - ELECTRIC BASS
Billy Cobham – DRUMS - LEFT
Jack DeJohnette – DRUMS - RIGHT
Airto Moreira - CUICA, PERCUSSION
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The following are Ralph J. Gleason’s Original LP Liner Notes.

there is so much to say about this music. i don't mean so much to explain about it because that's stupid, the music speaks for itself, what i mean is that so much flashes through my mind when i hear the tapes of this album that if i could i would write a novel about it full of life and scenes and people and blood and sweat and love.

and sometimes i think maybe what we need is to tell people that this is here because somehow in this plasticized world they have the automatic reflex that if something is labeled one way then that is all there is in it and we are always finding out to our surprise that there is more to blake or more to ginsberg or more to trane or more to stravinsky than whatever it was we thought was there in the first place.

so be it with the music we have called jazz and which i never knew what it was because it was so many different things to so many different people each apparently contradicting the other and one day i flashed that it was music.

that's all, and when it was great music it was great art and it didn't have anything at all to do with labels and who says mozart is by definition better than sonny rollins and to whom.

so lenny bruce said there is only what is and that's a pretty good basis for a start. this music is. this music is new. this music is new music and it hits me like an electric shock and the word "electric" is interesting because the music is to some degree electric music either by virtue of what you can do with tapes and by the process by which it is preserved on tape or by the use of electricity in the actual making of the sounds themselves.

electric music is the music of this culture and in the breaking away (not the breaking down) from previously assumed forms a new kind of music is emerging. the whole society is like that. the old forms are inadequate, not the old eternal verities but the old structures. and new music isn't new in that sense either, it is still creation which is life itself and it is only done in a new way with new materials.

so we have to reach out to the new world with new ideas and new forms and in music this has meant leaving the traditional forms of bars and scales, keys and chords and playing something else altogether which maybe you can't identify and classify yet but which you recognize when you hear it and which when it makes it, really makes it, it is the true artistic turn on.

sometimes it comes by accident. serendipity. with the ones who are truly valuable, the real artists, it comes because that is what they are here to do even if they can say as miles says of his music i don't know what it is, what is it? they make music like they make those poems and those pictures and the rest because if they do not they cannot sleep nor rest nor, really, live at all. this is how they live, the true ones, by making the art which is creation.

sometimes we are lucky enough to have one of these people like miles, like dylan, like duke, like lenny here in the same world at the same time we are and we can live this thing and feel it and love it and be moved by it and it is a wonderful and rare experience and we should be grateful for it.

i started to ask teo how the horn echo was made and then i thought how silly what difference does it make? and it doesn't make any difference what kind of brush picasso uses and if the art makes it we don't need to know and if the art doesn't make it knowing is the most useless thing in life.

look. miles changed the world. more than once. that's true you know. out of the cool was first. then when it all went wrong miles called all the children home with walkin'. he just got up there and blew it and put it on an lp and all over the world they stopped in their tracks when they heard it. they stopped what they were doing and they listened and it was never the same after that. just never the same.

it will never be the same again now, after in a silent way and after BITCHES BREW. listen to this. how can it ever be the same? i don't mean you can't listen to ben. how silly. we can always listen to ben play funny valentine, until the end of the world it will be beautiful and how can anything be more beautiful than hodges playing passion flower? he never made a mistake in 40 years. it's not more beautiful, just different. a new beauty. a different beauty. the other beauty is still beauty. this is new and right now it has the edge of newness and that snapping fire you sense when you go out there from the spaceship where nobody has ever been before.

what a thing to do! what a great thing to do. what an honest thing to do there in the studio to take what you know to be true, to hear it, use it and put it in the right place. when they are concerned only with the art that's when it really makes it. miles hears and what he hears he paints with. when he sees he hears, eyes are just an aid to hearing if you think of it that way. it's all in there, the beauty, the terror and the love, the sheer humanity of life in this incredible electric world which is so full of distortion that it can be beautiful and frightening in the same instant.

listen to this. this music will change the world like the cool and walkin' did and now that communication is faster and more complete it may change it more deeply and more quickly. what is so incredible about what miles does is whoever comes after him, whenever, wherever, they have to take him into consideration. they have to pass him to get in front. he laid it out there and you can't avoid it. it's not just the horn. it's a concept. it's a life support system for a whole world. and it's complete in itself like all the treasures have always been.

music is the greatest of the arts for me because it cuts through everything, needs no aids. it is ... it simply is. and in contemporary music miles defines the terms. that's all. it's his turf.

- ralph j. gleason
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Miles Davis: The Bitches Brew Sessions
By Bob Belden

Yes, the summer of 1969 will be remembered for many things: politics, space travel, warfare (at home and abroad), thick ugly glasses and hair tonic; in other words, transition. Everyone who lived that year felt and expressed the effects of that time in different ways. Even thirteen-year old kids had to make decisions.

Music (as a broad-based term) had a direct effect on the lives of young people in the United States in 1969. Music connected and communicated shared feelings and experiences between the creators of the music and listeners. By doing this, the boundaries that once had existed between creators and audiences began to disappear.

In 1969, the boundaries that jazz musicians had shackled themselves to were exploding. AABA form, head-solo-head, free jazz, and even progressive music were becoming cliche. The freshness and excitement of popular music and production were changing tastes in both the jazz and rock world. Soon, the pulse, intensity and color of both progressive jazz and rock music began to merge. Even though there were many groups exploring a mix of jazz and rock (or soul) from the jazz perspective (Jeremy Steig, Larry Coryell in the US and Graham Bond in the UK), the movement towards what would be called "jazz/rock" began to take shape. However, there were two groups, misunderstood in 1969, that wielded a major influence on Miles Davis.

The Cannonball Adderley Quintet (with Nat Adderley on cornet, Joe Zawinul on piano and Fender Rhodes electric piano, Walter Booker on bass and Roy McCurdy on drums) was already mixing jazz, rock and soul together (since 1967's 74 Miles Away), with great success, artistically and commercially. Cannonball kept up with musicians and audiences, and could put together club sets that went from samba to hard-bop to romantic ballads to funky groove to intense jazz. Cannon recorded many of Joe Zawinul's compositions, and many of the pieces took the group to faraway places and into deep musical water. "Directions," "Ndo Lima" and "Rumplestiltskin" laid a path to the next development in jazz. Miles caught the Quintet whenever he could. He was close to Cannonball, and would often consult with Cannon when he needed new musicians.

JOE ZAWINUL: "Miles was a great guy to hang out with. We didn't talk much about music ... we hardly ever talked about music. We'd hang out, go to the fights, many times actually. I'd sometimes go with him to the gym, and we'd stop in a Muslim place for some bean pies and all that … I was a friend until the day ... "

The other group was the Tony Williams Lifetime (John McLaughlin on guitar, Larry Young on organ and Tony Williams on drums). As with Cannonball's group, the Tony Williams Lifetime reflected its audience, a mix of progressive musicians and fans, and rock and roll musicians and fans. The group's debut recordings (the "Emergency" sessions) were clearly the most daring in jazz at the time. This group achieved a perfect match between jazz and rock, and stylistically, Lifetime created a unique, original sound and approach, with spiritual roots in Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis. How could Miles not notice these things "brewing" from the tributaries of his initial source. From a "sound" perspective, 1969 was a banner year for intensity; the rhythm tracks got heavier, the orchestrations denser.

Rock bands were touring constantly, the Motown revues were selling out and high record sales encouraged new venues to book these groups. It was very difficult for a progressive young group to "break in" to the jazz scene (from 1965-68, jazz was in the doldrums; jazz clubs were closing or shuttering during the weekdays). But places like the Fillmore Auditorium (first in San Francisco and later in New York) would stack two or three groups together, with different styles, and reputations could be made from one set. The "rock" festival was becoming commonplace and the college circuit was energized like never before.

In March of 1969, The Miles Davis Quintet was stable for the first time since 1965. Even though the 1965-68 quintet recorded exclusively together, the bass chair would change on some road trips. Miles worked when he wanted to during those years (excepting the April-November 1965 hip problems), but it seems that by the summer of 1969, the group was working non-stop. Perhaps Miles was getting a small foothold in newer venues. In New York, he had not played a "jazz club" since 1967. He was renting the Village Gate and doing his own shows. By early 1969, Tony Williams had left the band (after recording In A Silent Way in February).

The group was now Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. Chick was now playing the Fender Rhodes electric piano on a regular basis, and this had eliminated some of the uncertainties of acoustic pianos on the road. Better sound reinforcement (the kind that a band could travel with) was available, and this made the sound of the group that much bigger. They also traveled around in a Volkswagen mini-bus (a hippie-van). THIS WAS A BAND!

The group debuted (in March) in Rochester, New York at Duffy's Tavern. (A proposed tour of Japan in January with this quintet was cancelled at the last minute.) The repertoire of the group (according to "verite" recordings during this period) was starting to evolve from the "standards" approach into an all (or nearly all) original concept. At Duffy's, the group played "Gingerbread Boy" (from 1966), "Paraphernalia" (from 1968) and "No Blues" (from 1961), "Green Dolphin Street" (from 1958), "Footprints" (from 1966) and "So What" (from 1959). Soon after, a "verite" tape made at the Blue Coronet in Brooklyn indicates Chick had submitted a new tune ("This") into the book. "This" was eventually recorded by Chick on his Sundance LP.

From June 4th through the 14th, the Quintet appeared at the Plugged Nickel in Chicago. A set was recorded ("verite" style), and the music played was "Agitation" and "Gingerbread Boy" (1966), "Masqualero" (1967) and "Milestones" (1958). Larry Kart, writing for Down Beat, went to the Plugged Nickel and reviewed the band. In its entirety, the review is one of the most prescient appraisals of a modern jazz performance. Near the end of the review, Mr. Kart asserts that "with this version of the Miles Davis Quintet, one aspect of jazz has been brought to a degree of ripeness that has few parallels in the history of the music." He ends the review with a typical request from a critic, that "(Miles) Davis and Columbia (Records) decide to record the group in person." Sadly, this group did not record in person or in the studio in any formal way for Columbia Records.

In July, Miles began to bring new, original music into the band's repertoire. At the Newport Festival that month, "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down," "Sanctuary" and "It's About That Time" were performed and recorded by engineer Reese Hamel. Columbia obtained the tape. Unfortunately, Wayne had been caught in traffic and did not make the set. It's a rare quartet gig, but does not document the Quintet. A few days later in Central Park in New York City, the band performed "Spanish Key," "Sanctuary," " It's About That Time" and "Masqualero." This was captured on a "verite" recording.

At the Antibes Jazz Festival, ORTF (the French Radio service) captured the Miles Davis Quintet live, recording both shows (July 26 and 27). Miles and the group were now reshaping the idea of a "Miles Davis Concert" from the "standards"/club format to an original music/concert-oriented performance. The show on the 26th opened with Joe Zawinul's "Directions" (from a then-unreleased 1968 session), "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down" (unrecorded), "Milestones," "Footprints," "'Round About Midnight" (he and Monk shared the summer at the Village Gate during 1969), "It's About That Time" and "Sanctuary" (from a then-unreleased 1968 session). The second concert included "Spanish Key" (unrecorded), "I Fall In Love Too Easily" (released on GRP's Chick Corea box as "I Fall In Love So Easily"), "Masqualero," "Nefertiti" and "No Blues." The first show was released in 1995 as Juan-Les-Pins 1969 on Sony. The second show has never been issued (excepting the Corea box), but Columbia has the tapes.

The band was putting new tunes into the book. They focused on original material by Miles or Wayne Shorter from about 1965, and also began to open each show with Joe Zawinul's "Directions." It does seem odd that Miles would open his shows for three years with "Directions"; the original studio version was never released until 1980. Miles was breaking in new material on the road, fine tuning the routines and solo orders. The group was a group; they traveled like a 'Rock" band, they dressed like "rock musicians" (although at a much more elegant level), they played loud, and the sound of the band was in tune with the times.

There is a myth that Clive Davis (then president of CBS Records) "encouraged" Miles to "make a hit" and Bitches Brew was the result of that “encouragement." As you can follow, the music recorded on Bitches Brew was already in progress at least two months prior to the recording sessions. Miles Davis makes it clear that the music was his, the conception was his, and his was the success.
When the Quintet returned from Europe, they resumed work in the States, performing in Philadelphia (August 15) at the Spectrum, a large sports arena used by rock bands.

HARVEY BROOKS: "I was a staff producer at Columbia at the time and my office was next to Teo [Macero, Miles' producer]. Teo had gotten me together with Miles to do a demo with Miles' wife at the time (singer Betty Davis). So we went over to the studios over on 51st Street ... and Miles had John McLaughlin, Mitch Mitchell, Joe Zawinul, Larry Young, to name a few, to do this demo session. A the end of the session, Miles came up to me and said 'Hey Harvey ... I'm doing a session. You want to come do it?' I said, 'Yeah,' and reported for duty.”

Harvey also commented, "We did have on rehearsal, probably a week before the session. Joe Zawinul would play some lines for us on the piano and then we would watch Jack Johnson boxing films.” Three days of studio time were reserved at Columbia for Miles, August 19th through the 21st.

LENNY WHITE: "I played a gig in Queens with Rashid Ali, and one of the players on the gig was trumpet player named Dion. And I always used see Dion with Miles. And we played this gig and said, 'Man, I'm gonna tell Miles about you,' and I said, 'Yeah, fine, whatever.' But I had played with Jackie McLean, and everybody said 'Well, you know Tony played with Jackie McLean, and after he played with Jackie he went with Miles, and after Jack (DeJohnette) played with Jackie he went with Miles,' everybody was saying all that. And then I got a call from Dion, and Dion said, 'Miles wants you to come over to his (Miles') house and rehearse.' We just rehearsed one day, and then we went in and recorded. And all we rehearsed was sings 'dudul-dut, dudul-dut, dudul-dut, dudul-dut ... dahh-dat ... dahh-dal...') [the 'rubato' section of 'Bitches Brew']."

DON ALIAS: "I got a call from Tony Williams. I had known Tony from Boston since he was fifteen years old. We played in a band together with Chick Corea, and I was the bass player, and a conga player by the name of Bill Fish. He called me to do the date ... he called me and said 'Miles is doing a date. Come on down!' And when I walked into the studio and saw all those musicians, I knew something was going down."

"All those musicians" included Miles' current working band; Wayne Shorter (who concentrated on soprano sax only for these sessions), Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. Added to the session were three of the musicians who were on the Betty Mabry demo session: Joe Zawinul, who was Miles' musical partner at the time, and has been recording with Miles since November of 1961 Larry Young and John McLaughlin, who had been on the In A Silent Way session in February of 1969. There were some new faces added to the session; Jack DeJohnette had recommended Benny Maupin, whose bass clarinet gave Bitches Brew a unique, singular sound, and many of these musicians had never recorded or performed with Miles Davis. Miles' blend was about to brew!

AUGUST 19, 1969

DON ALIAS: "The session started at ten o'clock in the morning!"

The first title attempted was "Bitches Brew." As with Miles' sessions during this period, things would be recorded in segments, some complete, and some just rehearsals or false starts. "Bitches Brew" (as with the final version) IS made up of two basic sections, Part 2, the rubato section [A] (with the ominous C pedal) and the Part 1, the groove section [B]. The session reels (and track sheets) reveal a different basic compositional structure, with "Bitches Brew" having five parts. The groove section [B] was recorded first, and in the rehearsal, at the end of a cycle, the faint strains of what would become "John McLaughlin" bubble under the surface. Alter completing four sections of Part 1 [B], Part 2 [A] was done in two takes.

"John McLaughlin" is actually Parts 3 and 4 of "Bitches Brew"; Part 3 (the two takes were edited to make the master take of "John McLaughlin"), and Part 4, which is a semi-complete performance that features guitar, soprano, keyboard and trumpet solos. This was not included in the final released material. On the session reel, Part 5 is slated, but nothing is heard.

In 1963, Miles recorded "I Fall In Love Too Easily,' a classic love song composed by Jules Styne and Sammy Cahn, and this track made its way to the Seven Steps To Heaven album. Miles continued to play the song, and by 1969, he had removed much the actual melody from his performances. Part of is was due to the brilliance of his pianists (Herbie Hancock until 1968) and Chick Corea. Herbie and Chick could re-harmonize at will, and each version would be entirely different. In 1969, when Miles wanted to quiet things down, he would play "I Fall In Love Too Easily" as a duet with Chick. When “Sanctuary" was refined from the quiet February 1968 version to the operatic version recorded in August, Miles sensed a way of making the climax of "Sanctuary" more effective. Miles and Chick would duet (on the framework of "I Fall In Love Too Easily") and set up a period calm and then launch into Sanctuary," which would reach a boiling point. At the studio, this format was recorded twice, once with only the Quintet and Don Alias, and once with all of the others added (except Harvey Brooks and Jumma Santos). These two takes were edited together to make the LP master. The first take of "Sanctuary" is the closest Columbia got to recording the Quintet in the studio.

Near the end of the session (things had gone very smoothly), the group began to rehearse "Pharaoh's Dance." This rehearsal reveals much about the original intention of "Pharaoh's Dance." Composed by Joe Zawinul in two parts, Part 1 consisted of a five measure exposition, an eight measure section (on a B pedal), a transition measure into a four measure section (D pedal) ending the phrase with a twelve measure exposition section resolving back to the B pedal vamp. Part 2 consisted of the "rubato" section (C pedal) and the "finale" section (a return to the B pedal). They rehearsed the "melody" to Part 1, but no more.

The session ends with a brief but revealing rehearsal of Joe Zawinul's "Orange Lady." There are a few measures played at this rehearsal that do not end up on the master version recorded three months later (November 19, 1969), in which the form is changed by heavy editing.

JOE ZAWINUL: "Miles always liked my bass lines. Everything comes from the bass. He would always say 'Write me one of those bass lines ... '”

One major difference in sound was the presence of two drummers. Miles had tried this in 1968, but one of the drummers left the studio. Lenny and Jack seemed to hit it off well.

LENNY WHITE: "I had done it many times before. I'm from Jamaica, Queens, and we would get together at sessions and do stuff like that; that was nothing new to me. For me, I try to be a musician and bring something to the session. When you play in two-drum situations there's always an ego trip where one drummer tries to show that he's the 'same' drummer, or things like that...I'm into trying to play as musical as I can in any situation."

DON ALIAS: "Jim Riley (Jumma Santos) I had known in Boston. As a matter of fact, I got him the gig with Nina Simone, and we had been working with Nina Simone together, and happened to have been there at the time I got the call [from Tony Williams]. He begged me to take him to the session, and Miles saw him and said 'Why don't you play on one of these tracks.' I think he picked up a shaker and kind of 'sat in.'"

AUGUST 20, 1969

"Miles Runs The Voodoo Down" had been broken in by the Quintet during the summer of 1969. The "melody" is essentially an introductory phrase to cue the group, a piano transition phrase, and a little gesture from Miles to center the "feel" for solos. The solo section is over a G mixolydian mode. The Quintet had made this song a favorite, and "verite" recordings indicate the group was prepared to "nail" it in the studio.

But the additional musicians on these recording sessions changed things. The "concert" version that the group developed performing nightly might not make the transition to the studio. The session reel starts off with the "concert" version, with Miles playing the introductory phrase, Chick answering back with the transition phrase, and the band going into its normal groove. They rehearse this routine three times, with Miles stopping after his solo. Something wasn't clicking, and Miles wanted to get more out of the musicians to personalize this track.

DON ALIAS: "Practically all of the things that we did were first takes. We rarely had a second take on anything. When it came to 'Miles Runs The Voodoo Down,' he counted the tune off, and the way it was structured, and the way the rhythm felt, the syncopation, it was something that I felt comfortable with, even though I was playing percussion. So Miles counted it off. Lenny (White) and Jack (DeJohnette) were playing, and somehow things didn't jell. Both Lenny and Jack had this 'Tony Williams-sounding' drumset...an 18-inch bass drum with both heads on it, and Lenny's bass drum was a metal bass drum, converted from some kind of oil can ... but they had the same sounding drumset. I think Miles really wanted that Buddy Miles sound, he was just gettin' into the funk thing. But anyway, things just didn't jell. He counted off the second time, and it wasn't happening. I couldn't take it any longer. I had been practicing this drum rhythm I got while I was in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Up through my window while the parade was going by, I heard these drummers playing a beat. So at the session, I'm sitting there thinking 'I've got this perfect rhythm for this tune' ... I can't take it any longer, and Miles is about to count it off for the third time and I interrupted and said 'Miles, I've got this rhythm, and I think it would go with the tune.' So he said, 'Go over and play it.' I sat down and played it, and he said, 'Show Jack ... show Jack.' And it's one of those kinds of rhythms where you don't need any chops. It's not a chop thing. Jack couldn't get it, so Miles said to me, 'Just stay there' (on Lenny White's drumset). That's how I ended up being one of the drumset players on 'Miles Runs The Voodoo Down.'''

Harvey Brooks then was able to find a new bass line (incorporating the intention of the "original" bass line) and suddenly, the music took off. After recording the tune in sections, (trumpet and guitar; electric bass, soprano, guitar and trumpet; and electric piano solos), it was ready. The next take (number 9) was the master take and a continuous (unedited) performance, start to finish.

HARVEY BROOKS: "I'm a guy who played folk music, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, but I grew up with the feel. So I was able to ground the band."

LENNY WHITE: "I had been playing R&B music in Queens too, there was a sense of that...that was there. You know (Don) Alias had played R&B music too. There was a sense of that there. There was a situation where you could go off and do things ... there was a center. On a few things it got kind of just crazy. But there was always a center. It was a real fusion."

AUGUST 21, 1969

"Spanish Key" had been in the book since the summer, and the basic structure of Miles' composition was open enough so that this "expanded" group only enhanced the song. Based on five key center/modes (E altered-D altered-D phrygian-E phrygian and G mixolydian), "Spanish Key" is similar to "Flamenco Sketches" (from 1959's Kind Of Blue) not only in its title, but also for the use of scales/modes/key centers to be cued at the improviser's will. Again, Miles recorded the piece in segments (takes 2 and 3, which have some of the frenzy of the Quintet live) before making the master take (take 4) in one continuous performance.

Miles returned to "Pharaoh's Dance," which had presented itself with some difficulties at the August 19 session. Miles is heard at the session informing the producer that " ... we just did one section ... it ends with the drummer ... make a note of it 'cause you know when you look at it Saturday, it's gonna look funny .... " He then directs Teo's attention to a section "where the bass clarinet makes an entrance ... just put that down." With a composition as complex as "Pharaoh's Dance," Miles is clearly setting up the next level of production.

As they rehearsed (a lot of time was put into this composition), they compiled sections of the B pedal vamp. As the take sheet indicates, the goal was not to try for a continuous take, but to be able to assemble parts of parts into a whole.

When the musicians walked out of the studio that Friday afternoon, the next step was already being planned: post-production. The three days had yielded four complete, unedited performances (two takes of "Sanctuary," "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down" and "Spanish Key") and lots of parts to put together for "Bitches Brew" and "Pharaoh's Dance."

JACK DEJOHNETTE: "Bitches Brew is a process of having unlimited studio time to experiment and let the tapes roll. Miles directs certain aspects of the creative flow of the musical festivities taking place."

Part of the legend of Bitches Brew is for its state-of-the-art post-production

Not only was massive editing used, but reverb chambers, echo effects and tape looping distinguished both the title track and “Pharaoh's Dance." As the opening track, "Pharaoh’s Dance" is a tour-de-force in editing. Maybe it was a source of pride for Miles and his production team to lead off an important album with this "composite composition and performance." Needless to say, it's quite effective and proves its point.
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POST PRODUCTION
"PHARAOH'S DANCE" (19 edits)

PART 1
:10   Figure #1

LOOP A

:15   Vamp #1 -
+   :46   Figure #2
+   :56   Back to part b
+ 1:29
+ 1:39   Back to top

LOOP A-1
+ 1:51   B pedal –
+ 2:22

LOOP B

2:32   Miles enters –
2:54
+ 3:31 Miles reappears

CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE

5:40   Bennie Maupin bcl solo
+ 7:55   Vamp #1

LOOP

PART 2 - statement 1
+ 8:29   Part II intro
+ 8:42   Echo trumpet

LOOP

+ 8:44   Part II intro

LOOP

8:52   2-beat phrase –
+ 8:54   Four loops of phrase

LOOP

+ 8:59
Part 2-1 vamp/Miles solo

CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE

11:48   Wayne Shorter solo –
12:53   John McLaughlin solo -

PART 2 - statement 2

+15:18   Part 2-2 vamp

CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE

16:38   Miles enters w/ melody

20:02 ENDS
_______________________________________________________

"BITCHES BREW"

"Bitches Brew" was released with an interesting edit logic. The rubato section (part 2) was assembled to a length of 6:00 from two takes. Then, for reasons unknown, the back half (from 3:05 of the master take compilation) begins the performance. This "back half" ends into the groove section (Part 1). Harvey Brooks enters (with Miles snapping his fingers) and plays a 2-bar phrase (the bass figure). Bennie Maupin enters after those two measures and adds counterpoint to the electric bass. This bass clarinet phrase is then looped twice (four measures). After this loop, Harvey's entrance is repeated (two measures) and Bennie's counterpoint is looped 3 times (six measures). Then, the groove continues uninterrupted until 10:32, when a two-bar phrase is edited and looped to create the sensation of melody, a phrase that is "organized" by editing.

At 12:45, there is another edit (into Chick's little solo). At 13:30, another edit takes place (a slower version of the previous segment). The first half of Part 2 (rubato) appears (to 3:05) at 14:37. Part 1 continues from 17:22 (Dave Holland's acoustic bass solo) until 22:02, when another edit quiets things down for a brief Joe Zawinul electric piano solo (Chick camps behind Joe using his volume control). At 24:06, the "back half" of Part 2 (rubato) enters to end the piece.

HARVEY BROOKS: "Miles was recording like the way we would write songs. You know, you just jam until you find something and that becomes part of the song. He would have us play, and we would finish a section and he would say 'Go on, Go on!,' and we would keep playing. Miles knew what he wanted to do - he had a plan before he went into the studio. I heard him argue with Teo over where an edit should be when they were assembling the album."

The day after finishing these sessions, the Quintet was off to Chicago's Grant Park Theater for a concert (August 22). No rest for the weary. From September 9-21, the group performed at Shelly's Manne-Hole in Los Angeles. A writer for Variety noticed in his review of this group at Shelly's that "The set can be reasonably subdued - as subdued as most any such set ever is and it [the music] can open up and fall into the mindblowing category." The writer probably heard "Bitches Brew" performed that night.

At the end of October, the Quintet went to Europe. Since many of the festivals and concerts in Europe were subsidized by Government Radio or Television, there is a wealth of concert recordings of this group. Many were issued in the 1980's and '90's as the CD boom continued. These concerts show that Miles had a totally new repertoire and concert format. The music performed during this month-long tour included "Bitches Brew" (announced by its original title "Listen To This"), "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down," "I Fall In Love Too Easily/Sanctuary," and "Spanish Key," from the Bitches Brew sessions, "Directions," "Masqualero," "Nefertiti," "Agitation," "It's About That Time," “No Blues," "Riot," Chick Corea's "This," "Paraphernalia" as well as the staple '''Round About Midnight."

The concerts themselves were simply astounding. Two reports of Miles' Berlin Jazz Festival appearance and one from the Hammersmith in London demonstrate the effect these musicians had on sophisticated jazz reviewers. Regarding the Berlin concert (November 7) the Frankfurter Neue Press' uncredited reviewer announces "Then came Miles Davis with his new quintet. For the first time, this highly rated modern jazz musician got away from the bop idea of coupling trumpet and tenor saxophone. The electric piano provides the ideal fpr the wind instruments and determines the tonal colour. In this way Miles Davis and his saxophonist Wayne Shorter produced improvisations with a degree of maturity and melodic beauty which can have few parallels in the history of jazz." Strong words. Even more impressed was Down Beat's reviewer, who started off with, "I don't think Miles has rated a less than glowing review anywhere over the past year, but on this night he played like a god." Ronald Akins, also writing for Down Beat, said of Miles' London show, "This is the first time we'd heard Davis play in a style well in advance of anything he has recorded, and the impact he made was equalled in my experience only by John Coltrane .... "

Less than two weeks after the Quintet's triumphant return from Europe, Miles had them back in the studio, again with an expanded group.

JANUARY 28, 1970

The musicians assembled in Studio B. The first title recorded (on the first take) was an unreleased Wayne Shorter composition, "Feio." Based around the bass notes G, C and D, "Feio" is pure mood, music that has energy and motionlessness at the same time. It's amazing that "Feio" has been in the can for so long. The opening line is faintly reminiscent of Wayne's composition "Anna Maria," recorded in 1975 on his Native Dancer LP. There is a stillness to this phase of Miles' studio direction that contrasted the frenzy of his powerful, high-energy working group.

As studio technology became functional, the musicians could alter sound of an instrument by making the instrument louder, by using reverb and effects devices creatively. During the late Sixties, Miles and Wayne would have themselves recorded through an amplifier and have that sound mixed into the overall sound. Ring modulators, Echoplexes, fuzz boxes and Wah-Wah pedals now adorned the keyboards and guitar, and this brought a new, other-worldly sound into audience. By September, Dave Holland and Chick Corea were forming Circle and Michael Henderson joined the band permanently. The Miles Davis Sextet in October of 1970 was Gary Bartz, Keith Jarrett, Michael Henderson, Jack DeJohnette and Airto.

Jazz music was forever changed by the results of these sessions. As the Miles Davis Quintet evolved into a group without category, other important bands evolved out of these eight sessions (amazingly recorded over a span of less than seven months). Weather Report (Zawinul, Shorter and Moreira), Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band (Hancock and Maupin), John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra (John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham), Circle (Chick Corea and Dave Holland), Return To Forever (Chick Corea and Lenny White) and Stone Alliance (Don Alias and Steve Grossman) got their germination during these sessions.

What other figure in the jazz world other than Miles Davis could lay claim to such an incredible family? The musical legacy of these important musicians and their art will live beyond all of us.

- BOB BELDEN
EXCERPTED FROM THE LINER NOTES FOR MILES DAVIS: THE COMPLETE BITCHES BREW SESSIONS (C4K 65570), A DELUXE 4-CD BOX SET
_______________________________________________________

ORIGINAL RECORDINGS PRODUCED BY TEO MACERO

REISSUE PRODUCED BY Bob Belden AND Michael Cuscuna
PROJECT DIRECTOR: Seth Rothstein
RECORDING ENGINEERS: Frank Laico (NOVEMBER 19, 1969) AND Stan Tonkel

(ALL OTHER SESSIONS)
REMIX AND MASTERING ENGINEER: Mark Wilder
A&R COORDINATION: Patti Matheny AND Darren Salmieri
LEGACY A&R: Steve Berkowitz
PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE: John Jackson

ORIGINAL COVER PAINTING Mati Klarwein
REISSUE ART DIRECTION: Howard Fritzson
REISSUE DESIGN: Randall Martin
LINER PHOTOGRAPHY: Don Hunstein AND Jan Persson
PACKAGING MANAGER: Nicholas Bennett

COVER DESIGN: John Berg
_______________________________________________________

What are you going to listen to next?

For a more comprehensive look at this period of Miles' career, check out MILES DAVIS: THE COMPLETE BITCHES BREW SESSIONS (C4K 65570) - a deluxe 4-CD box set with a 148 page booklet and 19 previously unreleased selections

For a complete listing of titles from Legacy Recordings, please visit our online catalog at: www.sonymusic.com/labels/legacy/catalog
www.sonymusic.com
www.miles-davis.com

MILES ON COLUMBIA 58 SESSIONS (FEATURING "STELLA BY STARLIGHT") (CK/CT 47835)
A TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON (CK/CT 47036)
AGHARTA (C2K/C2T 46799)
AURA (CK/CTX 45332)
BALLADS (CK/CJT 44151)
BIRTH OF THE THIRD STREAM (CK 64929)
BLACK BEAUTY: MILES DAVIS LIVE AT FILLMORE WEST (C2K 65138) CIRCLE IN THE ROUND (C2K 46862)
COOKIN' AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL (CK 40645)
DARK MAGUS: LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL (C2K 65137)
DECOY (CK 38991)
ESP (CK 65683)
FILLES DE KILIMANJARO (CK/CT 46116)
IN A SILENT WAY (CK/CJT 40580)
IN PERSON: FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE BLACKHAWK (APRIL 21,1961) (CK 44257)
IN PERSON: SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE BLACKHAWK (APRIL 22, 1961) (CK 44425)
KIND OF BLUE (CK/CT 64935)
LIVE AT NEWPORT - 1958 & 1963 (WITH THELONIOUS MONK) (C2K 53585) LIVE - EVIL (C2K 65135)
MILES AHEAD (CK 65121)
MILES AND COLTRANE (W/JOHN COLTRANE) (CK/CJT 44052)
MILES DAVIS AT CARNEGIE HALL - THE COMPLETE CONCERT (C2K 65027) MILES DAVIS IN CONCERT: LIVE AT PHILHARMONIC HALL (C2K 65140)
MILES DAVIS LIVE AT FILLMORE: LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST (C2K 65139) MILES DAVIS QUINTET THE COMPLETE STUDIO RECS. (6-CD BOX) (C6K 67398)
MILES IN THE SKY (CK 65684)
MILES SMILES (CK 65682)
MILESTONES (CK/CJT 40837)
NEFERTITI (CK 65681)
ON THE CORNER (CK/CT 53579)
PANGAEA (C2K/C2T 46115)
PORGY AND BESS (CK 65141)
QUIET NIGHTS (CK 65293)
ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT (CK/CJT 40610)
SEVEN STEPS TO HEAVEN (CK 48827)
SKETCHES OF SPAIN (CK 65142)
SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME (CK 65919)
SORCERER (CK 65680)
THE BEST OF MILES DAVIS & GIL EVANS (CK 67425)
THE BEST OF THE MILES DAVIS OUINTET (1965-1968) (CK 65945)
THE COLUMBIA YEARS 1955-1985 (4-CD BOX) (C4K/C4T 45000)
THE COMPLETE CONCERT (1964) (C2K/C2T 48821)
THE COMPLETE LIVE AT THE PLUGGED NICKEL (1965) (7-CD BOX) (CXK 66955)
THE COMPLETE BITCHES BREW SESSIONS (8/69-2/70) (4-CD BOX) (C4K 65570) THE ESSENCE OF MILES DAVIS CK/CT 47932)
THE MAN WITH THE HORN (CK/PCT 36790)
THIS IS JAZZ #22: MILES DAVIS PLAYS BALLADS (CK 65038)
THIS IS JAZZ #8-ACOUSTIC (CK 64616)
THIS IS JAZZ #38-ELECTRIC (CK 65449)
YOU RE UNDER ARREST (CK/PCT 40023)