Bitches Brew - Miles Davis

Bitches Brew is an album by Miles Davis. Released in 1970. Genres: Jazz. This page includes the complete tracklist of 7 tracks. Genre tags. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Discogs.

Artist: Miles Davis
Release Year: 1970
Format: Album
Tracks: 7

Album Genres

Jazz

Apple Music Spotify Discogs

Bitches Brew · Review

When this album appeared in 1970, the jazz world split in two. Some thought Miles Davis had gone mad; others felt he had finally said what they had been waiting to hear.

On this double album, Miles abandons traditional jazz swing and harmonic frameworks. There is no statement of a theme, no taking turns to solo, and no standard head-solo-head structure. Instead, there is an unbroken musical fabric: electric piano, electric bass, three drum kits, two basses, and several horns weave together like a ninety-minute ritual. Miles’s trumpet appears and disappears within the electric texture, less a lead voice than an oracle that visits from time to time.

At first, “Pharaoh’s Dance” can leave you wondering who is leading and where the rhythm is. Then you stop asking, because you realize you have already been pulled into the whirlpool. John McLaughlin’s electric guitar slides like a snake; Bennie Maupin’s bass clarinet speaks from underground; Lenny White and Jack DeJohnette layer percussion until the drummer’s usual role of keeping time is completely dismantled.

The album’s most fascinating feature may be how it was made. Teo Macero cut up hours of improvised tape, collaged the pieces, and reassembled them through tape editing. In a sense, the real instruments on this record are neither trumpet nor piano, but scissors and tape. In the editing room, Macero and Miles created a kind of space jazz had never known: echoes, repetitions, and sudden breaks.

Do not expect to like it on the first listen. Most people find it restless during the first three plays. One day, though, it will meet you at the right moment: late at night, on a long drive, or when silence needs music that refuses to please anyone. Then you will understand why this album changed music history.

Tracklist

1 Pharaoh's Dance (feat. Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland & Harvey Brooks) 20:04
2 Bitches Brew (feat. Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland & Harvey Brooks) 26:59
3 Spanish Key (feat. Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland & Harvey Brooks) 17:32
4 John McLaughlin (feat. Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland & Harvey Brooks) 4:22
5 Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (feat. Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland & Harvey Brooks) 14:01
6 Sanctuary (feat. Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland & Harvey Brooks) 10:56
7 Feio (feat. Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul & Dave Holland) 11:49