Re-discovered this last night, been looping it all day at work...
Re-discovered this last night, been looping it all day at work...
Nothing is anything until it is written. After that, it's everything.
Patty Griffin - American Kid
A neighbor thinks he's being cute leaving his car stereo on and blaring crappy dance music while the car sits in his driveway and he does something inside. He's about to learn I have a much louder stereo (with at least one speaker right near a now open window) and an affinity for extremely loud punk jazz bands.
NP:
I had a chance to spend some more time with it in the car today and listening to it again now. Though I'm not the least bit surprised to be completely in love with a Ribot album, this one is really exactly what I was looking for from this particular project.
The first Ceramic Dog album (Party Intellectuals) was very enjoyable and I still listen to it pretty regularly, but when in the mood for that band I've tended to gravitate towards the live recordings I have.
Your Turn is far more representative of what Ceramic Dog sounds like live.
The Law of Gravity is nonsense. No such law exists. If I think I float, and you think I float, then it happens.
Master Guitar Academy - I also teach via SKYPE.
Definitely a killer. This box set has some really amazing jams. This was one bad mother of a funk-rock outfit. Perhaps not quite as funky as the mid 70s band with Pete Cosey & Reggie Lucas on guitar but still.
It's as straight-ahead rock as Miles got in his electric period.
A lot of jazz critics at the time bemoaned Bitches Brew as a "sellout" commercial album because he used rock backing musicians and instruments, but much as I love that album, there's nothing commercial about it. It's rewarding but challenging listening.
A Tribute to Jack Johnson on the other hand is flat out rock.
Maybe it's not made for radio with it's two tracks clocking in at over 20 minutes apiece but if classic rock radio fans were willing to endure 10 minutes of "I'm Your Captain" then I doubt 20 minutes of John McLaughlin or Sonny Sharrock playing ridiculously cool guitar at them was going to hurt anyone.
All I know is that I've played it for many a friend that loves rock but didn't really love jazz and they love it.
"This isn't jazz," they always say.
Then I wonder when I ever told them it was.
PS. No offense but once again I'm reminded how ridiculous the built-in editor for this forum can be. It's the name of one of Miles' most famous albums, not to mention having definitions that are not "naughty." I think it's preposterous that it has to be asterisked. I know this is not Robert's fault. I just felt I had to say it because seeing the name of one of the most famous albums of all time edited like that makes me want to just delete the post but there aren't many places I can go for conversation about electric Miles.
Hey, I fixed it. Bitches Brew is a great album - I won't bitch about that no more!
The Law of Gravity is nonsense. No such law exists. If I think I float, and you think I float, then it happens.
Master Guitar Academy - I also teach via SKYPE.
Still some of my favorite work Ribot did with Elvis on this one.
Wait until you get to "Ali (Take 4)"
Easily among the funkiest things ever but there's more to it than that. The only words to aptly describe it are "electric Miles."
It's like the "wild mercurial sound" Dylan was always chasing. He couldn't describe it in words but he knew exactly what it sounded like.
There's something to the best of Miles' electric music that's like that. I have no words for it, but it's something beyond style or even the musicians involved (since the cast rotated so often).
Zorn's Electric Masada is one of the only other bands for me that successfully captures whatever it is that makes Miles' electric music sound the way it does.