Bitches Brew is an album recorded by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in 1969 and released in 1970. It is also the name of a piece included in this album.
Recorded over the course of three days (August 19–August 21, 1969), Bitches Brew incorporated electric instruments, such as electric piano and guitar, and mostly rejected traditional jazz rhythms in favor of a looser, rock-influenced improvisational style.
The two-disc set contains mostly very long tracks, improvisations on pieces that were largely written in the studio, though substantially edited and rearranged afterwards.
Some jazz fans and musicians felt the album was crossing the limits, or was not jazz at all. One critic writes that "Davis drew a line in the sand that some jazz fans have never crossed, or even forgiven Davis for drawing." Bob Rusch recalls, "this to me was not great Black music, but I cynically saw it as part and parcel of the commercial crap that was beginning to choke and bastardize the catalogs of such dependable companies as Blue Note and Prestige.… I hear it 'better' today because there is now so much music that is worse."
On the other hand, many fans, critics, and musicians see the records as an important, vital release. In a 1997 interview, drummer Bobby Previte sums up his feelings about Bitches Brew: "Well, it was groundbreaking, for one. How much groundbreaking music do you hear now? It was music that you had that feeling you never heard quite before. It came from another place. How much music do you hear now like that?" The Penguin Guide to Jazz gives Bitches Brew a four-star rating (out of a possible four stars), describing the recording as "one of the most remarkable creative statements of the last half-century, in any artistic form. It is also profoundly flawed, a gigantic torso of burstingly noisy music that absolutely refuses to resolve itself under any recognized guise." In 2003, the album was ranked number 94 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Bitches Brew is often called the best-selling jazz record. Such sales figures have been disputed, but it was Davis's first gold record, selling more than half a million copies. Eleven years earlier, however, Davis had released Kind of Blue, another groundbreaking record that has been cited as perhaps the best-selling jazz release. In 1998, Columbia Legacy/Sony Music released The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions, a four-disc box set that included Bitches Brew as well as ensuing studio sessions through February 1970.
Track Listing:
1. Pharaoh's Dance – 19:59
2. Bitches Brew – 26:58
3. Spanish Key – 17:29
4. John McLaughlin – 4:26
5. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down – 14:04
6. Sanctuary – 10:52
Personnel
On all tracks:
Miles Davis - trumpet
Wayne Shorter - soprano saxophone
Bennie Maupin - bass clarinet
Chick Corea - electric piano (solo on "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down")
John McLaughlin - guitar
Dave Holland - bass
Harvey Brooks - electric bass
Lenny White - drum set
Jack DeJohnette - drum set
Don Alias - congas, drum set
Juma Santos as "Jim Riley" - shaker, congas - percussion
Additional personnel:
Larry Young - electric piano on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" "John McLaughlin" "Spanish Key" and "Pharaoh's Dance"
Joe Zawinul - electric piano on "Bitches Brew" "Sanctuary" "Spanish Key" and "Pharaoh's Dance"
In session but uncredited:
Billy Cobham - drum set
Airto Moreira - percussion
Download:
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http://rapidshare.com/files/128970917/1970-md-bb01-320.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/128992908/1970-md-bb02-320.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/129153046/1970-md-bb02-320.part2.rar
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