Miles Davis Get Up With It CD

Recorded between 1970 and 1974. Includes liner notes by Dave Liebman.

Digitally remastered by Seth Foster (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).

By 1974, Miles Davis had become not only a music legend in general and a jazz legend in particular, but also a reclusive and confounding character. Davis' music had excited many and exasperated others, including many of his older fans, with its forays into space-age free-form meta-funk. Released in 1974 but unavailable on CD in the US until 2000, GET UP WITH IT is a compendium of several of Miles's early-to-mid-'70s studio adventures, and one of the most challenging albums in his catalog.

His tribute to Duke Ellington, "He Loved Him Madly," is a darkly intense, 30-minute-plus exercise evoking the dense textures of such contemporary classical composers as Paul Schutze and Georgy Ligeti. "Red China Blues," a wry homage of sorts to Chicago blues, features some stinging trumpet by Davis and some earnest blues harmonica. The 2-CD GET UP WITH IT is a collection of feverish, dense textures and deep grooves, which range from sensual, to bereaved, to confrontational, and features the outstanding players with whom Davis surrounded himself during this period. Fans of electric Miles Davis will find this a must-have, displaying as it does Davis's anticipation of much of the music of the '90s and beyond.

2 CD-24 Bit Mastering

Reissue producer: Bob Belden.

Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet, piano, electric piano, organ); Reggie Lucas, Cornell Dupree, Dominique Gaumont, John McLaughlin , Pete Cosey (guitar); Khalil Balakrishna (sitar, electric sitar); David Liebman (flute, alto flute, tenor saxophone); Sonny Fortune (flute, saxophone); Wally Chambers (harmonica); Carlos Garnett (saxophone, soprano saxophone); John Stubblefield, Steve Grossman (soprano saxophone); Cedric Lawson (piano, electric piano, Fender Rhodes piano); Keith Jarrett (electric piano, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards); Herbie Hancock (Clavinet, keyboards); Michael Henderson (bass guitar); Al Foster, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Billy Cobham (drums); Badal Roy (tabla); James "Mtume" Forman, Airto Moreira, Mtume (percussion).

Audio Remixers: John Guerriere; Stan Weiss.

Recording information: Columbia Studio E (09/06/1972-10/07/1974).

Photographers: Paul Slaughter; Urve Kuusik.

Arrangers: Wally Chambers; Billy Jackson.

Personnel includes: Miles Davis (trumpet, piano, organ); Steve Grossman, John Stubblefield, Carlos Garnett (soprano saxophone); Sonny Fortune (flute); Dave Liebman (alto flute); Keith Jarrett, Cedric Lawson (Fender Rhodes piano); Herbie Hancock (Clavinet); Pete Cosey, John McLaughlin, Reggie Lucas, Dominique Gaumont (guitar); Khalil Balakrishna (electric sitar); Michael Henderson (electric bass); Al Foster, Billy Cobham (drums); Badal Roy (tabla); Mtume, Airto Moreira (percussion).

Producers: Teo Macero, Billy Jackson.

Alternative Press (11/00, pp.104-6) - 5 out of 5 - "...Essential....the overlooked classic of psychedelic soul and outlandish improv....representing the high water mark of his experiments in the fusion of rock, funk, electronica and jazz..."
JazzTimes (11/00, p.70) - "...Intensely spacious....rhythmic cross currents and textural landscapes serve as the focal point..."