Miles Davis Big Fun CD

2 Cds;24 Bit Mastering;4 Bonus Tracks

Personnel includes: Miles Davis (trumpet); Sonny Fortune (soprano saxophone, flute); Steve Grossman, Wayne Shorter, Carlos Garnett (soprano saxophone); Bennie Maupin (flute, clarinet, bass clarinet); Lonnie Smith, Harold I. Williams (piano); Joe Zawinul (electric piano, Farfisa organ); Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea (electric piano); John McLaughlin (electric guitar); Bihari Sharma (electric sitar, tambura, tabla); Khalil Balakrishna (electric sitar, tambura); Dave Holland (acoustic & electric basses); Harvey Brooks (electric bass); Ron Carter, Michael Henderson (bass); Billy Cobham (drums, triangle); Billy Hart, Al Foster, Jack DeJohnette (drums); Badal Roy (tabla); Airto Moreira (cuica, berimbau, percussion).
Recorded at Columbia Studio E, New York, New York between November 19, 1969 and June 12, 1972. Includes liner notes by Bennie Maupin.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Despite the presence of classic tracks like Joe Zawinul's "Great Expectations," Big Fun feels like the compendium of sources it is. These tracks are all outtakes from other sessions, most notably Bitches Brew, On the Corner, and others. The other element is that many of these tracks appeared in different versions elsewhere. These were second takes, or the unedited takes before producer Teo Macero and Miles were able to edit them, cut and paste their parts into other things, or whatever. That is not to say the album should be dismissed. Despite the numerous lineups and uneven flow of the tracks, there does remain some outstanding playing and composing here. Most notably is "Great Expectations" from 1969, which opens the album. Here the lineup is Miles, Steve Grossman, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Khalil Balakrishna, and Bihari Sharma on sitar and tambura, Herbie, Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Harvey Brooks, Billy Cobham, and Airto. Creating a series of vamps from drones and a small melodic figure, there is very little in the way of groove or melodic development until the middle section, where a series of modalities enters the composition. The second album in the set features "Go Ahead John," an outtake from Jack Johnson's sessions that is 28 minutes in length. It's a riff-based groover, with McLaughlin and his wah-wah pedal setting the pace with Steve Grossman on soprano. The basic motif is the blues, floating around E and Bb flat, but there are modulations introduced by Miles into Db flat that add a kinkier dimension into the proceedings as well. Dave Holland is the bass player, and DeJohnette is the drummer. There is no piano. What's most interesting about this date is how it prefigures what would become "Right Off" from Jack Johnson. It doesn't have the same fire, nor does it manage to sustain itself for the duration, but there are some truly wonderful sections in the piece. This is for Miles fans only, especially those of his electric period, because it fills in the puzzle. The reissue added four bonus tracks to the original double-LP set, but other than "Recollections" by Zawinul, they shed little light on the mystique and development of the intensely creative music being developed in 1969 and 1970. Others should be directed to Bitches Brew, In A Silent Way, Jack Johnson, or Live Evil as starting points. ~ Thom Jurek
In the period following Miles Davis' crossover breakthrough, BITCHES BREW, the trumpeter recorded incessantly, trying out new combinations of ideas and musicians. These progressive young musicians went on to forge a new alloy of music from the ore of funk, electric soul, psychedelic blues and progressive rock, with trace elements of classical and jazz. And Miles was the lightning rod for it all.
BIG FUN gathers up some of the trumpeter's choicest experiments in '70s cool, much of it with a profoundly Indian flavor, and Miles' attraction to raga phrasing mirrors his love of flamenco melodies, particularly on "Lonely Fire" (a lateAlternative Press (11/00, pp.104-6) - 4 out of 5 - "...Essential....colorful and exotic...BIG FUN is just that....representing the high water mark of his experiments in the fusion of rock, funk, electronica and jazz..."
JazzTimes (11/00, p.70) - "...Sounds like it could have come from '80s Davis offering like STAR PEOPLE and DECOY, showing that Davis wasn't above repackaging his own ideas for folks who missed the point the first time around....intense..."