Miles Davis Pangaea CD

PANGAEA was the last album Miles Davis made before his 5 year retirement.
Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet, organ); Sonny Fortune (soprano & alto saxophones, flute); Pete Cosey (synthesizer, electric guitar, percussion); Reggie Lucas (electric guitar); Michael Henderson (electric bass); Al Foster (drums); Mtume (congas, water drums, rhythm box, percussion).
Recorded live at Osaka Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan on February 1, 1975. Includes liner notes by Kevin Whitehead.
Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet, organ); Pete Cosey (guitar, synthesizer, percussion); Reggie Lucas (guitar); Sonny Fortune (flute, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone); Michael Henderson (bass guitar); Mtume (drums, congas, percussion); Al Foster (drums); James "Mtume" Forman (congas, percussion).
Liner Note Author: Kevin Whitehead.
Recording information: Osaka Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan (02/01/1975).
Director: Keiichi Nakamura.
This is the second of two performances from February 1975 at the Osaka Festival Hall in Japan. This is the evening show; the Columbia release Agharta was the afternoon show. Pangaea is comprised either as a double LP or double CD of two tracks, "Zimbabwe" and "Gondwana." Each is divided into two parts. The band here is comprised of Sonny Fortune on saxophones, Pete Cosey (who also played synth) and Reggie Lucas on guitars, Michael Henderson on bass, Al Foster on drums, James Mtume on percussion, and Davis on trumpet and organ. The band, no doubt inspired by their amazing performance earlier in the day, comes out swinging, and I mean like Muhammad Ali, not Benny Goodman. This is a take-no-prisoners set. Davis seems to be pushing an agenda of "What the hell is melody and harmony? And bring on the funk -- and while you're at it, Pete, play the hell outta that guitar. More drums!" If there is anything that's consistent in this free-for-all, as everybody interacts with everyone else in an almighty dirty groove & roll while improv is at an all-time high, it's the rhythmic, or should we emphasize "polyrhythmic," invention. Mtume and Foster are monstrous in moving this murky jam session along ("Zimbabwe" is one set, and "Gondwana" is the second of the evening) some surreal lines. When Cosey's not ripping the pickups out of his guitar, he's adding his hands to various percussion instruments in the pursuit of the all-powerful Miles Davis' inflected voodoo funk. And while it's true that this set is as relentless as the Agharta issue, it's not quite as successful, though it's plenty satisfying. The reason is simple: the dynamic and dramatic tensions of the afternoon session could never have been replicated, they were based on all conditions being right. Here, while the moods and textures are carried and the flow is quite free, the dramatic tension is not as present; the mood is not quite so dark. And while the playing of certain individuals here may be better than it is on Agharta, the band's playing isn't quite at that level. That said, this is still an essential Miles Davis live record and will melt your mind just as easily as Agharta. People would complain on this tour that Davis played with his back to the audience a lot -- Lester Bangs went so far as to say he hated his guts for it. But if you were this focused on creating a noise so hideously beautiful from thin air, you might not have time to socialize either. ~ Thom Jurek
The companion set to AGARTHA, PANGAEA presents the Davis band in that evening's concert performance at Osaka Festival Hall on February 1, 1975. The difference in moods is readily apparent, as the band comes out on fire--particularly the trumpeter, who was in a more reticent mood during the afternoon's festivities.
With PANGAEA Miles peeks out from the eye of an electronic hurricane to impart the darker side of his soul. Davis was on the verge of a total mental and physical collapse when this concert was recorded, suffering from a variety of degenerative physical ailments, in the throes of a cocaine