"Beyond the Corner": New Miles Davis Box Set

"Rated X" live! LIVE!!!

out in two weeks...

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Corner-Sessions-Miles-Davis/dp/B000TLMWMO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-9216729-9930861?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1189002659&sr=1-1

Holy mutha 'o' God!

$120!!!

Gah!

Weep for my unborn children's future.

Yeah, why is it so much? Everything I've said says it's 6 cds. But at full price ($140, before the discount), that comes out to $23 a cd. Even at $120 that's $20 a cd. I guess they've thinking that anyone still buying Miles in 2007 has serious cash flow?

it's SO GREAT

No doubt! But that price!??!

This summer I put on "Rated X" in the car, and after about a minute my four-year old son had his hands over his ears, and begged me to turn it off, because he said it was scaring him.

Yeah, that sounds about right. He should at least thank his lucky stars that you didn't put on Agharta or Dark Magus.

This box is ridiculously, unbelievably great. The unreleased stuff is in the same spirit as the album stuff, but totally different. Raunchier, tighter...there's one track from 1975 that's almost Chuck Mangione-like in its melodic jazzfunkiness, but then Miles's solo is this wave of contemptuous discord running straight through the middle.

*still* waiting for this (but thanks to unperson for getting me started!)

It might be the best thing ever made (the box).

Not the box itself but the music that makes up the box.

In the way that it makes you want to stop listening to everything else for a week or so.

found a place that is selling it for $99.99, but you have to pre-order it:

http://ssl.adhost.com/jazzloft/baskets/pos.cfm?CD=13035

This better come with the biggest book ever!

Honestly I don't know when I am going to be able to justify shelling out $120 in one pop for a CD set where I already own the central record, but boy does this sound amazing.

gimme

50 pounds from Amazon.uk. Works out to about 78 euros for me (inc. s/h to Greece). Not bad. Probably not a very good idea to order from the US, though.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000TLMWMO/202-6023791-6219064

stop making me want this ...

If I spent $30 bucks on the Rhino Handmade Cactus live thing (which was well worth it), I can sure do $120 for this.

I jsut found the Jack Johnson box for $26 so now I have money left over for this. Maybe in two months...

CD Universe has it for $105.54!
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?PID=7484370&style=music&frm=frooglemusic

Great Matos review of the box (btw, I think the last line was appropriate given the album's history, and made me laugh out loud, besides {hmm., maybe you were right in wanting it cut after all])! Can't wait to actually hear the damn thing.:

http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=14562

Yeah, I may the damn thing even though I'm no fan of the original.

is it actually out? amazon has suddenly shifted to 4-6 weeks...

Amazon.uk release date has it coming out on Oct. 10. Oh the wait...

That's a great review.

yeah - man that's an ugly cover tho

don't think that's the actual cover -- just an illustration to go with the review ...
i want this set bad, but i'll probably have to wait til xmas. dang.

"Apparently, Vince Wilburn (Miles' nephew) had some issue with it and pulled it at the 11th hour. This happened with the Cellar Door set and delayed it a couple months IIRC. Rumor has it it should be released the first week of October."

I wonder if I could get a pair of "Vote Miles" dolphin trunks made at neighborhoodies or someplace similar.

I know for damn sure I wouldn't have the guts to wear them.

i think the artwork is the figures from the album sleeve somehow transposed onto the brushed-bronze box the Jack Johnson set came in

http://www.miles-beyond.com/images/albums/otcset.jpg

okay that's much better!

that is fly

That's lovely.

ok, so it's the first week of october. where's the box? any truth to the rumor that the cover art is being stickered over with a big picture of vince wilburn with the caption, "did you know that miles davis was my uncle? huh? didja?"

So I'm going to take this box set's release, and my recent interest in the music of Funkadelic and Sly & the Family Stone, as signs that I should listen to On the Corner.

what are dolphin trunks?

i've always wanted a Vote Miles shirt or button

Great review, Phil.

Um, link?

Yeah, there's no mention of it on Phil's blog.

Haven't posted the link there yet, but here 'tis.

Nice. Thanks for the link, Phil.

there's a decent sized feature on this in the new Wax Poetics (Miles on the cover). Interviews with Cosey and Henderson -- don't think I've read too many interviews with those two. I bought it, but I haven't read it yet. Gah, I really really want this box set -- anyone find any decent deals on it?

45 bucks offa itunes

and oh hey it's awesome

Sweet.

hmm $45 is a pretty good deal. but do i want the pretty packaging? ie, am I a sucker? Answer: probably.

my wife is telling me that this is not gonna be available in time for my birthday :(

Jax0n:

dolphin trunks = tight fitting shorts similar to the ones the big-booty babe on the OTC album cover wears.

In other news, I am probably the same kind of sucker Tyler probably is.

Interview with Henderson, Cosey, and Liebman – some sort of promotion for the box:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VFUhV_ciNQg

Says 'part 1 of 3' but I can't find the others …

Amazon.uk release date now has it coming out Oct. 29. We'll see.

liner notes are great -- good to finally know which Stockhausen he was listening to, Paul Buckmaster's liner notes mention he brought over a copy of the Mixtur / Gruppen LP, and the first night he shows up to crash at Miles' they leave each side playing on repeat for hours. Mixtur is the orchestral piece where each instrument is sent through seperate microphones to filters & ring mods, and the trumpet textures really stick out. He also mentions later seeing a cassette of Hymnen in Miles' Lamborghini.

good to finally know which Stockhausen he was listening to

awes

haha I just saw some old longhaired overweight beardo reading about this in the elevator

aha! news! sort of! from paul tingen's Miles Beyond site:

"I've been receiving several e-mails from folk in the US complaining that the On The Corner boxed set has still to turn up, and wanting to know why. I called Sony Legacy, and they tell me that they have production and transportation problems. The box is apparently rather difficult to make, involving a metal casing with embossed imprint, and is made in China. Small shipments are trickling into the US, and the Legacy representative couldn't say where they would be available first. The company doesn't even have promotional copies yet."

looks like a boss box too:

http://www.miles-beyond.com/images/albums/OTCboxedset.jpg

nice detail with the raised embossment: they gave the blonde guy all the way on the left a glaringly huge package

sorry, all the way on the right (we knew that)

I can never look at the guy in the green suit without seeing The Rev. Al Sharpton.

After seeing the packaging, I think I went from mere lust to full-out fuckwant.

Vote Miles!

I can never look at the guy in the green suit without seeing The Rev. Al Sharpton.

-- Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 8 October 2007 22:34

lol otm

i totally have a vote miles shirt xpost

After seeing the packaging, I think I went from mere lust to full-out fuckwant.

-- The Reverend, Tuesday, October 9, 2007 5:35 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

same here. i am a little ashamed...

The company doesn't even have promotional copies yet."

Um...then why are there so many advance reviews? I suspect Sony/Legacy is doing some leg-pulling.

They sent out advances (plain white sleeve w/6 CD-Rs in it; I got one, obviously. But they haven't yet sent full-art copies out to reviewers who wrote the thing up based on advances, which they usually do.

I can never look at the guy in the green suit without seeing The Rev. Al Sharpton.

-- Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, October 8, 2007 6:34 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

me too!

Listened to Bill Laswell's 'On The Corner (Subterranean Channel Mix)' from Panthalassa: The Remixes. I can't decide if he improved on Teo Macero's edits by making the track more structured, or if he just made it sound like any Material album. Leaning towards the former.

Andy K was spot on, this really does make you want to stop listening to everything else. I haven't heard any of the other complete sessions boxes-- I figured tight editing is part of what made the originals so great, didn't want to spend the dough-- but this is just incredible.

Free me!

If anyone's on Ruckus.com (free DRM'd downloads if you've got a .edu e-mail address, probably US-only), the whole thing's there.

ok wow a friend told me about ruckus but i just assumed it didn't have anything cool on it.

thx dude!

Oh man Ruckus looks fantastic. How about a five years defunct .edu e-mail address? :(

you can reg as an alumni

You have to be able to get mail at the .edu address, is the thing. That's what you'll be registered under.

Interview with Henderson, Cosey, and Liebman – some sort of promotion for the box:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VFUhV_ciNQg

Says 'part 1 of 3' but I can't find the others …

-- Brakhage, Friday, October 5, 2007 5:21 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

The whole interview video - with bits of live footage! is on the official site.

sweeeeeet

so... this is finally available now?

It's out. I want it.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Corner-Sessions-Miles-Davis/dp/B000TLMWMO/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1194565441&sr=8-1

xp

*sigh*

will have to wait til Xmas

Jazzbos be rich. I wish these weren't so damned expensive.

I wish these weren't so damned expensive.

-- jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, November 8, 2007 11:48 PM

tru tru tru! (jazzbos also be shameful pirates) :(

xxpost
Yes if one's lucky... Please everyone don't buy all of these

That booklet looks gorgeous! As the rest of it.

i'm in the same boat as shakey ... mom, if you're reading this ...

reissue of the year

Fuck that—there's way too much "new" music on there for that definition to hold much water! Album of the year—period!

I wish these weren't so damned expensive.

-- jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, November 8, 2007 3:48 PM (Thursday, November 8, 2007 3:48 PM) Bookmark Link

thirded

I mean, really, is there any reason beyond "people will pay anything for these" that they are so expensive? The packaging is beautiful, but I've seen more lavishly packaged boxsets for significantly less. I just don't see why these can't be in the $50-$70 range or "rock" boxsets.

seems like the prices of these things always goes down eventually ... i think you can get that cellar door set for $60 and it was originally priced way up there ... and the older sets are even cheaper -- though I guess the Silent Way box is only three discs, Bitches Brew only four. Sony just wants to gouge the diehards at first.

The Cellar Door box had a lower list price when it was released, with the same number of discs. Looks like Sony is hoping people will wanna shell just for the (admittedly gorgeous) packaging.

A lot of these sets - all of 'em up through the Jack Johnson set, in fact - have been reissued in cheaper, no-metal-spine packaging. Behold.

I'd like to see links to some reviews, or comments here, that go into more detail about the previously unreleased material. With Get Up With It and On The Corner sitting on my shelf, I'm having a hard time psyching myself up to pay the freight. I was put off the In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew boxes by reviews suggesting these collections don't add a whole lot to the Macero-assembled albums. This caveat seems like it might apply even more strongly to On The Corner.

On the other hand, PETE COSEY

It's exactly the other way around, actually. For me, the Jack Johnson and On the Corner boxes have been by far the most satisfying and interesting ones of the lot.

Also, this review goes into a fair amount of detail concerning the previously unreleased stuff in the box:

http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=14562

I'm only about halfway through disc three of this, but HOLY SHIT. This is much better than the Bitches Brew set, which I wasn't crazy about anyway, and better than the In A Silent Way set, which I was and am crazy about. This really does top everything. And in the right mood, man, it tops EVERYTHING. It's the best music you've ever heard. I have been listening to it since I popped in disc one, and will not likely stop until I have heard it all. Not a lot of things make me sit still for seven hours. This is insanely good. No, really.

I like Matos' review. Thanks for that.

Somebody hook a brotha up.

Tall order, brotha... this is a lot of bits to upload. (Checking sizes...) Even at 192, it's about 600 megs.

If you do, I promise not to start any threads or polls for a week.

Aiight... check your mail, both of you.

kenan, I kiss you.

Fuck that, I make sweet love to you, in a platonic way, of course.

http://www.jakelegstompers.com/Graphics/Clip1Ron.jpg

gis for platonic sweet love

That looks about right.

Please, both of you, do not bother.

I'm finding that Matos' characterization of disc 4 as "something to stretch out on" is half true -- the first 32-minute track is still pretty hot, but "He Loved Him Madly" is 32 minutes of just niiiice. Not melodic, oh no, never that, but niiiice. Then "Maiysha" at the start of disc 5 eases you back in, before it all goes wonderfully pear-shaped again.

This is offtopic, but, "pear-shaped" is an idiom I've read on ilx a bit that I don't really understand. Could you take a stab at explaining what you mean by it?

listening now. only on disc 1 so far. my local store had a 20% off sale and this was sitting there beckoning alluringly. I had only come in to get the new Robert Wyatt but I am probably never going to see this for $96 again. hell yeah the sax on "Rated X" is rockin me.

"pear-shaped" is an idiom I've read on ilx a bit that I don't really understand

Britishers use it to mean "not right," and usually "very wrong," like... I dunno... the plan in The Italian Job. But it's an evocative phrase by itself, I think. Not round, not perfect, a bit... pear-shaped. Just a little off. Doesn't have to be a bad thing.

I've heard it on Doctor Who and never known what the hell it meant. Thanks dude.

further comments on disc 1...

wow that wasn't Rated X but I swear it was similar. Wasn't there an extended single CD of OTC that had some of these longer pieces like the "Helen Butte/Mr Freedom X" unedited master?

cranking this right now. geez louise, some of this stuff is INTENSE.

And some of this stuff MEANDERS.

I guess that's what I paid for.

I dunno, I don't hear it as meandering...certainly it meanders a fuck of a lot less than parts of The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions ("Guinivere" fucking defines interminable).

cranking this right now. geez louise, some of this stuff is INTENSE.

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 30, 2008 6:43 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And some of this stuff MEANDERS.

― tylerw, Wednesday, April 30, 2008 6:48 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this

Given that this period of Miles is probably top 2 or 3 all time in terms of importance to my own development as a musician and listener, I'm not entirely sure how I never bought this.

maybe because it's crazy expensive?
anyway, yeah, i love hearing the uncut jams from the various bands from this era. but in the end, i think it makes me appreciate the albums even more. teo macero and miles were really onto something incredible when they constructed the LPs.

Ordered this used for $85 just a coupla weeks ago, looking forward to seeing it in the mailbox anyday now (except it probably won't fit)!

Where do people come out on Teo Macero?Listening to this box on Spotify, I'm struck by how little editing there actually seems to have been on On the Corner. Listening to the "unedited master" of the title cut, you're almost ten minutes in before you hear something different from the edited master (McLaughlin soloing, organ noodling, Miles with the quiet introduction when the band brings it down a bit). As a college student when I first heard this stuff, I had been under the impression that Teo was splicing whole rhythm sections under solos from different tracks. What seems to be revealed here is that far more of the magic happened live in the studio (or at an overdub session) -- certainly compared to Bitches Brew anyway, where Teo was looping whole phrases to create melodies and the like.

I'd be interested to see Bob Belden's "tribute" to Teo Macero in the box. Given how disparaging Bill Laswell has been about Teo's work, and Macero's displeasure with these "complete sessions" boxes being released at all, it makes me wonder if Belden's essay was a substantive rebuttal or more a matter of politics.

Didn't know Laswell was disparaging about Teo's work!

Where do people come out on Teo Macero?Listening to this box on Spotify, I'm struck by how little editing there actually seems to have been on On the Corner. Listening to the "unedited master" of the title cut, you're almost ten minutes in before you hear something different from the edited master

huh? there's an edit right at the beginning. The album version actually starts at about 0:47 of the unedited master, but it's an alternate mix with the solo turned down. you can hear the bleed faintly in the background. Then at about 0:32 on the album version you can hear the edit where it goes back to what's actually the beginning of the unedited master (about 3 secs in to be precise).

http://open.spotify.com/album/4ORrWT9p5FH1jhTCATKEcj

huh? there's an edit right at the beginning. The album version actually starts at about 0:47 of the unedited master, but it's an alternate mix with the solo turned down. you can hear the bleed faintly in the background. Then at about 0:32 on the album version you can hear the edit where it goes back to what's actually the beginning of the unedited master (about 3 secs in to be precise).

Correct you are. The groove seems to obscure them a bit. I'm still stunned when I look at Bob Belden's explanations of the edits to "Pharaoh's Dance" -- in some ways, I was disappointed by that box, because I'd have loved to have heard the actual working tapes of those tracks, which I suspect may not have sounded much like the final product at all.

Also, on the Bitches Brew box, they used a digital remix instead of the original analog masters. This means that they re-created every edit. I haven't noticed any differences myself, but there are those that swear some of the edits are a hair off -- or missing altogether.

I never even heard the edits on pharaoh's dance before I knew they were there but it's funny how clumsy some of them are.

funny in the sense that it's interesting how easy edits are to overlook if you're not listening for them

Yeah, totally. I never realized how many edits I missed in In A Silent Way until I heard the unedited takes on the box.

Yeah, "Shhh/Peaceful" was basically looped from a handful of material culled from a 19-minute track and overdubbed from what I can tell.

"Pharaoh's Dance" on the box is missing loops and so forth. I'm not entirely sure how you assemble a box of that magnitude and miss stuff like that.

I would just love to hear what the Bitches Brew stuff would've sounded like had they done a Jack Johnson-esque box with the working tapes. Obviously it wouldn't have been nearly as listenable -- but far more educational.

Listening to the unedited "Shhh/Peaceful," I was floored when that organ chord happened: it's only there for a couple of seconds near the end, but Macero was brilliant/astute enough to hear it as the perfect starting point.

It's baffling why they didn't use the original mix for the BB box; even the 40th Anniversary edition has the digital remix on the CDs (but the original mix on the LPs). I have no idea what their logic/justification for that was.

Obvious guess would be that either the master tapes were missing or damaged.

I wondered about that too, especially there were no such issues (iirc) with any of Miles' other (and older) records/reissues.

But this piece by Paul Tingen more-or-less answers the question(s).

(although it sounds like Sony insisted on a remix and "oh, the tapes are no good" was a convenient -- and not easily verifiable -- justification)

Re-reading passages from the Tingen book now (good book, btw) I love how Paul Buckmaster came in with all these über-"heavy" charts to create some Stockhausen/Sly Stone hybrid only to be in the middle of describing the drum fills he'd composed for the band when Miles cut him off and was like, "Yeah, play that" -- blowing off the rest of Buckmaster's charts and leaving the final groove on "On the Corner" almost comically unfunky.

I still find most of Teo's edits on this one kind of unnecessary btw.

Miles, like Teo, was an incredible genius at editing. "Shhh/Peaceful," in its unedited form, prominently features Josef Zawinul's theme, but Miles and/or Teo knew exactly what to leave on the cutting room floor. I think part of Miles' genius, cruel though it might have been at times, was to say, "That thing you labored on for hours/days/weeks/months? Yeah, we don't need that."

And with On The Corner, I think Teo did some brilliant work. I don't think his edits are unnecessary; I think they add focus and cohesion.

live albums from this era are great, so all of the editing is technically unnecessary, right? It's not like Macero's editing was saving recordings that were otherwise unlistenable in their raw state. He just added that 10% extra structure that makes things a little more interesting. And the opening of On the Corner is a great example of that because the album version begins in a much more exciting way than the unedited track. It's funny because the supposedly unedited track actually sounds like you're dropping into the middle of something that's already in progress while the edited version sounds like a proper beginning.

I guess I would agree with that. The editing is generally just a lot more subtle on OTC than on Bitches Brew, where whole compositions are rendered from the end of Teo's razor blade. Generally, tho, OTC doesn't really "function" like a composition the same way even BB's cuts did. There are very few variations, the dynamics are considerably reduced and the melody is, "Black Satin" notwithstanding, pretty much nonexistent. As a result, I just feel like Teo's edits tighten it up more than "re-compose" the thing.

Does anyone else think "Bitches Brew" is a thirty-minute "Spinnin' Wheel" variation, btw?

the blood sweat and tears song?

Yup

Was flipping through John Szwed's (highly recommended) Miles bio last night, and it says that Miles was indeed consciously riffing on "Spinning Wheel" (as well as one of Betty Davis' demos). So I guess that song's existence is finally justified.

< pats self on back>

(actually, I figure I must've heard that info somewhere before)

oh yeah, I hear it now. interesting.

It might be the best thing ever made (the box).

― Andy K, Wednesday, September 5, 2007 11:20 AM (fourteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

OTMMM

"One and One (Unedited Master)" = peak music. It's hard to believe they had that in the can and it didn't make the original album. And "Mr. Foster" is maybe the single most beautiful electric Miles recording...except for this one, recorded at the same 1975 session as "Minnie" and unacceptably left off the box because Miles doesn't play on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZobpwLTTow

I want that box so bad, but I'm not willing to pay $400+ for it. They've got the Bitches Brew, IASW and Jack Johnson boxes for sale on his official site but sadly not this one.

I paid $200 for my copy in 2016, which felt slightly insane at the time but which I don't regret at all. $400+ is beyond the pale though. I almost grabbed another one when it briefly became available again at list price a couple years ago, but it was either gonna sit on my shelf gathering dust or be predatorily flipped for profit, neither of which would have felt great.

Yeah, I missed that window when it became available again. I placed an order, but it got canceled, annoyingly. Guess the oversold that box. Fingers crossed it comes up again.

Agreed that the On the Corner set is one of the best ones in the series (In a Silent Way the perennial favorite, of course).

This outtake is stunning, J. Never heard it before. Have always thought Miles the balladeer was as alive and potent as ever in the fusion era, just not as prolific. Seems he was leaning on the organ a bit in this one, so even if he's not playing trumpet, I can't help but think there's still that undeniable haunting Miles quality to it.