POLLIN' WITH THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET (ILM artist poll #32 voting thread)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/miles1.jpg

No need to try to come up with something clever to get across how important this guy was and is, so straight to the poll details!

* 30 — 30 — 30 — 30 — 30 *
Vote for 30 Miles Davis tracks and put them in 1 to 30 order. Points will be distributed like this:
#1 gets 50 points; #2 gets 47 points;
3:44; 4:31; 5:38; 6:36; 7:34; 8:32; 9:30; 10:29; 11:28; 12:27; 13:26; 14:25; 15:24; 16:23; 17:22; 18:21; 19:20; 20:19; 21:18; 22:17; 23:16; 24:15; 25:14; 26:13; 27:11; 28:9; 29:7; 30:5

Optional side polls:

* ALBUMS ALBUMS ALBUMS *
Vote for up to TEN (10) favorite albums. You can vote for as few as you'd like, but with the size of his discography, I wanted to add a few slots to the albums poll.

* SIDEMEN SIDEMEN SIDEMEN *
I just thought of this one as I was typing vote values: Vote for up to FIVE (5) favorite band members or session players who've played on a Miles record. Airto vs. Badal Roy FITE!

Voting opens right now and ends at midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, March 22nd. And since I'm not staying up until 2 a.m. that night, anything that's in my inbox on Saturday morning will get counted.

Send ballots to wmcrump AT gmail dotcom.

That's it! Happy listening.

Clemenza, to answer your question from the other thread -- no problem with a shorter-than-30 tracks ballot.

Great--I think every poll I've been interested in so far has been somebody I know fairly well, but this time I'll be doing what a lot people say they do, which is to learn.

Have you got a list that shows how many tracks there actually are? I've been waist-deep in Miles since Christmas, yet with all the reworkings and live versions I have absolutely no idea what I'm dealing with here. His is the most intimidating discography imaginable.

Does Gil Evans count as a sideman?

I anticipate a lot of vote-splitting, esp if we're including live stuff and box set tracks/studio outtakes etc

I mean, which version of Right Off am I supposed to vote for, y'know?

Are you counting boxes as albums?

literally the most impossible poll

Gah. I love Miles, but he's one of these guys that you can own 10 albums by -- which I do -- and still be the barest dilettante. Should be fun to try, tho.

Shakey, the only way I can approach this and keep my sanity would be to combine all votes for "Right Off" (or "Directions" or "The Theme", etc) and make notes as I go along when people specify particular performances, and mention them in the results.

My first thought was that Gil Evans should count as a sideman, but that led to "well, should Teo?"

works for me Wmc

Yeah, makes sense.

If Miles were alive and you asked him in person, he'd probably kick you all in the nuts.

If Miles were alive and you asked him in person, he'd probably kick you all in the nuts.

To be fair, he would probably do that whether you asked him anything or not.

And yeah, this poll is very intimidating. I got overwhelmed trying to narrow down my choices for the Neil Young poll last summer and this. . . well, this is a much greater task. To say the least.

Tarfumes, I kinda don't want to count boxes as albums, because that would open up a semi-cheat for someone who doesn't want to choose between the album with "Black Satin" on it and the album with "He Loved Him Madly" on it, since they're both on the Complete On the Corner Sessions box.

Ismael, re: a song list -- I've come across this site on a few previous polls and it's been somewhat handy --

http://www.whosdatedwho.com/tpx_5584/miles-davis/songs

Though there are some immediately apparent errors, like listing "All The Things You Could Be By Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother" as a Miles Davis song. Beyond that, you're right, the discography is a terror to navigate, and I think I may just let everybody handle it in their own way.

Cool re: boxes.

I guess my problem with that philosophy regarding box sets is that, right now, I can think of two songs that were **only** released on box sets that will definitely make my list.

Will this ultimately count against my ballot, or am I overthinking it?

The songs are certainly fair game to make your tracks ballot! Tracks and albums balloting will be totally separate, so I'm not sure what you mean by counting against your ballot.

Ahh, I getcha now!

I was thinking those tracks, not being released on an initial album, would be tossed out if I voted for them, based on their affiliation with a time period in Miles' career and not an album per se.

Good to know.

(I was overthinking it, in case you hadn't figured that out)

No worries! All tracks -- whether from studio album/live album/box/whatever -- are fair game for tracks ballot, but it kinda wouldn't be kosher to have an albums ballot that consisted of Complete Prestige/Complete Jack Johnson/Complete 2nd Quintet, etc.

Recommended listening: "Circle in the Round," from 12/67, 1st electric guitar (played by Joe Beck).

1st ballot is in!

Listening to the Seven Steps box, and holy shit did that band find their voice quickly. Also, George Coleman reliably killing it. Never got his proper due as a Miles sideman.

Ha, I admit I did a brief "wait, I can't vote for 100 things?" double-take.

Birth of the Cool still counts as an album even though it was a compilation, right?

Would it be ok if I did an albums only ballot? I can't think of his work as 'tracks' other than a few obvious ones.

I just picked out 50 songs for my iPod, so maybe I'll do this one.

The sidelong tracks, like Shhh/Peaceful still counts, right?

Billy -- I didn't anticipate that request, but sure, why not.

Frederik -- yeah!

I can't think of his work as 'tracks' other than a few obvious ones.

I was thinking the same thing, jazz in general -- at least post-1950 jazz -- is so much more an album experience than a song experience. It will be interesting to do a tracks ballot, but it will be with a big implied asterisk that the songs for me mostly exist within the contexts of their albums.

Started my relistening tour today with Bitches Brew. "Pharaoh's Dance" is good morning drive music.

Yes, this is the first poll where albums make more sense to me than tracks. Normally I spend weeks on tracks and seconds on albums; this'll likely be the other way round.

I think some boxes should be countable in the albums list - The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965, The Cellar Door Sessions and The Complete Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk should all count, because they're documents of specific moments rather than gathering up multiple studio sessions. Y/N?

I started to wonder that myself. Ditto the new Bootleg Series sets.

There are still new box sets being issued?! This is the ironman of polls.

Two in the last year:
Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1
Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2

Both are 3 CD/1 DVD sets.

I am totally open to "do not vote until you hear THIS" suggestions, because there's plenty of obvious things I haven't heard nevermind the less obvious ones.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/a572ff127027702aaa16cf16fa6868bd/178416.jpg

dunno how obv or o/wise this one is, but everyone should hear it,imho - live broadcast from Paris in 1960. It was Coltrane's last tour with Miles, and he's already playing p 'out', much to the horror of the audience, who start to get pretty restless (booing etc) during the freer passages. Atmosphere is electric, Miles' playing is v. strong, incredible feeling of tension throughout, sonics are really gd - and the version of 'Bye Bye Blackbird' here is all-time. a keeper!

I think some boxes should be countable in the albums list - The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965, The Cellar Door Sessions and The Complete Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk should all count, because they're documents of specific moments rather than gathering up multiple studio sessions. Y/N?

― 誤訳侮辱, Tuesday, March 12, 2013 9:15 AM (1 hour ago)

This is reasonable and I agree.

Gah. I love Miles, but he's one of these guys that you can own 10 albums by -- which I do -- and still be the barest dilettante. Should be fun to try, tho.

Yeah, I think I have 12 and still feel like I've just dipped a toe. Never heard any of the 16 Prestige/Debut albums that Wikipedia lists, for instance.

Heh, I'm currently on album 46 in my box set and still feel like I shouldn't be here

I wrote an entire book about the dude and I know I'm gonna look at my submitted ballot and go "Fuck, I forgot..."

haha! yeah i keep clicking on this thread and then thinking -- "this is too much to think about right now"

i've had the plugged nickel box for *years* and have barely gotten through it. should give it more time but i'm always thrown off by the bpm's. and yeah, there is just way too much to listen to in ten days

Love the Plugged Nickel box so much. I can definitely see a sizable chunk of the second quintet's recordings going on my ballot. All of it live, though. Never thought their studio recordings measured up.

I used to feel the same way, but one day those albums cracked open for me and now they're some of the most amazing shit I've ever heard. Especially Nefertiti.

Nefertiti is such a strange album

Funnily enough, I've always been blown away by the studio recordings from first listens and have had to work a bit to find my way into the live stuff. (except for Dark Magus, which was O_O from day 1)

The intensity that all the players brought to bear in the studio is impressive. I listened to Bitches Brew the other night and I don't think I've heard any 69/70/71 live shows that match it.

Have you ever seen a live band play with that intensity? How would you go about finding one? [/jazznovice]

Well, the Bitches Brew studio sessions had somewhere close to a dozen people in the studio at once at times, whereas in '69/'70 Davis was playing with a quintet, plus he was still playing standards live alongside versions of "Directions" and "Bitches Brew" and "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," so the live sets are a whole different animal. (The band expanded to a six- or seven-piece in 1971; there are tons of bootlegs from a killer European tour from fall 1971 that I'm really hoping make up Vol. 3 of the "bootleg series" they're currently putting out.)

There have definitely been shows where I was thinking "every one of those players up there could wet their pants right now and they'd never even notice" -- Brötzmann Tentet +2 in San Francisco (esp. Jeb Bishop and Mats Gustafsson), Electric Masada in 2005, a few others. The Brötzmann group was at the same 2005 festival as Electric Masada, and were definitely having an off night compared to the SF show. xp

definitely definitely definitely

I used to feel the same way, but one day those albums cracked open for me and now they're some of the most amazing shit I've ever heard. Especially Nefertiti.

I love the piece "Nefertiti," and it'll probably be the only studio recording from that group to make my ballot. I'm definitely gonna give those records another go, though.

I listened to Bitches Brew the other night and I don't think I've heard any 69/70/71 live shows that match it.

Haha, I almost feel the opposite about Bitches Brew/live '69-'71! I love Bitches Brew now, but it took me about ten years of poking at it to finally come around after really digging the live records. But if I had to choose, I'd probably pick the live It's About That Time set over BB.

(The band expanded to a six- or seven-piece in 1971; there are tons of bootlegs from a killer European tour from fall 1971 that I'm really hoping make up Vol. 3 of the "bootleg series" they're currently putting out.)

I'll be on the lookout for those!

Yeah, i love the second quintet studio recordings whereas the Plugged Nickel box - magnificent tho many of the performances are - seems like a slightly more academic exercise, comparing different takes etc. The fact that the set list was still mainly 'the classics' rather than the newer Shorter etc compositions is also a slight let-down, for me.

You might like the 1967 Bootleg Series set; interspersed with "'Round Midnight" and "On Green Dolphin Street" are "Masqualero," "Footprints," "Agitation," and "Gingerbread Boy." And it fucking smokes.

Yeah, Ward, you've gotta hear Bootleg Series Vol. 1. The band was bad as fuck in '65, but they'd exploded by '67, and the set lists were almost completely revamped.

I like all the electric albums that I know. My favourites are In a Silent Way, Jack Johnson, and On the Corner. The only acoustic albums I have are Complete Birth of the Cool, Kind of Blues, and Sketches of Spain. I like all of those. What other acoustic albums should I check out first? I really like the orchestration on Cool and Spain. Big band and even Third Stream classical/jazz fusion (and obv jazz-rock and jazz-funk fusion) appeal to me more than bop, not that I dislike bop by any means.

I may just vote all electric stuff myself

sund4r: miles in the sky, then e.s.p.

If you like Sketches, you'll probably dig Porgy & Bess. Miles Ahead was the first in that Evans/Miles trilogy, and while it's great, it only hints at what was to come.

xp

I love Sketches. I'll look for Porgy and Bess.

Yeah, was going to recommend Porgy and Bess as well. From the 2nd quintet, I rate Miles Smiles way up there, why because "Footprints" is close to perfect.

Just been going through some Miles for this poll and will definitely be spending more time with Filles De Kilimanjaro before voting, somehow (god knows why cos it is majestic) my least listened to album in my Miles collection. I got a major obsession with Big Fun last year and always get upset when people say it wasn't a 'proper' album.

You might want to check out Water Babies, because it's half acoustic, half electric (well, electric keyboards anyway).

voted!

That is what it is with Miles. I have 16 of his studio albums and two live albums and am only well acquainted with 10 of these really. I have been listening to him for years and still don't feel like I am fit to contribute to this poll. Thanks 誤訳侮辱 be checking out Water Babies tonight.

it's funny listening back to some of these records. 'a tribute to jack johnson' doesn't appeal as much as i remember (used to walk around with a dubbed cassette of side 1), but 'pangaea' sounds even better. and i have no interest in going back through some of those other more chaotic live '70s records that i used to be way into.

lately i've just been listening to the miles records that i have on vinyl, which means a lot of my favorite 2nd quintet ones but also a new appreciation for stuff like 'porgy & bess', which i never really gave time to during my jazz-heavy college years.

when I was first getting into Miles' electric stuff in college, a lot of it was hard to come by/insanely expensive (I don't think I've ever even seen an actual copy of Dark Magus to this day) but Pangaea was one of the few live electric sets I managed to get and man did that break my brain. I credit Motorbooty with hipping me to this period.

I have been listening to him for years and still don't feel like I am fit to contribute to this poll.

I bought my first album by him in 1979 and don't feel like I know enough about his music to run this poll, but I'm not letting that stop me! I hope everybody will go ahead and vote based on what they know and like, and not treat this too much like homework. If you make some amazed discoveries over the next 11 days, so much the better, but I would hate for the daunting discography to suppress the vote.

i think they all (live-evil, black beauty, etc) got reissued on cd right around the time i was getting into it.

xp

unfortunately the odds that I'm going to be able to find d/l versions of Miles Davis stuff I haven't heard in the next few days are slim to none, so I'm kinda stuck going through what I already know/own

Starting to feel guilty for overlooking the second quintet in my ballot.

Spotify has been invaluable for the artist polls, with obvious exceptions like Led Zeppelin & Beatles, but if you don't got it, you don't got it.

Youtube is handy too.

lol @ biography.com's profile photo for Miles

http://www.biography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Profiles/D/Miles-Davis-9267992-3-402.jpg

I hope everybody will go ahead and vote based on what they know and like, and not treat this too much like homework. If you make some amazed discoveries over the next 11 days, so much the better, but I would hate for the daunting discography to suppress the vote

I hear you. I'll definitely vote, I've put three months into this already! But because I haven't been noting tracks - I thought it'd take way less time than it has - it's going to be pretty random.

The albums will be more considered - I've got two new discoveries I think are outstanding, plus a bunch of others I already knew and loved.

I dunno about youtube, Columbia's pretty aggro about that shit (esp with people like Miles and Dylan)

hmm I have never heard Black Beauty for some reason...

shakes, dark magus is on vinyl now via 4 men w/beards fwiw

I had MP3s of it once...

Is anyone going to rep for the 80s onwards stuff?

I've had the complete box set with all the CBS albums for two years and I've still not listened to all of it. The stuff I like most is the late 60s, when the second quintet is starting to splinter and Miles is pushing boundaries leading to "In a silent way". I also love "Get up with it" - "He loved him madly" is like a universe to explore in itself. The problem with having everything in that set is that it's hard to know where to start so it'll be good to see where this poll goes, to find ways into the areas I find a bit difficult.

Is anyone going to rep for the 80s onwards stuff?

I followed some links on that whosdatedwho.com page to a couple of songs from the Dingo soundtrack and was pleasantly surprised! Especially "Concert on the Runway."

I kinda like that Michael Jackson cover he used to do and I hate Michael Jackson

this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa1sRkujm0M

I started a thread praising Aura once after I just got it but I honestly haven't listened to it that much since then.

Is anyone going to rep for the 80s onwards stuff?

we want miles is one of his best live records, his band around this time smoked, pure elongated funk

altho yeah the 80s was like the first time in his career where he didn't really seem ahead of the culture in any meaningful way. that backing band could be any 80s smooth jazz backing band for ex. and he totally missed the boat on hip hop (which is not really that surprising).

would dig finally hearing the stuff he did with Prince tho

I dunno about youtube, Columbia's pretty aggro about that shi

yo, it's ALL on youtube. like full albums of whatever you want, apparently.

Is anyone going to rep for the 80s onwards stuff?

i'm repping hard for Live Around the World, it's the best gateway to the '80s stuff (or maybe just the best version of it all). great band.

I dunno I just searched for Black Beauty and got nothin

xp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO1FTcS_eeI

ooh! thx

re: black beauty, that's the first one i've come up empty for. found all of pangaea, agharta, dark magus, and all of the earlier stuff i wanted to hear.

Filles de Kilimanjaro has been a bit of a revelation for me tonight Godamnit!

I endured a period about five years ago when I'd listen to Aura every night before bed while washing my teeth.

not only is Filles a beautiful rec - love the way it feels literally suspended between the past (acoustic) and the future (electric) - it also has by far my fave miles alb cover

it feels literally suspended between the past (acoustic) and the future (electric) -

OTM

I hope everybody will go ahead and vote based on what they know and like, and not treat this too much like homework.

Exactly how I try to approach every one of these. I took a look, and I've got nine Miles LPs, two more on a home-burned CD, and the Ken Burns collection on another CD. Should I start replaying them all in an effort to get a ballot of 15 or 20 songs? I'd rather just go with the seven or eight that I've loved for years--if there were other songs that were meant to be on my list, I assume I would have noticed them at the time. Having said that, I will try to listen to In a Silent Way and Sketches of Spain before filling out my ballot.

Is anyone going to rep for the 80s onwards stuff?

My only exposure to his 80s work was listening to Aura once. I couldn't stand the arrangements (or mainly just the digital synth sounds/textures), and never revisited 80s Miles. I also saw some clips of his then-current band on his 1987 PBS American Masters special, and it was predictably empty and slick (other than Miles' own playing, of course). Those guys make Toto sound like Fushitsusha.

It's kind of ironic that the only era of Miles' work that sounds dated is the most recent.

I might just vote for albums because that's what I like best when it comes to Miles.

Is that ok? Can a person just vote for albums?

Is anyone going to rep for the 80s onwards stuff?

I wrote about the '80s albums not long ago.

LL, you can, though a tracks ballot would be welcome as well. This is a strange development in this poll that I didn't anticipate!

I wrote about the '80s albums not long ago.

Wow, that's great. Thanks. I haven't heard most of that period, just Amandla and the pop covers. But I love the insight about how conscious and deliberate his packaging of himself was then, that establishing himself as a celebrity first and a jazz guy second (if at all) represented a triumph for him, not some desperate ploy. And on those terms, it worked. I definitely remember him as a familiar pop-culture presence during my '80s teen years.

That's a great piece, 誤訳侮辱, and while I still bristle at many of the 80's arrangements, I may revisit 80s Miles at some point soon.

If Miles indeed "sold out" in the 80s (and I'm not convinced he did), so what? He had already redefined American -- hell, Western -- music a few times, and nearly killed himself in the process; why not cash in, and reap some of the rewards for once?

Those guys make Toto sound like Fushitsusha. LOL!

used to work in a jazz rec shop with a bass player who absolutely venerated marcus miller, bill evans, mike stern, all those 80s guys who played w/ miles, so i got to hear quite a lot of that stuff. never had much use for it myself - hard to get past that horrible fusionoid choptastic muso SOUND - but in its way it was kind've state-of-the-art for the time and in some ways a logical progression from the 70s albs (the one miles player from this era i had more time for was the saxophonist bob berg, who brought a bit more traneish grit to the playing, generally.)

How's the listening going for everybody? Was Miles the soundtrack for everybody's Popefest '13 yesterday?

Been digging back through the Prestige recordings, gonna probably hit the two Blue Note discs next. I'd forgotten that Miles' first recording of "'Round Midnight" -- 1953, Rollins, Bird (on tenor), Walter Bishop, Percy Heath, Philly Joe -- didn't use the Dizzy Gillespie arrangement (with the famous midsection fanfare) that would later become something of a signature for Miles.

Does Teo count as s sideman?

Listening to "Autumn Leaves" right now. Pretty sweet. Not a top 30 contender probably, but Miles and Cannonball are both great on it.

My inclination is to say no, to him and to Gil Evans as well. I'd like to stick with the people who played on the records, not that I want to diminish Macero's and Evans' work.

God, Miles' tone is just so ... How do you describe it? "Warm" is entirely insufficient, ditto rich, deep, melancholy, seductive, sharp, bright, dark. Plangent? What's really amazing is the constancy of it, through so many different settings, and the way he uses it in so many different ways. So what seems gorgeously romantic on the Gil Evans stuff becomes alarmed and urgent by the early electric period, but it's always the same voice.

How's the listening going for everybody?

I started going through my Miles CDs a couple of weeks ago in preparation for this - I'm familiar with enough of the albums to put a ballot together but I'm terrible at remembering track names. I'd still like to revisit some of the ones I don't have physical copies of although I've already got a shortlist of 36 tracks... This is going to be a fun poll for sure.

tipsy OTMFM.

Yeah that is some wonderfully articulated Miles musings there tipsy.

Just wanna rep for Ascenseur pour l'échafaud. It tends to get overlooked, but man, some of his most harrowing playing.

This poll finally got me to investigate Jack Johnson off YouTube--after looking at Christgau's A+ for three decades--and I liked "Right Off" so much that I was able to order a cheap copy from Amazon.

Ascenseur is def a beautiful alb - and one of the best intros to miles for newcomers, imho - but almost impossible to pick out particular tracks - one of the main reasons why i too am prob gonna stick to recs rather than individual pieces

also, i have mixed feelings abt the big miles/columbia sets but properly hearing the sonny sharrock stuff from jack johnson after all these years (even tho' it doesn't actually highlight SS at his most skronky) was justification enough for the whole enterprise

also also - most underrated sideman = sonny fortune (w/ sam rivers a close 2nd)

fwiw i am a big fan of the complete in a silent way sessions -- it's hours and hours of exactly the right sound when you in are in the mood for that sound

tru! for a slightly different angle on that material may i also rec the bill laswell remix alb PANTHALASSA (WMC, can we vote for that, btw?)

i's so weird hearing the joe zawinul version of in a silent way - too many notes

LL OTM re: IASW. And hearing the unedited takes for the first time, followed by the edited/chopped takes, was an insane mindblow.

also also - most underrated sideman = sonny fortune

sounds great on pangaea. same for al foster, who does some of the most convincing rock drumming out of anyone in the '70s bands, and as far as i know never really played like that with another band (well, i guess he came back for the early '80s studio records, but i haven't spent much time with those).

yr post made me look up foster's wiki (confirmed my suspicion that he's the only musician who played on the pre and post 'comeback' albs). so yeah, sick drummer, tho' my heart is always w/ jack dejohnette

i also rec the bill laswell remix alb PANTHALASSA (WMC, can we vote for that, btw?)

Yeah, I'll allow that one, since he worked from the original tapes w/Columbia/Sony's blessing.

/I used to feel the same way, but one day those albums cracked open for me and now they're some of the most amazing shit I've ever heard. Especially Nefertiti./

I love the piece "Nefertiti," and it'll probably be the only studio recording from that group to make my ballot.

I will, thanks. I'm working my way through some of the slightly-less-familiar Miles eras, and the Second Quintet (studio) is next on my list.

If You Started A Band...

A cover band, no original material -- by disposition (not necessarily material), some mashup of Miles' 2nd quintet, the Fleshtones and the Free Design.

― If you want me to "get there," pay attention to my angina (WmC), Tuesday, September 28, 2010 6:32 PM

Nice.

i don't get how anyone could be unfamiliar with the second quintet

at the very least, because everyone should have heard silent way and bitches brew and wanted to know, how the fuck did he get from kind of blue to that??

I'm familiar with them, but mostly the live stuff. I'm less familiar (relatively speaking) with their studio work, which for me never really matched the heights of Plugged Nickel or the '67 Bootleg Series set.

Huh. From George Coleman's wikipedia page:

Coleman also appeared in the film Freejack, the 1992 science-fiction film with Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger, and Anthony Hopkins

plugged nickel is some insane cyborg jazz but i still prefer the vibe of the studio stuff. for one thing they're some of the best sounding jazz records ever

Yes! I think the recording engineers from this era don't get enough credit. Frank Laico, Fred Plaut, Ray Moore, Arthur Kendy, -- not exactly household names.

I'd say not; didn't know their names until just now. Those records sound amazing; I can't think of any other records from that period that have a similar sense of space between the musicians, yet still sound so unified.

this thread is already putting a dent in my wallet, have ordered those two bootleg sets, p excited

yes, not paid attention to the names of frank laico, fred plaut, ray moore, arthur kendy before, gd spot WMC. i wonder if any of them are still alive, and what they could tell us abt miles and macero. so much 'modern' straightahead american jazz, to my hearing, is in thrall to the sound of things like Miles Smiles (or Maiden Voyage).

i am struggling to choose between coltrane and tony williams as miles' most valuable player

I guess I might as well link the one Miles-related thing I've ever written -- I interviewed Jimmy Cobb when he came to town. I didn't get anything out of him that a thousand other people haven't, but he was fun to talk to.

http://www.metropulse.com/news/2010/aug/25/drummer-jimmy-cobb-brings-landmark-miles-davis-alb/

I was thinking about "plangent" from many posts ago. I had to look it up to remind myself what it meant. It has to be the least euphonious word in the English language signifying something good.

Just wanna rep for Ascenseur pour l'échafaud. It tends to get overlooked, but man, some of his most harrowing playing.

Loooove

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uLPPd7qsdA

Shakey Mo --> I got hipped to the electric Miles from that same Motorbooty article! What a great mag; so nice to see someone else mention it.

Ascenseur is definitely ranking near the top for me -- especially since I feel like I will need to represent for some of the pre-electric stuff, just to keep us honest. But the way Miles plays the REVERB on that record really anticipates his later studio stuff, especially the more expansive stuff like on Big Fun (which is also for sure going to be up there for me.

This poll is a b!tch!

Chick, this poll is a motherfucker.

The first word of Miles's autobiography is "listen."

"Bags' Groove" sounded amazing in my kitchen today with the windows open, breeze blowing, sun shining.

But the way Miles plays the REVERB on that record really anticipates his later studio stuff, especially the more expansive stuff like on Big Fun (which is also for sure going to be up there for me.

This is OTM. The only other trumpeter I can think of who really explored/exploited reverb in a similar way was Bill Dixon.

http://youtu.be/9LC_k-qIVYM

I know this is the Miles poll, but Coltrane's solo from this "All Blues" in Stockholm 1960 is kind of mindboggling (and, to me, hilarious). That technique at 8:10 with the breathy, squeaky not-all-the-way there notes -- is that what's referred to as false notes, or is he doing the saxophone version of throat singing, or what? I need to find some guide to Dragon's Stockholm 1960 Complete 4CD that tells which songs Sonny Stitt plays on and which ones Coltrane is on.

That technique at 8:10 with the breathy, squeaky not-all-the-way there notes -- is that what's referred to as false notes, or is he doing the saxophone version of throat singing, or what?

Never heard this show before; completely amazing. I don't think Coltrane would really revisit this approach until "Leo" (Live in Japan) in 1966.

How should we classify the tracks on On the Corner. I only just now learned that the original vinyl had four tracks instead of the eight on my CD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Corner#Track_listing

"... on On the Corner?"

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/miles-davis-he-loved-him-madly-an-appreciation.188238/

While I love many Miles album, weirdly, I don't usually listen to them primarily for his trumpet playing. Kind of Blue is a bit of an exception. I like the compositions, orchestration, production, and group interplay. I should probably focus more for the trumpet playing itself. I actually pay more attention to McLaughlin on the electric material.

"... listen more for..."

You can include On the Corner/New York Girl/Thinkin' One Thing and Doin' Another/Vote for Miles as a single track on your ballot if you'd like, since it was presented that way on the original vinyl. And if you don't mind the spoiler, you wouldn't be the first voter to include it that way.

Well, I'd prefer not to do it that way if I have the option. I'm used to the CD. I take it we can do it either way, then?

Yeah, either way is kosher.

The CD I have (the remastered edition from 2000) has four tracks.

BTW, with just under a week left to vote, we're at five ballots. I'm not too concerned about that; this is one that sort of demands a lot of pre-vote listening, so I expect a lot of Thurs/Fri ballots.

I also always think of Miles in terms of albums, especially in terms of the electric material.

I'm struggling with this one. For one, I have way you much 70s stuff on it -- which I love much more as a thing than for the individual tracks. For another, it's been way too long since I indulged the quintets, the Gil Evans stuff and the early-60s material.

I worry my ballot is going to end up like some bad CBS compilation assembled by a suit and a hipster.

My first thought was that Gil Evans should count as a sideman, but that led to "well, should Teo?"

Does this mean that neither of them count or that both of them count? I think you meant the former but I wanted to be 100% sure.

I say both. Listen to 'Go Ahead John' from Big Fun for the supporting evidence!

I worry my ballot is going to end up like some bad CBS compilation assembled by a suit and a hipster

Heh, you and me both - almost literally so in my case. Not sure any CBS compilation could qualify as 'bad' though.

I was breathing a sigh of relief last night when I counted only eight albums left in my Columbia box, then I can get stuck into the Prestige one. Eight albums! Two of which are doubles! That's longer than most careers.

How widely sampled is Miles? I've just run through Zimbabwe from Pangaea and there are so many moments that would make for great loops.

Sund4r & Call the Cops --

My inclination is to say no, to him and to Gil Evans as well. I'd like to stick with the people who played on the records, not that I want to diminish Macero's and Evans' work.

― I Don't Wanna Be Dissed (By Anyone But You) (WilliamC), Thursday, March 14, 2013 9:34 AM

Ah, missed that, sorry.

Liking Miles in the Sky quite a bit.

No points for guessing my #1 sideman btw.

Nuts.

Miles in the Sky is a great one. I love that the transition from acoustic to electric is getting attention these days. The recent live at Fillmore (it's about that time) was a real revelation! Though I admit the recent 3CD/1DVD was a little less amazing. (The video though is pretty astonishing, especially when viewed against the video from 1967 -- big change in two years, clothes too!)

i've fallen into the habit of mainly listening to e.s.p. and miles in the sky, of the second quintet albums - surprising to go back to filles (which i never listened a lot to after its remaster came out) and realize how sick the drums are. crazy cymbals!

Argh there's so much detail I can't even hope to absorb. You should've gone the other direction and left the rest of 2013 for voting

Pollrunners #33-79 would shit 47 bricks and rightly so; or if we carried on with other polls while leaving the voting booth open for this one, I think Miles would get shortchanged. This one has a voting period of almost 2 weeks, which I ultimately think has to be enough. Still, I agree, there's no way to absorb it all!

LOVE the drumming on Miles in the Sky.

OMG, I made an amazing discovery at the gym today. After 3-4 weeks of going, I finally took my ipod with me...between the hi-hat and the 2-note bass pulse, "Shhh/Peaceful" is the greatest treadmill music ever devised.

Ah, here's a discovery - Miles is the source of SWV's Right Here. No wait, I just reached the chorus, this is the Michael Jackson cover. I'm going spare now.

On the 1967 Bootleg Series Tony Williams plays that same 16th-note pattern a couple of times. It's amazing that Miles could make a mental note of a figure one of his sidemen played and make it central to an arrangement over a year later.

xp

Filles has long been my favorite of the pre-electric records. Glad to see some others discovering it.

I wish we were allowed to choose thirty albums and ten songs.

Voted! Phew. My tracks ballot wound up roughly half-and-half electric/acoustic which sounds about right. Ordering the albums was tough.

What do you guys think of the processed trumpet solo that begins after 19:00 in "Prelude" on Agharta?

I haven't listened to Agharta & Pangaea with really close attention, but in general I think he sounds tired and leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to the band. Comes in tentatively and bails out pretty quickly on that particular solo, imo.

100 hours to vote, more or less!

He's also playing a lot of keyboards on those 1975 live records

How widely sampled is Miles?

I can only think of a couple off the top of my head (Digital Underground "Nuttin 'nis Funky" and some New Kingdom track iirc)

I haven't listened to Agharta & Pangaea with really close attention, but in general I think he sounds tired and leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to the band. Comes in tentatively and bails out pretty quickly on that particular solo, imo.

Cosey owns the track, right? I can't even really think of him as a sideman on that one. I was thinking about why I don't notice the trumpet playing as much on some of the electric records, esp compared to the acoustic ones. So I do think there are some really cool things in this solo but it doesn't seem to shine as much as the guitar work.

I think he sounds tired and leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to the band

good thing the band is fucking monstrous on these

lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tozxcWk6mn4

never noticed this one

Agharta was the first Miles record I heard in full. Cosey was a revelation (although I didn't know at the time if it was him or Reggie Lucas doing the soloing; the liner notes didn't say). I thought Miles sounded fine, but I didn't have much to compare it to at the time. Once I heard Dark Magus it because obvious that he'd weakened a bit by Agharta. Still, Miles' phrasing and ideas carry him through.

How widely sampled is Miles?

never forget:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXfEiUXuJKc&feature=player_detailpage#t=69s

that video is the cure to depression btw

I haven't listened to Agharta & Pangaea with really close attention, but in general I think he sounds tired and leaves a lot of the heavy lifting to the band. Comes in tentatively and bails out pretty quickly on that particular solo, imo.

I've always felt the "Miles was tired by 1975 -- just listen to Agartha and Pangaea" argument is bull. He may likely have been (and probably was) completely fried by then. But he doesn't really sound any more reticent on those records than In Concert or Dark Magus. The big difference is that the mix on the 1975 records sucks.

I'm not usually a big believer in stuff like that. But his trumpet sounds fucking ENORMOUS on Dark Magus -- the way it does on Live-Evil. But the American mixes of Agartha and Pangaea are just really echoey and thin -- and nowhere is that clearer than the sound of his horn.

Ok, diatribe finished. Carry on...

Good thing you specified the American mixes. The Japanese versions of those albums (Agharta and Pangaea) are like the work of an entirely different band.

Here, I'll prove it

Some more proof

Ah, crap; looks like R@pidsh@re deleted my uploads. Oh, well.

i think the electric piano (?) has got to be my least favorite part of filles. the lo-fi ka-dunk one.

Mm. I've always wanted to hear better mixes of the 1975 records.

Apologies for casting aspersions on the live '75 stuff -- I admit it was a very off the cuff opinion without enough listening behind it.

But his trumpet sounds fucking ENORMOUS on Dark Magus -- the way it does on Live-Evil. But the American mixes of Agartha and Pangaea are just really echoey and thin -- and nowhere is that clearer than the sound of his horn.

I've only heard the early-90s US Columbia CDs of Agharta and Pangaea, which is probably why they shrunk in my estimation once I heard Dark Magus.

But I love the slow second disc of Pangaea -- none of the other live stuff has that mood.

yeah, i find pangaea to be much more focused and less chaotic than any of the other live electric records.

That was actually the first MD album I really got into.

One of mine too, and the first electric one. This seems common -- I wonder why. I think it was the one Motorbooty rated most highly.

3 miles albums have placed in the 70s poll so far. Pangaea placed today. Would like to hear the japanese version if anyone has it or a working link.
Will be able to do an albums ballot if thats ok Wmc

Good thing you specified the American mixes. The Japanese versions of those albums (Agharta and Pangaea) are like the work of an entirely different band.
grrr, i neeeeeeeed those japanese mixes!!!

I was searching for those this morning; they're commanding hella $$$ (2006 DSD mini-sleeve format).

But they appear to be available in a less physical format.

Will be able to do an albums ballot if thats ok Wmc

― Algerian Goalkeeper, Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:38 PM (33 minutes ago)

The more ballots we have, the better the poll will be!

I do hope the turnout picks up before the end of the week! I admit I thought this poll would be one of those high-turnout affairs.

I'll be posting my votes on Friday -- still trying to listen as much as I can.

Would totally do an albums poll.

There's an albums component to this Miles poll! I think what AG was saying is that he'd only be voting in the albums part, not the tracks part.

I'd be up for redoing as an albums-only ballot poll btw, if you tack yourself on the end of the list it'd give us a couple of years' more thinking. I feel I could use them.

I spent some time on this over the weekend, but it's much harder than most single-artist polls. I think I could manage an albums ballot, but not a tracks ballot covering Miles' whole career.

i tried not to think of 'best' ('cause there are so many apples and oranges) but just to be honest about my favorites, the ones that have stuck with me.

What's the story behind Aura? This is quite unlike any of his other records.

I will send a ballot, probably at the last possible minute, because I'm totally cramming to get as much listening in as possible. This has been a great opportunity to revisit things, and especially to listen to things I've meant to for years and hadn't gotten to.

One practical question, which may have been answered above: For the purposes of tracks, how many does Dark Magus have? 4? 8? 1?

What's the story behind Aura? This is quite unlike any of his other records.

The piece was composed by Palle Mikkelborg and recorded with a full orchestra in Denmark; then Miles flew in and recorded some solos. It was taped in 1984 but not released until 1989, after Miles had left Columbia for Warner Bros.

It's barely even a Miles album, then?

One practical question, which may have been answered above: For the purposes of tracks, how many does Dark Magus have? 4? 8? 1?

For poll purposes, I'd say 4 -- that is, seeing as how the turnout is probably not going to be as large as I'd initially thought*, I will probably be combining votes for, say, "Moja Pt 1" and "Moja Pt 2" -- unless y'all think I should keep them separate?

I'd be up for redoing as an albums-only ballot poll btw, if you tack yourself on the end of the list it'd give us a couple of years' more thinking. I feel I could use them.

I like the idea, but...coming back and repolling seems kind of unlikely, even a couple of years down the road. In the meantime, if you guys want, we could expand this poll to 30 tracks and 20 albums. We're still just at six ballots, and if the people who've already voted want to expand their albums picks they're welcome to, but not required to.

* "Expectation is a prison." -- R.Fripp

Well...there's more to it than that. It's a weird record, and not one I like very much - in fact, I barely dealt with it in my book - but it's definitely not just him parachuting into something that would exist just fine without him.

20 ballots for albums would be great! I just dont have the time for a tracks poll because of yknow. Like Ismael I own tons of miles due to that box set and other albums but would need a year to listen to em all!

Yes, that's a strange beast. What's the book, should I read it?

Got to the last disc of my Columbia box, turns out Live In Europe 67 is a double-concert dvd. I never even conceived of such a thing existing - I don't even know that I should watch it. I'm just realising how unusual it is to be listening to an artist who's an almost-entirely aural presence, and a second-order of abstraction one at that i.e. it's an instrument I'm hearing, not a voice. The photo sleeves that reappear in the 80s felt inappropriate somehow, and this is why.

Maybe there are a ton of Miles promo videos, press conferences, ads out there, but I don't really want to know about them.

My book. Of course I think you should read it...

WMC, not that it's any big deal but i am insanely busy right at the moment, and can't do a poll at this time, sorry

thing that strikes me abt this thread - v. little chat about KIND OF BLUE

xp extremely good book, a great guide through these years.

I don't even know that I should watch it.

WATCH IT. It's one of the best performances of that group.

Alright alright - if I ever get a minute away from listening to Miles, I'll watch some Miles.

yeah it's great...

Bump for the last 2 1/2 days to vote!

Still working on my ballot, making some last-minute substitutions. Ranking these is impossible.

heyyy which one of you is "making plans for nyquil"? got a webmail, but no email to respond to...

thing that strikes me abt this thread - v. little chat about KIND OF BLUE

What's left to say?

I am interested to see where it lands on the album list. Haven't decided yet where it lands on my own ballot.

i felt a little guilty when thinking about KoB for the poll. like, yes it's amazing, yes it still stands up when i listen to it on its own terms, but yes it's also been tarnished, not so much by its reputation/ubiquity, but my the all the bad jam session memories of those tunes.

WMC, not that it's any big deal but i am insanely busy right at the moment, and can't do a poll at this time, sorry

Sorry to lose a voter, but I understand.

Just to make it official in case I hadn't earlier, I'll accept album ballots of up to 20.

Has anyone ever counted up just how much Miles music there is?

If Led Zep's total discography is seven hours, the Beatles twelve, and Madonna fourteen, I'm guessing Miles must run to at least a couple of weeks? Having just listened to fifty-two albums, I'm quietly devastated to look up a couple on spotify and find them in legacy editions clocking in at four times what I've been through.

think there must be quite a few jazz musicians MORE productive than Miles, tho - i mean, there were fairly lengthy periods where Miles didn't record anything, or play any gigs (live music being the source for so many over-stuffed jazz discographies.) just off the top of my head, duke ellington's career lasts nearly 50 years - and he played way more gigs than Miles Davis. see also: lee konitz, dave brubeck, louis armstrong, stan getz, chet baker - so many discs issued in their name at once point or another

It's extraordinary though - being exposed to this after only really listening to pop, where you can fit careers on a single mp3 cd. I'm struggling to work out how to process it - do you appreciate tracks or albums? Or go wider and think in terms of players and eras? Or do you dig deeper and appreciate solos, or sounds, or notes or chords?

I guess I'm saying that my ballot'll be completely arbitrary. I could write down anything without it making any more or less sense.

next up: Pearl Jam's Bootleg Series

xpost

i don't want to under-sell miles, btw, the quality control on his official studio albs is p unparalled, in jazz imho - after he signed with columbia, up until his death, he always enjoyed the best producers, studio sound, graphic design, etc etc

ismael, i've listened to a fuck of a lot of jazz but i'm no closer to knowing the ans to yr question. i think the way i look at it is - hurrah i will never run out of great jazz recs to listen to in my lifetime. or become a completist of someone like herbie nichols, who only cut a few, mythic sides.

Checked my iTunes: I have 4.2 days of Miles Davis ('49-'75).

Re: Kind Of Blues ubiquity. I haven't been exposed to anything that prevents me from really loving Kind Of Blue. Never really got any radioactive vibes from it, in recent times I have played the hell out of it. Is it because it has some perennial coffee table album status/gets played a lot in cafe-bars/crap jazz bands in pubs try and emulate it? I got into it a couple of years ago and it sounds like a shit hot band of virtuosos on fire.

I mean really on fire.

It is! It's a great album. If you had to pick one jazz record to become that jazz record, it's sort of hard to beat. It's just that so much of Miles is so great, Kind of Blue stands out less within the context of his career than it does if you just take it singly. If you haven't heard much Miles Davis (or much jazz), Kind of Blue is amazing. If you have heard much of either, it becomes one more masterpiece among many.

But yeah, when I asked Jimmy Cobb what he expected going into the sessions he said something to the effect of, playing with those guys, you knew it would be good whatever it was.

Kind of Blue leaves me even more inarticulate than usual -- its perfection (to me) has always placed it slightly outside of time and space, like it's the monolith from 2001 or something. Touch it and suddenly evolve. Also, sometimes I think of it as much as a Bill Evans album as a Miles Davis album.

Ballot sent.

Kind of Blue isn't my very favourite jazz album--that'd be My Favorite Things, just for the title track--but it's second. For myself, it's hard to write about because a) I don't know how to write about jazz music (when I write about pop, I have a whole checklist of fall-back strategies), and b) it feels like an admission that I'm a novice, latching onto the one jazz album that everybody's heard. But I'm positive it's one of my ten most played albums ever.

I'm actually planning on writing about Kind of Blue for BurningAmbulance.com next week - once a month, we run a feature called "The Runners-Up," spotlighting albums that should get more attention than the one album everybody always talks about by a given artist, so I'm gonna write about why more people should listen to Seven Steps to Heaven instead of KoB.

Ballot sent.

I guess I can't put off doing my own ballot much longer....

voted

Ballots received: 11 for tracks, 9 for albums, a smattering for sidemen.

Reminder, you can vote for up to 20 albums!

VOTE MILES!
http://youtu.be/mrjFtbGKqFk

voted. Highly unscientific. But every one a winner.

Also, I read Running the Voodoo down when it came out and I thought it was great! Nice to see ze author on the board.

how many ballots?

Voted (to boost the numbers a bit): 5 sidemen, 10 albums and um 1 track

A couple more came in while I was running errands -- we're at 13 for tracks, 11 for albums. I'll hold voting open until Sunday morning -- should still give me time to tabulate and start results on Monday, which was the plan anyway. As much as I admire Omar and JF and everybody who does awesome artwork with the rollout, I'll probably just do text + youtube + spotify links.

xpost -- make that 14 for tracks, 13 for albums.

you can do what I do and use album covers at least as that isnt time confusing.

WilliamC,

I'm sending you my ballot. I have to send it from my work email which isn't connected to my ILX account. Hope that's ok. Look for an email titled "Moodles' Miles Davis Ballot".

No problem! As long as it goes to my address in the opening post, it can come from anywhere.

sent it, let me know if it does/doesn't show up

You'll get mine William - thanks for the extra time, I'm too knackered/ill to attempt this tonight.

Sent!

Just re-watched the electric Miles bit on Montgomery Burns' Jazz. Wynton talks about Miles feeling "old and out-of-date" after seeing Sly and the Family Stone at the 1969 Newport Festival. Never mind the fact that Miles' set at that very festival was mostly as-yet-unrecorded electric Bitches Brew material (which he'd already been playing for months), or that he'd already recorded and released In A Silent Way. Wynton makes it sound like Miles showed up in a tux playing "Autumn Leaves", got jealous of Sly, and immediately rushed off to buy a Fender Rhodes and some bell-bottoms.

when i was doing my 'homework' i didn't really feel like listening to the post-bitches brew electric albums, the live ones (never been way into live-evil, have liked pangaea, agharta, dark magus, but they're kind of featureless to me), so i've mainly been re-listening to GET UP WITH IT, and wondering especially about miles' intentions because of that old invisible jukebox link someone posted recently, where miles is very critical of people not really doing something right with their sounds. obviously miles keeps doing things and trying to do lots of specific things in his electric period, but i've kind of had a tendency to suppose that in the thick of all those live albums he just started laying it out there, letting loose, or something to that effect, at some point. and GET UP WITH IT is obviously an exception to that (obv. ill-considered) thought, since it's got some very specifically chosen differences between the songs.

but for all that i've always wondered what to make of 'red china blues' - wondered if i was even hearing what 'the idea' might involve besides miles' electric guitar mimicry. maybe something in the bassline? it seems like it's a lot more enormous and driving than i imagine a bassline on a similar hard-charging horn-section blues number.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/get-up-with-it-19750410

http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth/miles-davis-on-the-one

yeah any time i think maybe ilx is a little too fusion and electric focused when it comes to jazz (eg this thread) i think of wynton and stanley and (lol) montgomery burns' jazz and get over it pretty quickly.

Just re-watched the electric Miles bit on Montgomery Burns' Jazz. Wynton talks about Miles feeling "old and out-of-date" after seeing Sly and the Family Stone at the 1969 Newport Festival. Never mind the fact that Miles' set at that very festival was mostly as-yet-unrecorded electric Bitches Brew material (which he'd already been playing for months), or that he'd already recorded and released In A Silent Way. Wynton makes it sound like Miles showed up in a tux playing "Autumn Leaves", got jealous of Sly, and immediately rushed off to buy a Fender Rhodes and some bell-bottoms.

i've been listening to those two albums over and over again for, i don't know, since i was a teenager (iasw) moving on into college (before i really got bb) and together they pretty well epitomize my feeling of how unaccountable music can be, that each one could be its own thing and endlessly fascinating and a source of renewable joy, yet happen one after the other and be so different and thoroughly conceived, AND not like anything else that's ever been made, in the entire history of the world.

that old invisible jukebox link someone posted recently, where miles is very critical of people not really doing something right with their sounds.

I have trouble taking that blindfold test seriously. I mean, for all his talk about Dolphy being "a sad motherfucker," he went and hired two of Dolphy's most distinguished sidemen (Carter and Williams), and two of his admirers (Hancock and Shorter). I think, aside from being generally cranky, Miles was pissed that he hadn't gotten out in front of what was happening in the new music.

sure - he does sound like there was just (always?) gonna be a rift of understanding/appreciation between him and the more dissonant/atonal/free stream of development, for all the noisiness he let into the second quintet and electric records - but i was just thinking about how that was a criterion he seemed to prize more than anything especially dogmatic about how music ought to be played, 'what you do with' your ideas/sounds/abilities

The thing to remember about Get Up With It is that, like Big Fun, it's actually a compilation of material from a bunch of sessions from between 1970 and 1974. The only one-session/one-album studio release Miles put out in the '70s was On the Corner, which is why it's the only one that feels like a solid thing unto itself. Even A Tribute to Jack Johnson combined a session from 1970 with some old stuff from 1969.

how do big fun and get up with it compare auteur/creative-control-wise? for some reason i've never listened to big fun since i always wrote it off as an odds-and-ends thing. but i did somehow think of get up with it as more of a deliberate statement, however different the source sessions are. is that just too oblivious to the facts?

hooray, figured out a problem I was having with the spreadsheet

Voted. Could you please confirm that it was received as there was a mixup with a previous ballot poll?

Hm, I don't know why I was a dick to Bitches' Brew for so long.

Btw, if anyone hasn't seen Mark Prindle's Miles Davis reviews yet, they're pretty classic: http://www.markprindle.com/davis.htm

Sund4r -- got it. For whatever reason, it landed in my spam folder instead of my inbox. But I did retrieve it.

Ah, that's what happened with the Joni Mitchell poll too.

My job has kinda trained me to check there first before assuming it just didn't go through.

Ballot sent. Underinformed and somewhat randomly ordered, but fwiw.

(I know I put Sketches of Spain too high, but I've loved it since I was about 10 or 11. My gateway jazz record.)

Got it!

Reminder for everyone -- the album voting has been changed so you can vote for up to 20 albums if you want. Not required, but available.

has anyone submitted a solely albums ballot or is that just obnoxious? i usually do these things on first impulse + five minutes of looking it over and changing one or two things basis but there's no way i could do that w/ miles (i think i'd have 'he loved him madly' #1 but really i have no idea), whereas an album ballot i could probably whip out.

There have been a couple other albums-only ballots -- wouldn't be obnoxious at all.

good alt-poll question would have been:

a. best second quintet ballad
b. best second quintet jam
c. best second quintet song/composition

(somehow i tend to think of ones like 'circle' and 'footsteps' as being a lot more distinctively composed than some of the stuff on ESP that i enjoy listening to plenty well)

Yeah we should do that sometime. Also best second quintet album cover!

miles in the sky (zoioioioing) = filles (betty o. mabry davis) > e.s.p. (frances davis) > nefertiti > sorcerer (cicely tyson) > miles smiles (zoom of miles davis driver's license shot)

omg i've always wished for this book:

The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68
Keith Waters

ISBN13: 9780195393842
ISBN10: 0195393848

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/CulturalStudies/AfricanAmericanStudies/~~/dmlldz11c2EmY2k9OTc4MDE5NTM5Mzg0Mg==

- - -

while tripping over that, i was reading about 'time, no changes' as the operating principle for freebop / the second quintet, started mumbling to myself, deleuze, guattari, plateaus, blah blah blah, and to my surprise

http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/369/

but, fuck if i wanna read a music theorist's phd thesis

voted albums and sidemen (found out that oh i guess i'm a second quintet guy - not sure i would've even figured this out til i wrote it down)

http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-miles-davis-at-montreux-1973-1991-mw0000223905

jurek really goes all in on the 80s music

"Time After Time" is showcased on this set no less than nine times. Each version is truly compelling, of a different length, in a different place in the set, and of varying intensity. But nowhere does Davis express the depths of his soul more completely and nakedly than on the first track of disc four. This is Miles singing a kind of secret song. The lyricism is so harmonically elegant and the emotion in the melodic line and ensuing improvisation is so honest that they are heartbreakingly beautiful. Without exaggeration, listeners had never heard Miles Davis like this before. Here is the bandleader, composer, cultural icon, musician, and human being reduced to the purity of music.

xxp Marcel has a shorter piece (~20 pages) called 'Cosmic Strategies: The Electric Experiments of Miles Davis' in the Deleuze and Music collection, not sure if it's available online anywhere though.

We're at 19 track ballots, 19 album ballots. I know of a couple others still to come, so we'll have enough for results to start rolling Monday.

Looking up Miles Davis on Spotify and finding all sorts of odd titles that I assume are bootlegs. Is anyone familiar with any of these? Any of them good?

They look so dodgy, I just jumped over them to get to the official releases. I am listening to a live "Footprints" from Live Jazz Sessions in Europe though, and it's pretty hot. I do wish there was a way to mark albums "exclude this bullcrap from searches" though.

Voted! I couldn't manage a tracks ballot but did albums and sidemen.

Those off-brand Miles compilations on Spotify are so weird and annoying. They seem to exist for lots of other jazz artists with big catalogs (Ellington, for example). Maybe they rely on creative interpretations of expired international copyrights? I'd like to know more about these bizarro labels. Do they have physical products, or are they purely creatures of the streaming ecosystem?

The sidemen voting has a very close 1-2.

Got 3 more ballots during the night, but nothing from Ismael yet. Everything ok out there?

Ballots that arrive today while I'm entering data will be counted!

Oh sorry, I was going to do it this evening - got 26 tracks picked, need four more. I'm heading home just now, I could probably get you something in about an hour?

1-2 I bet is Tony Williams & Coltrane

No more Deleuzeans!

The other book looks gpod

Done it - could you let me know if you don't get it? Something strange happened when I clicked 'send'.

Got it!

VOTING IS NOW OFFICIALLY CLOSED.

Ismael, sent you a question.

I've responded

Thanks! Appropriate change made.

wmc i forgot to say i brought forward the 70s poll countdown end day to thursday so at least you will get friday all to yourself.

I think since a fair bit of miles turned up in the poll there will be a lot wanting to watch both poll threads. We can try work out some timing so we dont interrupt your rollout the rest of the week if you want. And I will regularly post a reminder to everyone for the miles results thread. Dont want anyone to miss this!

There's no real need for either rollout thread to accomodate the other as far as times of day, is there? We all have modern now-a-go-go brains that can handle lots of stuff happening at once. I'll be starting tomorrow a.m. after the gym -- 10:00 my time, 11:00 east coast.

Sure but some are busy at work and only have time to follow one big fast moving poll thread but if you're sure then its ok. I'll have the miles thread and the 70s poll threads open in 2 tabs anyway so I can follow it. Looking forward to it!

I'll be starting the rollout between 1-2pm UK time. Not sure what that is your time as I think your clocks change nearly a month before ours.

What size rollout will you be doing for albums and tracks? Miles has over 501 tracks ;)

Not sure at the moment; I'll have a better idea of that tonight when I'm through tabulating. They aren't going to be huge numbers.

OK, the numbers are crunched as well as I can crunch them.

There were 25 tracks ballots, with 154 songs receiving votes.
There were 26 albums ballots, with 54 albums receiving votes.
There were 16 sidemen ballots, with 19 people receiving votes.

I think the countdown will be the sidemen, followed by top 30 albums, then top 40 (maybe 50) tracks.

Woo-hoo! Can't wait for the rollout(s)!

There were 26 albums ballots, with 54 albums receiving votes.

Hard to imagine this being topped in any other poll. Dang.

VOTE FOR MILES - ILM artist poll #32, Miles Davis - Results Thread btw

Argh meant to vote in this but forgot.