Miles Electric - A Different Kind of Blue

Starring:Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell, Dave Liebman, Sandra Gadelha, Chick Corea, Ron Carter, Gilberto Gil, Miles Davis, James Mtume, Stanley Crouch, Jack de Johnette, Carlos Santana, Airto Moreira, Dave Holland (VI), Keith Jarrett, Wayne Shorter, Bob Belden, Marcus Miller, Pete Cosey, Paul Buckmaster
Director: Murray Lerner
Studio: Eagle Vision USA
Product Type: DVD

Description

When he released "Bitches Brew" in 1970, Miles Davis opened up a new angle to jazz which stirred up emotions like no other record before. Some critics accused Davis of selling out, while the public bought it like crazy. It is one of the most examined albums of all time, even garnering a box set of the sessions. To date, "Bitches Brew" is one of the top selling jazz albums of all time. "Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue" examines the next step in the creative process...performing these songs live. The 1970 Isle of Wight featured an array of performers from The Who to Jethro Tull to Joni Mitchell. With improvisation playing a big role in the performance, the band (Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Gary Bartz and Dave Holland) had to be "on", yet ready to change on the fly. Directed by award-winning producer Murray Lerner, "Miles Electric" sits down with several of the performers who played with Miles, interspersed with his 1970 Isle of Wight performance, as well as artists such as Carlos Santana and Joni Mitchell, who describe the impact Miles Davis had towards music.

Customer Reviews:

Electric Jazz at its best!.......2006-02-25

I have been listening to Miles for many, many years. I enjoy all of his musical explorations - his fifties quintet with Red Garland and Philly Joe, his sixties band with Herbie, Tony, Ron and Wayne and his many electric excursions. He truly changed the direction of jazz so many times... This DVD contains the 38 minute segment recorded at the Isle of White Festival. What a charge to see Keith and Chick on the same stage with Dave Holland and Gary Bartz! The interviews highlighted on this disc are also very helpful and informative. A very worthy addition to the Davis discography.

The art is in the musicians.......2006-02-08

Up front I confess that musically I find the electric phase of Miles a lot to do about not a great deal. Time will tell for sure on the worth of this music. My comments are concerned with what I got out of the DVD and are not concerned with the musical content or brilliance or otherwise of the actual concert. There is a lot of music on the DVD but its ART is more in the voices of the musicians talking about Miles and their music and their part in making it. In talking about an abstract art like music, words do seem inadequate or pretentious, but I don't knock the musicians for trying. There are some absolutely electric moments - metaphorically speaking and two of them come at the end. The first is where Airto is asked to give a brief musical tribute to Miles. The man uses his voice, his body, his whole being and seems to become the band on stage - it is a truly magic few minutes and my admiration for Airto went way up as I realised that this man breathes music. Again you have reinforced before your very eyes the truth that Miles genius included a deep understanding of what makes a great musician - he picked the best. THe second great moment for me, was when Mr Hancock was asked to do the same thing and he sat there in silence for it seemed minutes - that too was electric in its feeling where all our thoughts rush into that silence. You see, Miles understood the power of silence too, the use of space, why he admired Ahmad Jamal, and he would have beathed a breath of satisfaction at these two tributes.
It's a well directed DVD with rich colour, and lots of music aside from the concert. Worth owning and revisiting.

As others have said FINALLY, FINALLY!!!.......2006-01-23

Sheech. I don't know how many videos I've seen talking about Miles. Talk, talk, talk! With little tiny clips that just kill then they are withdrawn. Frankly I don't care so much who Miles was personally. We all have our good and bad points. But... I LOVE his music... or what ever it was... that SOUND. That challenge! Miles heads know what I mean by this...

So I'm watching this thinking "Oh my god, not ANOTHER Miles movie with talk, talk, talk..." But then finally...

Thirty Eight minutes of Miles. Almost like it should be with no stops, no comments. Just Miles and his band. Isn't that what it's really about?

The MUSIC. The ART.

Like much of Miles' music from this period it's extremely uneven, up and down but the ups are so brilliant they are astonishing, like some kind of magic. Basically this is Miles' band from the Black Beauty/Live At Fillmore period - the NOT Bitches Brew period. It's very experimental, doesn't always work but always pushes and questions. This is Miles getting ready for Bitches Brew and the later stuff that still hasn't been equaled or even touched really. Heck this stuff hasn't been touched. Music hasn't really evolved much from Miles Magus period.

This gets 4 stars from me only because I know there is better Miles stuff out there.

My only complains are small. Too many close ups. I want to see the whole BAND 90% of the time not a close up. This is a jazz band interacting. That's the interesting part not the solos. And a bit too many cuts. For all those music video editors who think they are on the cutting edge... MTV editing is a banal cliché. Everyone does the fast cutting thing. It adds nothing. Especially to music like this that forces contemplation.

Anyway these are really small complaints.

Like others I'd like to see some of the later bands too. PLEASE CBS let us spend our money on you!!! Release the Live/Evil, Agarta, Dark Magus stuff on DVD too.

Actually the talking is not too bad on this. Some good insights. It's amazing how inarticulate the band members are about what made them tick during their school days with Miles. Pete Cosey is, I think, a standout. He's STILL some kind of way out goblin. And Santana is surprisingly articulate which is strange as he hardly ever actually played with Miles. I heard he was just too intimidated. I have a tape of one performance he did with Miles that's really really good though. What happened to Santana? Why isn't he doing anything that's anything? Despite what others have said about Joni Mitchell she too is articulate about Miles. And the short clips of her getting dissed by an audience are way cool.

Humorously, Miles got BOTTOM billing at Isle of Wight!!!??? In retrospect that makes us all seem pretty stupid, even though we weren't really stupid. It's just Miles was so damn good he was so far ahead of us we couldn't see 'till it was gone!

Thank you Dewey...

5 Stars when Miles is onscreen, otherwise none.......2006-01-11

The Isle of Wight set sounds like a stoned out high school garage bad until Miles lifts the trumpet to his lips and for those moments, it and he are spectacular. Buy it for that. As for the talking heads, some really big surprises: Carlos Santana is a nitwit, Keith Jarrett is a pretensious egomaniac, Chick Corea is basically inarticulate, Joni Mitchell has no business being there and Airto gets points for being so unabashedly ridiculous. But Miles! He is positively supernatural. It's not the notes, not even a little bit. It's the POWER and the LISTENING and the way he drives his band like a Ferrari.

Terrific.......2005-11-05

The previous reviewer is quite correct. Most reviews seem to assume that this concert was one long formless jam. This is incorrect.

The pieces being played are:

Directions: 7:12
Bitches Brew: 10:05
It's About That Time: 6:29
Sanctuary: 1:01
Spanish Key: 8:15
The Theme: 1:55

Yes, he does actually play Go-Go at the end, just as if it were still 1959! It sounds rather out of place here.

This is an incredible performance. The moment when the "Bitches Brew" bassline starts up and Miles begins to shriek over the top is pure magic. This is fusion jazz at its absolute best. Gary Bartz' solo on "Spanish Key" is also incredible!

By the way, the "Tribute to Miles" sung by Airto Moreira at the end seems to be a rendition of "Bitches Brew"; and the pieces Carlos Santana demonstrates on the guitar are "In a Silent Way", "Spanish Key" and (his tribute to Miles) "Concierto di Aranjuez." ]
The piece played by Pete Cosey is "Turnaroundphrase" (aka "Moja")

If you have ANY interest in Jazz, or in music from around 1970, then get this NOW!!

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