Reviews (page 2 of 12)
Kinda wanted to listen to the windwaker soundtrack instead of this today. Twas fine, well a little below fine because it lacked drama. Not my bag.
No fav song
Legitimately excited for this and also nervous. I’ve tried listened to it recently and couldn’t really get into it. But I’ve been exploring a lot of jazz lately from the 50s and 60s so I’m definitely really intrigued to hear the evolution toward this more experimental fusion style. More familiar with Miles Davis from his late 50s era like Kind of Blue. Pharoah’s Dance starts with just frenetic energy and noise. It’s not really “jazzy” at first but then you hear that rhythm section working and instruments coming in and out of the sound. It’s a lot. But once the horns dominate more, it really grows on you. It’s chaotic, and that’s the intention I think. About half way through the first track is when you’re like yeah this is something. The electric pianos and guitars make a dent on the song and it all starts to bleed into something unique. It definitely reminds you of rock solos more than jazz solos and I guess that’s the point. Bitches Brew finds a jazzy rock groove sooner and feels like a true improvisation session. It doesn’t really sound like anything else I can think of. And Miles’ squeaking trumpet lingers throughout the album. Spanish Key sounds like a straight funk beat at times and it’s awesome. Seems like the most funk rock jazz mixture of genres that feels less “out there.” John McLaughlin track sounds closer to a rock solo. Biggest downside is that the experimental nature doesn’t lead to melody so songs start sounding like each other and don’t stand out when they’re done. But while you’re listening it’s an experience for sure. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down might be my favorite track. Feels like the perfect mix of jazzy elements with a funky blues rock beat. Super fun and at this point in the album you’re more than used to the sound so this sounds like something old and new. This is as unique an album to hear after being familiar with some form other jazz and not hearing much of any fusion. It’s a remarkable departure in sound. It’s very hard to properly rate. At times it was overwhelmingly noisy and songs often take a long time to win you over. By the end you’re fully aware you experienced something different, but it isn’t all the most enjoyable. It’s at least a 3. Probably a 4. Not sure it’s something you’d choose to listen to in entirety often but it’s unique.
I appreciate different types of jazz, but when it sounds like random noises thrown in here and there or on repeat, with no flow at all, I can't do it.
Some interesting and fascinating pieces and the surprise Mario theme was a cool discovery. It did drag on a bit much and some of the high pitch horns were too much for me.
Volvemos al reto de la mano de esta bestia de la música que fue Miles Davis. De él tengo escuchados pocos discos y este lo tenía en agenda. Lo escucharé en dos tandas, pero debo decir que la primera parte es hipnótica. Seguimos mañana. Hoy cerramos con el disco y hay que decir que es un laburazo. Hipnótico, sin dudas. Ideal para leer en plan de estudio. Gracias y hasta mañana
BREWING BITCHES
buen jazz
4 Miles Davis albums down. This is the last one on the list. Thank God!!! I have been trying with each and every Jazz album to find something, anything, that will grab me or change my perspective on this genre of music as a whole. The first 3 certainly didn’t do it, I gave all 3 of them a 3 star review. While I did not outright detest Bitches Brew, and it’s closer to a 3 than a 1, I still think this is the worst album of the 4. Reason being is that Jazz is pretty hard to get through by itself, but when you make it an hour and forty five minutes long, it becomes a form of water torture. Every song is around 20 minutes long of just free from Jazz and while it’s not terrible, it’s just not good either. I don’t hate it, but I don’t understand it, and I don’t like it at all. My favorite song if I had to pick one would be “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down”. If Jazz is all about vibes, I guess I vibed with that one the most. The opening track is just ear piercing though, as well as distracting. That’s for sure my least favorite song on the album. Now, I have a good friend who loves this album and therefore, I was at least interested to roll it. I figured I wouldn’t love it, but I can still appreciate it based on the context surrounding this album that she gave me. Apparently, this is a collab with pretty much every big name in Jazz music at the time. A legitimate who’s who of musicians. And the fact that they all came together and made a Jazz album is at the bare minimum pretty cool, even if I don’t love it. So the final Miles Davis album on the list still didn’t really do it for me. Yeah, Jazz is still just never going to be my thing, and that is more than alright with me. We weren’t born to love everything, that’s what makes us unique. I’ve spoken to death about how I don’t like random, seemingly unorganized, distracting Jazz. This album fits that bill and then some. No rhyme or reason to any of it, and it bugs me. I can see why people do enjoy it, but I’m not one of them. It’s a 2 out of 5 for sure, if it was literally 75% shorter it might have been a 3, but that playtime is just insurmountably tough and makes the album a chore to get through. Sorry Miles, I tried.
Improvisational jazz. Enough said. I listened to every second of the album. I hated every second of the album. I can appreciate Miles being a master of his genre, but it’s not for me at all. That trumpet wil haunt me for a long time
Η πρώτη πλευρά με κούρασε, τα λάιβ ήταν καλύτερα. Αλλά επιτέλους ΛΙΓΗ ΤΖΑΖ ΕΔΩ ΜΕΣΑ. Αν και ΠΟΥ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΟΙ ΚΟΠΕΛΑΡΕΣ ΜΟΥ;;; Ελπίζω να μη βάλει μόνο άντρες τζαζίστες. ΑΜΑ ΔΕ ΔΩ ΤΗ ΝΙΝΑΡΑ ΘΑ ΓΙΝΕΙ ΧΑΜΟΣ
I’m a lowkey jazz fan but know little about it. I have “Kind of Blue” and a little Glenn Miller and that’s it. This was a good record, very chilled but also complicated, chaotic but orderly, simple and layered at the same time. It’s the sort of album you’re glad to have on the list.
Interesante saber que por aquí empezó el Jazz-Rock. Se me hizo un poco largo y la verdad es que funciona bien para mí como música de fondo, pero no consiguió que guarde nada concreto como especial.
I’ve heard this before. Last time I listened to this I was way too high and it was unsettling, so it’s nice to listen to this stone cold sober. One of the many times Miles Davis changed the course of music history and it’s amazing all around. It’s nice to hear John McLaughlin playing stuff I like since most of what I’ve heard of his is from the 80s and sounds like weather channel music. Completely badass motherfucker music as miles might say.
I might be too smooth brained, but I can’t really tell the difference between good and bad jazz
Quit thinking. Don’t anticipate the next move. Ride the waves and let it take you there.
I respect this more than I enjoy listening to it
I will grant that Jazz, in particular improvisational Jazz, is an acquired taste and not for everyone; but the people blasting this album as bad will sing the praises of some of the most juvenile crap, or some of the most vile filth ever recorded, so plus one just to fight the haters.
Ruim 1,5 uur jazz, freaky sax muziek Teveel van het goede voorij
It wasn't my cup of tea, but I certainly don't regret listening to it.
Most of the time I can appreciate the lack of structure in jazz but this shit is ridiculous. The musicians were likely stoned out of their minds when recording so I suppose I have to be stoned to really enjoy it. Also if you’re trying to introduce someone to jazz don’t start with this one.
Tough one to rate really. The difficulty with “experimental” albums is that they rarely land perfectly first time, possibly taking time and dedication to really open out and reveal themselves. There were some bits of this that landed really well with me, others where I just found it irksome, but at least it wasn’t bland and boring like some on the 1001. The difficulty with rating that though is that it leaves it pretty much sitting in the middle, which feels unfair when it’s at least more interesting and challenging than many albums I’ve had so far on this list.
Muy psicodélico para mi gusto
Boring, nonsensical, purposeless... yep, sounds like my wife *sips beer*
Spacious, maybe a bit aimless at times.
One for the Jazz purist. A jumble of sound played well but you really have to like experimental jazz to dig this.
First listened in July 2026. Not for me, I prefer Kind of Blue.
I have a fever and the only prescription is more bass clarinet
Hmm Jazz.... Honestly, this is cool, I'm vibing. But I can't really follow a real beginning-middle-end structure in jazz the same way I can in other genres. It makes me feel a little lost in all of it. Especially on this record with 20 min songs!
Helt ok, men ikke noe for meg dette
Rating just on my enjoy ability of this. I have to give it a two because it was just far too chaotic for me and actually made me quite anxious listening to it, but I know he is a stellar musician so this has nothing to do with his talent, this is just my enjoy ability and this was not fun for me. A trip down paranoia.
great jazz, loved the trumpets
I have fond memories of this record from my dad. This is what got played in my house as a kid!
Let’s goooo finally a great album that lives up to the “must hear before you die” tag after a week of mostly dreck or forgettable albums (besides nwa) I wonder how many miles albums are in this list?
Rotete plinging og plonging i nesten 2 timer.
Would not have listened to this previously, found it more accessible by approaching it like a dj mix. Could hear the influence on Jeff Mills and Laurent Garnier.
If miles Davis is cool call me pissing my pants
You like jazz?
Very random, but pretty good at some points. Really it’s just overly long and a little boring at some points. I see why people like it but it’s not meant to be and “enjoyable” listening experience.
An album I find incredibly hard to fault. Just awesome, awesome stuff from some of the best musicians of the modern era.
God I love Miles Davis, I love putting this one on when friends are over because they're in my house and are not allowed to complain. 5/5
One of those albums where I can at most appreciate what it's doing and its musicianship and find that that's about it. It's a bit of a struggle to get through, though I understand why it's seen as it is today.
First album of this challenge that almost made me quit. Don’t get me wrong, I love jazz. But this seemed like pro musicians doin a jam session. No structure, no road to follow, no coordination. I wanna rate this a 1/5, but will give it a 2/5 cause I know Miles is a very good musician.
Bien mais j’ai pas tt écouté
I love fusion but this particular album is hard
Very dense and strange. Love the rhythm section even when everything else gets chaotic.
I don't like jazz, and it's also experimental jazz. For an ordinary person, 10+ minutes of unstructured sounds is not fun. Maybe the fans will like it
A groundbreaking album of jazz fusion, but in reality it's basically just free jazz, with the rock bit basically just the musicians using electrified instrumentation typically associated with rock at the time. The music made me think of midcentury America. Forward looking, cerebral, abstract. I don't know if I understand the music but I loved being swept by it. What a journey.
It was interesting, but it definitely wasn't for me.
a lot happening
I was ready for some Miles Davis to blow me away and I just don't get this album at all. It feels like two hours of elevator music where every once in a while somebody remembers they're supposed to be playing jazz and makes some noise. Nothing grabbed me, nothing made me want to turn it up, and mostly I just kept checking to see how much was left. Maybe I'm just not a jazz guy, but if this is one of the greatest jazz albums ever made, we may have a problem. 1/5
First true jazz album listened through here. Sounded good. It reminded me of the soundtrack of the blues in "Blade Runner" (1982).
I really wanted to like this! Songs so long and no highs and lows, just droned on and on. 😵💫
I recognize that this is good, but I don’t like this type of jazz enough to enjoy it
I can't listen to this without being teleported back to the first time I listened to it, sleep deprived, delivering pizzas at night in the middle of the desert, and feeling like I was losing my mind and seeing things. Still overrated imo though less psychosis inducing when listening to it at my desk
no
Weird experimental classical jazz album. Enjoyed it, even if it was somewhat unnerving in places.
Miles Davis is a great jazz trumpet player. I like the use of electric piano and electric guitar. Very long album. 3.5/5
Iets te all over the place, zal komen omdat ik nooit naar jazz luister. Zal ik nog een keer moeten beluisteren.
VERY slow buildup. And it's pretty chaotic but still there's some beauty to it. The album altogether is a pretty abstract concept.
Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
Oh wow, finally real music! Miles Davis, jazz musician extraordinaire! Exquisite arrangements. Great band contributions.
Really hard to rate it’s like amazing music I will probably never fully listen to again. ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Um disco que costuma filtrar até os mais entusiastas em Jazz. É uma escuta desafiadora e imprevisível. O verdadeiro gênio dos artistas envolvidos nessa produção é totalmente transparente nessas longas faixas. É preciso admitir que eu sou um daqueles turistas do gênero que acaba sendo filtrado por este magnânimo disco. Tem muito aqui que aprecio, a alma viva e pulsante dessas canções me conquista. Mas acaba que sua duração exacerbada torna a escuta desse álbum de capa a capa uma tarefa herculeana e assustadora. O lado mais elétrico de Davis é interessante. Spanish Key destaca isso muito bem, acho que é a faixa mais fácil de digerir do álbum, e acaba sendo minha favorita. A desconstrução do Jazz proposta aqui é fascinante mas acaba sendo opressora demais para meus ouvidos. 4/5
Not my style, music felt discordant and tonal The melody was not comfortable for me
Nah
impresionante, tengo que seguir escuchando miles davis pero esto es buenísimo, le doy 5 estrellas xq siento que va a crecer mucho más en mi en el futuro y 4 estrellas van a quedarse cortas
Too fkn jazz
Forceful, textured, interesting and with a sense of interiority. Do I like jazz..?
If i could give a minus i would
No!
I’m sure if I invested enough time I could work out what people see in this, but frankly I’d rather do anything else
I played this one for dinner. We talked about Miles’ influence; the evolution of jazz; how odd Careless Whisper on harmonica would sound with a scat-style duet demonstration; had a discussion of jazz and classical artists and albums that both appeal and annoy; had a breakout vocal Broadway performance and washed the dishes…all in the time for the song Bitches Brew to played once. Honestly, I enjoyed Side-1, but I was alone in my assessment. Miles’ trumpet tone is magnificent, like a battle cry among the chaos. And I am a sucker for jazz bass clarinet, as it reminds me of my first year in middle school jazz. But admittedly, the album did start to feel long. I like Spanish Key as well. It’s times like this I wish I knew more about late-60s jazz to truly appreciate the nuances. I could listen to this again. Next time, with headphones….
Random thoughts: * Dude! That is a lot of music. 1 hour and 45 minutes to be exact. * I'm not sure I'm sophisticated enough to really appreciate this music but I did listen to it while working and cooking and just life because I cannot cut out 1.75 hours to dedicate to listening. * I'm not even sure when the songs switched really as it was just one continuous play for me. * Some of it was transfixing and meditative. * I'll definitely play this again and get to know the genius of Miles better.
I've been putting off writing a review for this album because I genuinely feel too stupid to say anything about it. I get why people are put off by this. It sounds confusing, cluttered, and to be honest, downright scary. But it feels that way because you are listening to musicians at the absolute zenith of their power, and of what music can be. By this point, Miles Davis could do everything else. He mastered bebop, hard bop, cool jazz, modal jazz, and had basically slam dunked fusion with "In A Silent Way," which was his first go at it. Where is there to go? Further. Improv in its purest form — sonic explorations into the great unknown, charging forth with anger, tenacity, and complete confidence. If you listen to this album every day for the rest of your life you will probably still not get it fully. I certainly never will. But lord I want to try.
Good for going on a walk. That’s it tho
Pleasant, Inoffensive. By virtue of what it's going for it lacks anything for me to consider memorable. Enjoyable background music though.
I liked this a lot more than some of the other experimental jazz albums on this list!
I love jazz and I love Miles. But this is the point in his career when he loses me. There is undeniable brilliance in the musicianship. It’s the third time that he changed the course of jazz. But listening is a graduate level seminar for musicians more than a work of art for music lovers. I find it constantly interesting; but only rarely emotionally engaging. And emotional engagement is what I want from music.
멜로디만잇자너
Mostly noise of all the instruments playing different songs all at once. Irritating and chaotic with the horns blowing sharp notes and the piano having musical seizures. All in all, I'd rather have a root canal.
2.5/5 https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/miles-davis/bitches-brew/ Potentially the highest rating I will give a zjazzzz album here (in retrospect, Birth of the Cool should have been lower). It's still very much not my thing and I strongly doubt I will ever listen to it again (at least not in full), but the album has a grooviness to it that even I cannot deny. Still, almost 2 hours of this is way too much. I absolutely get why this album is in the list, and I think it has every right to be there (even more perhaps than some albums I personally enjoy more), but I cannot say I enjoy it.
Stellar line up of artists, fronted by the most influential man in all of Jazz. Right at the forefront of discovering the sound that would become what pretty much all of 70's and onwards Jazz would be about. This sounds nothing like the Fusion that would be known as Fusion later on in the decade. This is a bit more of a difficult listen and in a good way. Its eccentric and has this out of the world energy to it. Good reason to turn on the record player again. I will say that the second half that I accidently listened to first does kind of sound duller than the first one. Hugely influential but not one I turn to often.
I liked some of this, but some of this I really did not like.
This made me understand more why people like jazz but it's still not my favorite
The hour and a half runtime and multiple songs exceeding or nearly hitting the 20 minute mark may seem daunting at first, but trust me when I say that listening to "Bitches Brew" is genuinely a spiritual experience you have to try at least once in your life. Miles Davis assembled arguably one of the greatest lineups to grace our mortal plane, who would later go on to define jazz fusion and jazz-rock later on into the 70s and 80s, ranging from Return to Forever's Chick Corea (electric piano) and Lenny White (drums), Weather Report's Wayne Shorter (saxophone) and Joe Zawinul (electric piano), to Mahavishnu Orchestra's Billy Cobham (drums) and John fuckin' McLaughlin (guitar). The material on this record pushes jazz to its absolute limits, even more so than previous record "In A Silent Way" which already alienated jazz critics due to its rock influenced soloing and song structures, and dialing all of that to 11, with a hefty dose of funk as well. The opener "Pharaoh's Dance" sets the tone for this record incredibly well: following the opening drum beat, the keyboards float in with this beautifully eerie melody before being joined by a jamming session with the bass clarinet, guitar, and bass, before transitioning into this funky groove led by Miles Davis' striking trumpet soloing alongside the rest of the jamming happening around him. Rather than melodic soloing that people would expect from a bebop or cool jazz record, these solos and musical moments are highly dependent on the rhythm that they end up playing, especially due to the overlapping instruments playing all at once. This overlaying of rhythms makes this album reminiscent of folk, especially from African and South American descent, as all of these different layers come to make a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Especially considering that most of all of the material on this record was improvised over a three day, three hour a day, recording session, with Miles Davis only supplying the band with the tempo, a brief melody/chord progression, and the mood that the track was going for, it absolutely shows the creativity and talent on display that they were able to construct these dense soundscapes. That said, despite all of the tracks sharing similarities to each other, they each stand out in their own separate ways: the aforementioned "Pharaoh's Dance" has an overall celebratory tone; title track "Bitches Brew" feels like a chaotic conversation, with each instrument wanting to get their "point" across in the form of wild, frenetic soloing; "Spanish Key" and "John McLaughlin" are the more heavily rock influenced tracks, with the former having a more sexy funk based rhythmic feel to it, while the latter is dominated by the conversation between John McLaughlin's virtuostic guitar playing and the electric piano players Corea and Zawinul. Closing out the record, "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" is a lovely homage to Jimi Hendrix, as the psychedelic instrumentals keep the groove and swagger that the late guitarist was known for; while "Sanctuary" concludes the record on an atmospheric journey, letting the listener breathe for a bit before picking up the pace and intensity once again until the breakdown at the end where the music finally settles down back to earth. While I think that it would be best for a casual jazz listener to start with something like Herbie Hancock's "Head Hunters" or the previous record "In a Silent Way" before diving into a record as rhythmically and sonically dense as this, I still highly recommend this record to any music fan. It's definitely an album that you need to sit down with and really grow accustomed to, but "Bitches Brew" will reward an attentive listener tremendously throughout jazz-fusion odyssey.
Jazz masterpiece
Ground breaking jazz album, taking Miles Davis into jazz rock fusion territory
Just had a groove-tastic afternoon at work
There won't be a jazz album on here that I'll particularly like unfortunately. To me after a while it just becomes noise. Still its a lot better than some of them on this list so far.
I enjoyed, not really up to speed with jazz so I think I went over my head
I'm not really a jazz listener, but how can you not appreciate this--okay, I'm a Phish fan and it's clear the 2nd disc is mostly a rock jam haha. I'll probably put it on again, but not ready to go 5, more of a 4.5 for me.
more grooves must be EEEEVIIL!
I can appreciate it, but it can drag. 3/5
First side is maximum audio. sometime after the 1 hour mark, you do start to wonder whether something else will happen still, which is the only downside.
Infectious grooves
- first song too long - second song even longer - far too long - was told not to start listening to davis with this album and now i see why - like the end of pharaoh’s dance - jazz is just the stream of consciousness of music - miles davis thinks he is virginia woolf - how did he win a grammy for this he’s just hootin and hollerin - even his bio on spotify is too long all this guy does is yap i guess - i think i am going insane because every single song sounds the same - miles runs the voodoo is genuinely the only redeemable song but it’s still too long - featuring wayne shorter but the songs are longer - cam winter LOVES late 60s early 70s miles davis ig i will never understand
I had a bit of a headache when I started listening to this, and it didn’t help! The jazz cacophony was overwhelming and I wasn’t able to properly enjoy it, as I know I probably would in other circumstances. One I will return to, when I’m feeling a bit less delicate.
Who am I to give this legendary album less than 5 stars but I still think that the praise for this one has gotten over the years is a bit overblown. The album is a bit self-indulgent but that's what happens when you're trying something new and shaking things up. 4.5 would be more appropriate but I can't help compare this to In a Silent Way which I think does it better. I definitely can get down with Voodoo any day though.
Experimental jazz at its best
Whatever the magic is, I don't fully comprehend, but it's an interesting jazz album and it does go places
it was something ive never heard before, a little difficult but also hypnotising, my favourite track was sanctuary
funky listen... kinda not for me...
Virkilega solid og áhugaverð plata. Skemmtilegur titill og plötuumslagið æðislegt. Eini gallinn að mér fannst erfitt að tralla með þessu.
Snilldarplata. Skemmtilegar tilraunir hjá Miles.
One of my favorite albums from the moment I first heard it, and yet I still find it difficult to put into words what makes it so special. Part of the joy of jazz is the improvisation and interplay between instrumentalists, and while a lot of avant-garde stuff can stretch out beyond my ability to grasp it enough to derive enjoyment, that isn't a problem here. This is constantly referred to as a fusion album, and I don't buy it. This jazz isn't fusing with anything. Sure, it's played with some electric instruments, but there's a vast difference between this album and IN A SILENT WAY in terms of integrating with popular music structures. To me it is just incredible, adventurous, minimally structured, exploratory large-band improvisation with more explosive moments than any other jazz album I can think of, so intense at times that I need to pause and take a breather when listening to the full thing. The Penguin Guide sums it up: "a gigantic torso of burstingly (sic) noisy music that absolutely refuses to resolve itself under any recognized guise." They considered this a flaw, but I don't. Bitches Brew is a force of nature.
Ok, så här. Jag fattar att detta är otroligt på många sätt. Skicklighet och nyskapande. Men... Det tar ju aldrig slut? Oändligt långt och det loopar och loopar. Jag kan väl enkelt säga att detta inte är för mig. I små mängder ja, men inte ett helt album.
Favoritt-jazzen til samtlige støy/psych-musikere jeg er glad i. Har gitt den flere forsøk opp igjennom, men tror bare jeg har kommet meg gjennom hele én gang tidligere. Nå har jeg en hypotese. Jeg har satt på denne på morgenen mens jeg har gått til verks med sparkel & sandpapir. Arbeidet krever lite intellektuelt, men nok presisjon til at det ikke er komplett hjernedødt heller. Når hjernen er i dette stadiet, funker dette veldig bra, for jeg prøver ikke å gjette meg frem til neste moment, men balanserer grasiøst mellom motifene og overraskelsene. Tesen min: avant jazz er blue collar musikk. Det kan være tungt å komme seg igjennom et dobbeltalbum med dette, men det står egentlig i stil med håndverket.
Første gang jeg har hørt gjennom hele. Anbefalt av forståsegpåere siden 1970. Plata ble bedre desto mer jeg hørte. Stone me into the groove eller no sånt. Plate 2 begynte jeg for alvor å tenke på Jimi Hendrix og det han holdt på med sammen med Band of Gypsys. Qwanta meg fram til at Davis og Hendrix visstnok skal ha spilt sammen 1 gang på soverommet til Hendrix og hadde planer om å gjøre innspillinger sammen, men det falt sammen pga management. Men hadde Bitches Brew blitt så mye annerledes? Ja, bare Hendrix er Hendrix. Og bare Davis er Davis. Uansett, ikke så rotete og avantgarde som jeg trodde Bitches Brew kom til å være. Men jeg er nok mest interessert i Kind of Blue fortsatt, så du får bare kalle meg en basic bitches brew.
I'm a huge Miles Davis fan but have always struggled with this album, like I do with most experimental albums. They are music for musicians and a bit too much for me. But something clicked while listening for this project and next thing I know it has been on repeat all day. I started hearing more funk and psychedelia and freedom and less chaos. “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” is a stand out track.
ok
Haven't listened to this since college but man this is cool. Side A had me feeling like I was deep in a K hole and trying to crawl my way out but even that was a good experience.
Oh yeah. You've gotta choose one album for the rest of your life? Choose this one. Not my all-time favourite, but it'd take me forever to reach the bottom.
Good shite
Очень...
Clearly a genius, but the album was a little too chaotic for my taste
Miles Davis
I don't hate it, but I also think I don't appreciate jazz enough to really get this one. I just do not enjoy songs that are 20 minutes long, regardless of the genre. They start to feel too self-indulgent after awhile. I do think this one improved towards the end. Or maybe it just became more accessible towards the end. Regardless, it's been the only thing I've listened to all day because of how long it is, and I've kept having to start and stop it while I'm doing other things, which is certainly not the way to listen to this type of album. Maybe I'll give it another go at some point and find I like it more than I currently do.
Not my cup of tea.
Wow, he's off the map! Haven't heard jazz like this since Marcus "The Worm" Hicks ran with Thaddeus Finks and Mookie Kramer and the Eight Balls.
Obviously this is a masterpiece: I don't think I could have countenanced giving it anything other than 5* before I'd even listened to it this time round. But it's absolutely stunning. I'd not previously noticed the difference in sound between the crystal clarity of the trumpet on the earlier tracks through to the slightly messier, almost more woodwindy sound on Clarity (if you told me it was a flugelhorn I'd believe you). Otherworldly.
I listened to lots of jazz-rock back in the day, not so much jazz fusion. This was challenging, very intense, in a good way. Ideas from the Wikipedia write-up intrigued my listening: it was improvised, after a week's rehearsal? Two drummers and two bass players? They recorded sections each in a single take, with no overdubs, but then edited and stitched? So sometimes I'm hearing stuff that was improvised - or directed in real time - but at other times, where I can't follow a jump, it might because two different recordings were stitched together?? Be all that as it may - the music is very energetic - I wanted to keep listening - although it was hard to concentrate all the way through the longer tracks. Quite hard to follow - trying to imagine what the musicians were thinking (why this blat, or that line) - but not as difficult or off-putting as I found A Love Supreme. After a day of listening (on and off) I went out, and was shocked to hear predictable music - my music horizons were flipped. I respect this album a lot, wouldn’t just put it on casually, but I’ll sometimes be missing its vitality and unpredictability. I may pick a track to try to get familiar with, bit by bit. For now, I'll say it's Pretty Wonderful, 9/10.
Yep that was nearly 2 hours of Jazz
2026.08.25.
I tuned out during the first 20 min track. I usually like this kind of jazz but wasn’t in the mood today.
Jamie Overall Rating: DNF Aiyra Overall Rating: 1 /10 Favourite Track: bitches brew but I don’t have a favourite track Least Favourite: everything else Notes: I don’t like this type of jazz girl bye Toheed Overall Rating: 2 /10 Favourite Track: n/a Least Favourite: n/a Notes: Not doing her. Natalia Overall Rating: It is so bad, I wanna give you a zero. But that’s not possible, so I give you… a 1/10 Favourite Track: The minute long silence in Sanctuary Least Favourite: John McLaughlin Notes: I can’t imagine what inflated sense of self critics must have to think this album is in any way interesting, boundary-pushing or relevant. Another example of something is old and niche, therefore people think it’s good. I feel like I’m stuck on a bad trip the whole time - what a waste of a good album name
Pretty good
1. 4.5 1. 5 1. 5 2. 4 1. 5 2. 4.5
Great jazz. Brilliance but not jagged. Some jazz can be jarring if it isn't done well. This is done very well.
Not our thing at all, good job we listened to kind of blue before this one. All the things we don't like about jazz. Also why is it called bitches brew.
Like it. Good bitches
Dipped in the end
Insane how these tracks transform and shift within themselves to create some really mysterious and transfixing soundscapes. Having heard this now in full, it is easy to see where all the other jazz fusion artists I've listened to over the years have been pulling from. Fav Tracks: "Bitches Brew", "Spanish Key" and "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down".
It's Bitches Brew.
I know Miles Davis is a genius. But I’m not going to be pretentious and pretend I liked this.
It grew on me and I know it is vital but it always seems hard to access and reach. I totally get how important this record is and the reasons for it but I just don't turn to it like I do with Kind of Blue and In A Silent Way.
[Already rated. Original review:] Felt like a philistine at first, because I couldn't connect with the first disc at all. The second half is full of guitar freakouts and cool electric piano stuff, and really hit. Especially loved "Spanish Key" and "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down."
This type of jazz is usually not my thing, but I did find this to be a fun ride. It has all of the meandering elements that usually turn me off, but I liked the trumpet and guitar. Spanish Key Might be my new favorite song of this genre.
This was so cool! I really enjoyed it. I don't usually jazz like all of that but I got it. And I felt cool.
3/5
Oh yeah, here we go. This is the album that really made me fall in love with jazz. Listening to this for the first time was the first time I realised that jazz is so much more than boring background music at fancy restaurants. Each track starts off pretty simple, but by the end of it you feel like you've been hit by a train after riding a unicorn into a volcano while tripping on psychadelics. It's so impressive how much of this was improvised, how they managed to come up with all of that and it sounding so good without ever rehearsing or practicing is absolutely insane to me. Truly one of the greatest jazz musicians to have ever existed.
so good, so weird, so beyond anything else.
Way behind on these albums now because of the new cameron winter
What a great jazz record. It's so fun and just amazing. I love that the songs are long and I love the cover art, I love all of this. If you're not into experimental jazz some of the bands you listen to are and I guarantee you they love this album.
So sick
very good.
I just can't do jazz without being in a bar. I need the aesthetic to be into it
I feel like this is album is the quintessential showcase of why I have difficulty getting into jazz music. I spent the first half of this album (Pharoah's Dance and Bitches Brew) listening for any sort of cohesion or something to latch onto... themes that could be explored, expanded upon, strayed from, and found again. All I heard was a bunch of noise that sounded like people tuning up their instruments independently of one another. Perhaps the things they were doing were actually too sophisticated for me to hear as anything but random noise... but the individual elements felt lacking as well. Shrill trumpet notes... banging out dissonance on the piano... nothing to anchor it. Sometimes things have never been done before because they don't sound good. I never knew when I was about to be surprised by the next unpleasant noise. Sides 3 and 4 were more comprehensible. Spanish Key was my favorite track on the record... at least some of it had a tune. It also has recognizable drive and rhythm. Even though I could appreciate the later tracks more, it still wore out its welcome long before the end. Then Sanctuary returns to more of the style I didn't like on the first half of the album. I'm sure there are people who can tell me why and how I should appreciate this record, but I can almost feel the air of pretension that will accompany the lesson. Before listening to this, I misremembered the album title and did a full listen of "Kind of Blue" instead. I'm glad I made the mistake because it gave me a frame of reference for this record... and an appreciation for where Miles Davis was coming from. Kind of Blue, of course, sounds much more traditional -- but I came away from it with a lot more positive feelings. Maybe I will come to appreciate this music someday, but for now I'm relieved to see the back of it.
Not my thing
Definitely one that will take time to settle into. A real sense of frenetic energy overflowing, and a pushing of the boundaries of the genres it pushes together.
One of my favorite albums of all time! I listen to it almost religiously.
Keleta kartų darydama pristatymą klausiausi, tikrai neblogas.
An all time classic. Davis has a few of these, but this is one of the best. The physical copy of this album is amazing and worth every penny.
Started listening with headphones but realized this was much more suited for speakers. Was a much more enjoyable listen. Miles runs the voodoo down was my standout favourite.
This album feels like the musical equivalent of a Jackson Pollack painting. It's like the beat poet that stands in the spotlight for 60 seconds, dead silent, only to step up to the mic and say "kitten" and the crowd does their little snap-applause thing because it MUST be profound. This is music for musicians, not for regular people. Critics love this album because it must be deep, it's abrasive and weird and meandering, giving them something to write books about its depth, which other musicians and music critics will read and argue about. Meanwhile, we just want something to bop with while we do our mundane jobs and relax at the end of the day with a drink. For me, this was hot garbage. The first time the album locked into something that resembled a cohesive song was "Feio", THE LAST TRACK. Come on, Miles, I know you're better than this. And you lose a point for making this a double album. It's like you gave me some extremely good soup and told me I have to drink a gallon of it in one sitting. It might actually be worse than math‑rock proggy mess, because at least math rock feels like someone is in charge. Bitches Brew feels like the studio was left unattended and the instruments unionized. I know Miles can make brilliant, structured music. Birth of the Cool proves it. This isn’t that. This feels like the opposite: a leaderless experiment where the band is playing twelve ideas at once and hoping one of them sticks. My Rating: 2/5
Listened
Мифический альбом
I'm going to firmly place this as the best album on the list that i won't give a 5 stars to. this is such a brilliant album don't get me wrong, but after listening it's prob the... weakest Davis album on the list. In terms of technical tho, it's easily the best on the list, it's just beautifully spaced with so much niceness to the texture, he's using everything in the textbook and far far away from the textbook to make a sonic masterpiece. I think the difference between this and the others is that there is more "coherence" to the other albums on the list from him then this. In A Silent Way, whilst having similar length tracks, I believe sonically is more my taste pallet and easier to follow. This'll def be an album I come back to here and again, i think one play of this isn't enough to LOVE this album.
Normally I’d say that jazz doesn’t do much for me but Miles Davis is an exception. However on this occasion I just think that even this was a little too much for me, a cacophony of sound that at times just wasn’t coherent. Sorry purists.
Do you like jazz? If not, then you won't enjoy this
Kuulostaa ihan mun ADDltä. Ei yhtään mun musaa. Ekalla levyllä tosi psykedeelistä menoa, toka levy on kesympi, mutta lähtee silti ains välillä laukalle. Eka levy on psykedeelistä jazzia josts voi nyt todeta että se ei oo mun juttu.
I tried, but it's just not my thing
Just not my favorite kind of music, and this one drags on a bit too much. 2/5
100% solid gold genius.
Jazz is just shit
It really does take a concerted effort from me to like this kind of jazz, I wish I had the ears for it :( Miles Runs the Voodoo Down is fucking COOL though.
Would probably be a 4 if it was half as long
뭐라 쓰지
I get that it's too long, but it's impossible to not appreciate this. I mean this is an insane level of talent. Just to play something like this, let alone come up with it. This is incredible, I don't get how people can invent music like this and remember every single time how they played and what they played.
Not my favorites Miles Davis album, mostly because of the stylistic direction
I never acquired a taste for freeform jazz...
I think Davis is only meant to be listened to wandering a big city at night in the rain. My friends: “No, this isn’t one Davis’ weirder albums” - just cuz it’s not one of his weirder doesn’t mean it’s not weird!
It’s hard to write reviews the small amount of instrumental and jazz albums on this list but this was good.
Fabulous! The experimentation! The fusion! The noise! 1970!!
Witchcraft. I somehow got my hands on the multi-CD deluxe version of this album in high school. It was one of my first experiences with jazz, and a hell of one at that. I didn’t understand it but I knew it was casting spells. There’s something mystical about the combination of timbres - Corea’s electric piano, the bass clarinet, Mile’s stabbing runs - and the intermittent repetition and chaos. Like psychedelic-induced nausea that eventually breaks through the spiritual cloud cover to reach what’s next.
I don’t appreciate or understand this as much as someone who really loves jazz, but it was generally entertaining and intriguing.
good jazz i should come back and listening to it perfectly
i think i need more time and listens to really appreciate this. it's complex, lenghty, strange. has a spacey, psychedelic, futuristic taste to it that makes it so interesting even today. but at the same time, it made me lose myself on the music and find me at the end, without knowing that much about the music.
Kind of Blue is the best jazz album of all time. As I don't like jazz. This certainly takes more love of jazz to get into but the incorporation of electric instruments makes it very listenable still, despite its length. Spanish Key probably the highlight. My lack of love for jazz prevents this going higher but it's obviously a huge album.
i really don’t know what to make of this. i usually like a bit of jazz, but this is just a bit too jazzy. also no album should be 1 hour 45 minutes. i did not finish this, i am so sorry miles davis.
There was some stuff in here that was good. But its just soooo loooong and often I found the backing instruments distracting which put me off the main part. I'm sure it's all very clever, but today it just felt like a lot of noise. I didn't hate it, but the jazz I prefer has more structure and then plays around on a theme that I didn't really get from this. It's not quite a 3, maybe I'll listen again one day when I cope with the time it takes to sit through it.
no
attention span is too fried for three hours of jazz to be interesting
Sounds like the dead in a few places. 5
Sehr cool. trotz der Länge nie langweilig. Hab ich beim ersten Mal unterschätzt 9/10
LOVED this album when I first started studying jazz.
This was even more random than other jazz I have been exposed to. For example when this - let’s call it bloated experimental directionless album ended another miles Davis track came on. Something from the birth of cool. That was awesome compared to this record. Not gonna give it two stars but it’s not a fun listen.
A voyage!
This is really difficult to review for me. I'm not a fan of jazz at all. However, I really liked the sound of this. But then the entire album sounds the same to me. And 1 hour and 45 minutes of trumpets is just way too many trumpets
background music. nothing more nota 3/10
Freaking Masterpeice!
Following on from 'In a silent way', the 'directions in music by Miles Davis' live up to their billing on this sprawling, at times difficult but never dull, listening experience. Supposedly recorded at the same time as Woodstock and having just as big an effect upon popular culture in the long run with the re emergence of Jazz via popular music, film soundtracks and prog rock. This is arguably day one of Jazz rock and fusion whilst achieving Miles's ambition to create music out of pure improvisation based on a handful of chord progressions set out by the man himself. Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul on keys, John McLaughlin on guitar, Wayne Shorter on sax and Bennie Maupin on the then unique bass clarinet are remarkable in creating something out of the loosest of frameworks. I need tie before hearing it again but there's a reason it was his biggest seller part from 'A Kind of Blue'.
I. Loved. This.
Brilliant music. But my nervous system can't deal with the sharp trumpet. It is unfortunate. The other music, beside the trumpet, is fantastic. 3/5
Wow what an absolute discovery. Prog Jazz. When I saw that this was nearly 2 hours long I was erm I’ll have a go but had no hope of getting through it but it was stunning.
Even if it might drag here or there, still easily earns its long runtime and status as historically significant in regards to the creation of jazz fusion. In A Silent Way is already present on the list, but if you enjoyed this album *please* also listen to Miles Davis' Jack Johnson album, especially if you enjoyed John McLaughlin's guitar work. 9/10.
8.5/10
acknowledging the abyss that separates my ability to enjoy this from being able to understand it the longest and by far most challenging album yet, i appreciate the quality of the performances, which are unlike anything i've ever heard before. top tier musicians creating a new language in an almost telepathic way; the groundbreaking spirit that leads them to do more than just the next great jazz album, adapting the same spirit of contemporaries from different genres, from psychedelia to prog, passing through funk and everything that represented the new social and cultural reality
1. "Pharaoh's Dance" 2. "Spanish Key" 3. "Sanctuary"
Ani neviem presne... Záleží na momentálnej nálade. Ak je priaznivá, tak 5, ak nie, také.
Jazz gets away with a lot of shit by saying "it's meant to be challenging". Sometimes I don't want to be challenged.
Bitchin!
Paul Klee's theory of drawing was that the artist was simply "taking a line for a walk." I find this useful when trying to listen to jazz - just follow the line, wherever it goes, you'll be tethered to something, you won't get lost. That's what worked with Kind of Blue for me - the lines are clean, cool, and elegant. Bitches Brew sounds like those lines went straight up Miles Davis's nose. The line was then scrunched up into a ball, which, I think, is the basic model of string theory. But that similarity might be because, like string theory, I don't really understand Bitches Brew either. It is one of the few albums that Aislinn can listen to while she works. I tried listening to it while I was writing yesterday - I came to a hour later and it was occult gibberish. 2.5 In my attic lies a pile of all the jazz CDs I ever bought, which is only about a dozen. About half are Miles Davis. Some years back I decided I’d tried my best with Jazz and…well, fuck it. Up to a box in the attic they went. I retrieved Bitches Brew this evening and in truth felt slightly guilty about having left it up there, rejected with the others. It is undoubtedly the Jazz album I have listened to the most in my life. This is principally because I started listening to it when I was about 16, having just discovered that Radiohead had cited it as a major influence in the production of OK Computer (which I don’t get, although I can hear Kid A obviously). It wasn’t back then a particularly enjoyable or edifying listen - quite dispiriting, in truth, because my basic bafflement was clear evidence that I wasn’t musically fit enough to be in Radiohead. I did recognise that it had its peculiar character however - which was enough to keep it in my headphones over the years. The CD I rescued from the attic has a pleasingly chunky booklet. I love the artwork - colourful cartoonish fantasy (and font!) where almost all the other jazz albums in my pile have merely a rather gloomy picture of a musician not looking at the camera. The booklet also has the cringeworthy original liner notes by Ralph J Gleason - an apparent wally. It has too some of the studio edit charts, which I had another go at following as I listened. Absolutely useless. I can’t follow Pharaoh’s Dance or Bitches Brew or Spanish Key. Still, for music that remains structurally oblique, I continue to get quite a bit of enjoyment from listening to it. The satisfying, thick, chewy texture of most of this record is marvellous - I love the double drum kit, the electric piano, and especially that bass clarinet, all ticking away together. If I can’t have structural or narrative satisfaction with those big tracks I always feel happy enough dwelling in the sound - attention always rewarded with some odd, previously unnoticed detail, inattention always attended by an compulsion to groove along in my chair - making my own experience. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure sort of music I find. Whether I want something soothing or abrasive, sweet or bitter, it always seems to all be happening at once - the shift in the focus of my own attention is all. I can attend to one particular musician or none - everyone is perfectly distinctive (apart from maybe the drummers) and everyone is also part of the same smothering rhythmic wave carrying me away. I dare say people who know and appreciate Jazz better than me will say that that is the ordinary dualism that much Jazz is built upon - nothing special about Bitches Brew in that respect. Well I honestly struggle to feel it so potently elsewhere. Maybe the essential advantage Bitches Brew has over me - apart from two drummers (always a great idea, surely) - is the editing and effects. Where almost all the meaningful decisions you hear on Kind of Blue, for example, were made in the moment by musicians in a room, a good portion of the decisions here were made by someone sitting at a mixing desk with headphones on. As someone used to listening to rock and pop music I feel that, I recognise that, and I am comforted. If there is a lack of structural narrative within the longer tracks that I can grab hold of - there is also, at least, a sense of grand narrative across the hour and a half. If I make it as far as Sanctuary and Feio I find that yes indeed - I am ready for a good wallow. Here’s an Album, as I understand the term. Perhaps some other rock and pop listeners will find only the cold chaos of ‘experimental jazz’ in Bitches Brew - as remote and unsympathetic as a thousand other Jazz albums. I personally feel like it is one of the only times Miles Davis, and Jazz, puts an arm round me and invites me in. Now…back up to the attic with it. 3.5/5
"The postgraduate course for students of jazz-rock." I flunked this course first time around, about 20 years ago. Really did not like it when I was younger, and it put me off fusion jazz for good, I thought. After loving In a Silent Way I thought this was where I'd get off the Miles Davis train. But it was revelatory, and nothing like what I remembered. I've probably got a better ear for what I'm listening to now, and more context, but it was still a shock. I must have heard the record so differently once. There are worlds going on in this, and real feeling and emotion. Goddam it. I got old and into fusion jazz. Someone buy me a pipe and slippers
the first time i heard this album, it stopped me in my tracks. i had never heard anything like it. listening to it again today, i feel the exact same way.
Very hard one. I recognize that this is a landmark moment in music history. The studio and in-the-moment creativity is actually incredible. But as a piece of music, as a synthesized whole, it's not especially listenable. I'll take "In A Silent Way" 100 times out of 100. I'm glad I heard this, but don't plan to do it again.
one of the most important jazz albums ever, but I am not big on fusion
Ok, really liking the experimentation going on in this one. I think I'm still more of a Coltrane fan, but this an Sketches of Spain are my favorite Miles records. Kind of has an uneasy, dark vibe to it that I'm digging. Definitely on the long side, but doesn't drag. Overall, great record.
this is not the best jazz album that I've listened to I mean it's experimental music for a reason in the middle of the album I gained hope but every time a random instrument ruins it. Too experimental not for me.
This does nothing but annoy me.
Confused.
Weird but in a way I like.
first disc is chaotic and not great. so didn't listen to second disc.
Didn't make me like jazz
Wicked album art. The rest what I feel is the worst indulgences of jazz. Bunch of musicians playing solos over one another. Though that's better than some of the sections on the last track where nothing happens! Someone will play a little note or two and then wait or ages before someone else plays a little something. Still, there's a few little enjoyable bits in there. 2 stars.
I wish I liked this kind of music, but I found listening to this genuinely painful. The rambling, unpredictable, improvised vibe stresses me out. I find it too discordant to be able to have on in the background, but not interesting enough to have on in the foreground. Every track was so much longer than it needed to be. No standout tracks, only relief that it ended. Rating: 1
It's one thing to write about an album that created or redefined a genre. How do you do it about an album that redefined several genres at once? How do you write about Bitches Brew? Why is it such a legendary album with such a wide reach of influence? There are few albums that force the challenge the listener's ear, that literally teach you to hear and consider sound a different way, than Bitches Brew. Part of it is the sheer scale of the ensemble that Davis assembled for recording. Three electric keyboardists; two, sometimes three drumkits; two bassists; along with a guitarist, a saxophonist (the great Wayne Shorter), a clarinetist (Bernie Maupin), a guitarist (John McLaughlin). Phil Spector built walls of sound through studio magic. Miles Davis built it primarily with actual musicians. He brought them in with only broad strokes for each composition, letting them build around him and each other. The results are the kind of song you can listen to over and over without hearing absolutely everything. Listening to its compositions, several moments -- for example the back half of "Pharaoh's Dance" -- where it's tempting to describe the content as musicians playing more than one solo at a time, different textures, Davis' trumpet weaving through the keyboard noodling from Zawinul, Corea, and Young. This doesn't fully do justice, however. A "solo" in jazz tends to highlight the virtuosity of a specific player, but it also diverges from a pattern that's already been established. "Pharaoh's Dance" doesn't follow a pattern in this way. Or at the very least the pattern is so loose, so organically evolving into new rhythms and arrangements, that saying it has a mode of any kind is very close to pointless. Adding to the radical rupture is the recording techniques. Davis and producer Ted Macero used tape loops and delay effects -- common rock, funk, and pop musics by this point, but still rare in jazz. Every instrument seems to swirl and echo and curl into each other than much more. The logic of structure is abolished, allowing what might otherwise be a "solo" to expand into a kind of wide open ambience. In fact it seems Davis is the only one returning to familiar phrases in the midst of the sonic explosions. The latter halves of both "Pharaoh's Dance," "Bitches Brew" and the rest of the album see him following a consistent pattern. Toward the song's end, he will reprise relatively simple progressions heard earlier in the same composition; rising, falling, reemerging into our lines of sight. Musicians aren't "taking turns" here, each stepping aside for others as they showcase their virtuosic knowledge of melody, harmony, and improvisation. Rather, Davis' trumpet stands in the center, each accompanying instrument becoming an extension, radiating out like a sunbeam, finding new places to illuminate of its own accord. There really was no precedent for the sheer scale of what Davis was trying here. Not in jazz. Not in jazz fusion (whatever that is). Not in funk or funk-jazz. Understanding the significance of this is best done by way of a few words on "Sanctuary," the closing track of Bitches Brew. There are shades of jazz forms more recognizable here. Somehow. Phrases that would be at home in a club from a decade earlier, running alongside the likes of Brubeck or Getz or Max Roach a la We Insist! The closing moments hear these drawn out and sustained, lengthened and cast into whatever comes next. Almost as if the mesmerizing anarchic cacophony cleared the way for these sounds to wind and evolve. Yes, the face of jazz was never the same again. Neither was music as a whole. Brian Eno cites Bitches Brew as an influence. So does Thom Yorke of Radiohead. So does Aphex Twin. So does virtually every beatmaker in hip-hop. We can go on about the album's placement in time -- 1970, the bridge between the 60s and 70s, when Civil Rights was becoming Black Power -- but really what we are talking about here is a collection of recordings that, in the reimagination of these strictures and struggles, completely undid and remade musical imagination, and did so in a radical way.
What are the chances my second jazz album is “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis? It seems like only yesterday I was shocked by how different “Shhh/Peaceful” and “In A Silent Way” were, and honestly, kind of enjoying it. This album, however, instilled the completely opposite reaction in me. The sounds on this album are perfectly fit for a film about people who run away from the police on dark, rainy streets. That’s certainly how I felt—an invisible force pressuring me to listen to this album while I was trying to escape. Waking up at 4 a.m. and listening to this album was one of the worst ideas possible, because now it’s 6 a.m. and I’m writing this review with eye bags laying on a Muji soft cushion. There is no single defining track on this album (except for maybe “John McLaughlin,” with its guitar). Maybe this is because of the horrible 20-minute-long tracks, which make every single sound I hear mesh together. But even then, the sounds I hear on each track are exactly the same (those extremely high trumpet notes, occasional piano, and occasional bass clarinet), and I do not believe those were even executed well. Every sound felt out of place—and I understand that the point of this album was to continue being experimental after “In A Silent Way,” but I think the people who are saying “stop criticizing experimental music” are missing the point. I’m all for experimental and improvisational music, which I even play myself; it just needs to sound decent. I’m also not saying that this album wasn’t influential—it most certainly was, but after all, this is my review, and it should reflect my personal taste. I always say that, in terms of movies, the sequel or remake is never better than the original. I guess the same would go here. I hope my next jazz album is smooth jazz. 1/5
I can appreciate the musicianship, but too noodly for my taste
This one had to have made The 1001 Must Hear List because of the clever, racy (at the time) album title. Because here’s how it rolls: 1. Pharaoh’s Dance = 20 minutes of organized noise. 2. Bitches Brew = 25 minutes tune-up session before the gig starts. 3. Spanish Key = better, but still tuning up, Miles. 4. McLaughlin = thanks for keeping it to under 4-1/2 minutes, John! 5. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down = 14 minutes of almost listenable (to start with), but not quite. Best track on the album, but rough and jangly by the end. 6. Sanctuary = Nearly 11 minutes of screechy trumpet and off-key piano. 7. Feio = went from screechy horns to blaring horns. Not sure what he’s going for hear, maybe a spooky finish. (0.85*s) Yep, still not old enough for jazz…
So Miles Davis crossed boundaries and genres, with subtlety. I guess you can appreciate Bitch's Brew for what it is...an experimental, improv recording. Can't be duplicated again as played. Listenable at your grandparents house. The trumpet work is sparse really. Some guitar work was bluesy enough to get a groove going but at the end, with a slow pick dragging across a string?! Stop being so cool guitar guy. Thought the songs were wrapping up for nearly half the play time. Deserves a must listen but not another listen. Davis is Miles away from making any of my top lists. The guy got 60+ albums of the same thing and we have had 4 from 1001...can we be done Mr. Dimery? Great name and cover art...chore of an album at almost 2 hours. The more exposure I get to MD, the more my opinion drops...1.1 stars.
Miles decides to mix it up a bit and experiment with some electrical instruments. I guess this heralded the onset of a new jazz-rock era but for my uneducated ear it just sounded mostly like another mixed mess of random jazz assortment. I probably picked out a couple new sounds but they are mostly buried in the mix. I can tell this approach a little different from some of the earlier big band or swing jazz arrangements, but not sure what it is that would make this one so special unless you have a wide appreciation for jazz and its sub-genres. I wouldn't have minded half an hour of this, but 90+ minutes was far too extensive so I wanted to just get it over with by the end of it. Nothing against the classic jazz masters like Miles, I just don't have much interest at this point in my life. Perhaps I'll get more out of this 30 years from now (unlikely) but for now it just gets thrown in with the rest of the jazz entries. The biggest culprit on this one was the playtime. 0.94 stars
Will this be the album that helps me distinguish the good jazz from the other jazz? Let's find out in two hours. 2 hours later I still don't really understand Jazz but I think this album is pretty neat! I found myself just picking out threads of one instrument that stood out and just trying to follow it. I can understand why people like this stuff even if it doesn't super hit the spot for me usually. You could get lost in the sauce pretty easily.
Just write a damn song.
Best album of acid jazz era!
I have found that a lot of the jazz albums on here have been very good, but the Miles Davis ones just haven't been great for me. This one was better that the other one I just listened to. There was more here (not just the fact that it was almost 2 hours), in style and substance. I did still find a bunch of it repetitive without as much variance as I would like. Still, a solid effort. 3 stars.
Have you ever been lost in a seemingly endless maze while having a slightly unpleasant mushroom experience? Me neither, but this album feels like that.
iconic
Just giving me the ick.
Ok, so I went back and forth on the scoring a bit, but I've decided I'm going with 4 stars. I wasn't as into Pharaoh's Dance and Bitch's Brew that much, but I liked the rest of the album better. Lots of top notch musicians on this album. My favorite was Spanish Key. At one point during that song the rhythms were so hypnotic that I zoned out for a bit lol. I was completely lost in the music. (in a good way)
A few songs were 10 out of 10, but some of them I didn’t get on with at all. Split the difference.
못들었다... 1번 2번 트랙의 초반부 조금과 나머지 트랙은 찍먹했다. 이런 긴 흐름의 곡을 음미하고 싶은 욕구는 있지만 너무 바빴다... 평점은 3점이다. 앨범을 듣지는 못했지만 어떤 구간을 들어도 이 앨범의 세계에 곧바로 빠져들 수 있었기 때문이다.
The first one that I had heard none of before this project, and probably never would have tried otherwise (purely instrumental albums are definitely not my thing). I know nothing about jazz, but I had a good time just taking it in! Not really for me but I appreciate the talent :)
JL : 2, Sanctuary A : 4, Spanish Key
The Good: We get bitches and brew! The Bad: No.. no we don’t… The Ugly: This is the kind a Jazz that most of us don’t understand… The snob in me wants to give this a 5* rating without hesitation, and to tell you the truth, when the album presented itself this morning, I thought that I was in for a treat… I was a little wrong… Not that it was bad… it was just that I could have skipped half of the songs… and that, I guess, expels me from the snobby in-crowd fan club… Oh well… c’est la vie! 3*
After a string of bad albums that were all "avant garde" (unlistenable noise), it's nice to have an album that I can tell is actually good even if it's not my cup of tea
It's Miles freaking Davis man. It definitely wore it's length at point but even when it faded to the background it still sounded great. 8/10
Bitches Brew is a chaotic masterpiece of jazz/rock fusion.
I genuinely want to like this. I know it’s good and I’m bummed I just don’t get it.
I dig Mile Davis as much as the next guy, and this album is great... but one doesn't need to listen to the entire record to get the idea. Good stuff, though.
Interesting academically, but not quite the enjoyable listen of Kind of Blue
energy
Pharaoh's Dance is so good I'm just cheering. I don't think I'm as psyched through the whole album since it's very long but damn it's good. Very funny to describe it as "jazz-rock" because I'm like wait there's nothing rock about it and then I think another second and I'm like hmm there's nothing jazz about it. Love how little trumpet there is too I feel like Miles is just smoking a cigarette and yelling at everyone to play better. That's how you make a masterpiece.
I’m intrigued by this masterpiece but have that feeling I sometimes get in front of a famous painting in a museum. I know it’s brilliant, I know it’s unlike anything else or that it paved the way for everything after it, or it’s a technical and artistic wonder, but I just don’t get it. Or worse, I just don’t enjoy it. Yeah, that’s it. It’s just not for me. I can appreciate it but I really don’t want to listen to this again. 😆
Not my favourite of Miles‘ body.
Only listened to one side today, pretty good
Not for me
I have no eloquent way to put this other than saying "Bitches Brew" was extremely fucking cool as my first proper exposure to jazz fusion! The song lengths are super intimidating, but I was fully on board once I gathered my resolve. The imagery that instantly came to mind was a scene from "Alice in Wonderland (1951)" where she drinks the shrinking potion, gets stuck in the bottle, and is swept away in a rolling ocean of her own neon-lit tears. I do get why this album is polarising (due to its sprawling experimental nature) and 3.3 stars is not a bad average, but damn, I can't help but feel a little offended on its behalf.
Listen I love Jazz and I really enjoyed this experimental jazz album. However this is too long for me and the last song really ruined the vibes for me. I understand that it was like a slow release to a frenetic and intense album but it just didn’t do it for me!!!
This one was rather chaotic. At first I enjoyed the first side, it was like the music you might use in a hectic montage of someone a bit worse for wear pacing dark and brooding streets. Like a drug scene or a someone slowly losing their mind? Maybe the intro of Homeland? But, and unfortunately, as the album went into it's nearly two hour run, the chaoticness failed to keep me entertained and actually just a tad annoyed. I know enough to be impressed by this and there were certian moments where I was at peace with it all. Yet, that's not what I look for in a jazz album. 2 Stars.
This is like waking up and realising you got blackout drunk last night, and trying to piece the events of the evening together. You get up and make a black coffee. Milk would be bad right now. You get a flash of a roulette table in your head. You check your pants pockets and find 25 dollars worth of casino chips. As you sit down to drink your coffee, you are transported back to drinking an espresso martini. You cough, and it tastes like cigarette smoke. There is a girl asleep on your couch? You open the window, and a breeze reminds you of being at a rooftop bar drinking negronis. You can’t find your phone, but you have a bad feeling you left a voicemail message on your ex-girlfriend’s phone. Probably best you never hear that. Your shirt from last night is covered in mud, grass stains and a bit of blood. You check the mirror and see that you have a black eye. Next thing a girl comes out of your room, and sheepishly tells you her uber is waiting. What the hell happened last night? All in all though, you get the feeling it was a good time.
Not as good as his other and a bit long, but still a great listen and musicianship at the top of its game.
This is probably my least favorite jazz album that I've been served to date.
Boring and uninspiring album
In jazz music, there’s a high correlation between how chaotic the music is and how high it’ll rank on the ‘not for me’ meter. Improvisation is cool and everything but to my untrained ear, a lot of this sounded like a few musicians getting together and just playing whatever without listening to each other. I’m guessing that the inaccessibility is part of why some people like this.
Phenomenal jazz fusion, one of those albums that demands a full listen
*57 Anders’ favorit der kommer her :) Som følelseskatapult og opvisning i instrumentfærdighed, er det et super godt album. Som musik-oplevelse er vi nok nede på en 1'er. Jeg giver tre meget små stjerner til futuristic-anxiety-miles for at køre mig helt ud over kanten på en 56 år gammel LP.
Det her musik interesserer mig simpelthen bare ikke. Det lyder ikke nødvendigvis dårligt - det er bare ikke mig. Jeg er hård, fordi det skal jeg begynde med at være :) en subjektiv 2'er
Hader det 1.3
lidt ligesom hvis Jimi hendrix fik et lovechild med jazz, undfanget midt i et syretrip og lige inden (hippie)bølgen knækkede og rullede tilbage. Bestemt udfordrende (som al god kunst bør være) - selvom det måske går lige lidt for vidt et par gange - men også vildt interessant at lytte til.
There are moments in this that I enjoy but on the whole it just doesn't work for me. Ends up just feeling like a lot of noise that doesn't fit together. I'm also not a fan of the electric piano. It did work pretty well with the horror novel I've just finished reading though. Fav song: Bitches Brew - although I would say I liked sections of it rather than the whole thing. Oh and I liked the electric guitar parts on Miles Runs the Voodoo Down but not the electric piano parts. Least fav: Pharaoh's Dance
I continue to hate long unstructured improvisational jazz pieces. And beyond the length and messiness the music itself is annoying. This is the kind of album that makes me dread getting any jazz album. Love the name though. Favourite song: Spanish Key Least: Pharaoh's Dance
3.5 Not sure how I feel about this. There were parts that were amazing, parts where I honestly felt a little nauseous. Definitely a really interesting work though
I have heard that this is an incredible album. Long songs but not boring. Great sax by Miles. Nice guitar work. A good album. Four stars
Nah, not for me, it’s too…. Jazzy. I actually liked Kind Of Blue it had a chilled vibe you could put it on and relax whereas this has too much going on and I found it somewhat discombobulating. I guess I’m just not a jazz guy…. Unless it’s cigarettes or mags. 2
I can't get into this. I'm don't have an experimental jazz palate and this is just a bit of a cacophony to me. Kind of Blue has a kind of chilled, relaxing vibe to it that drew me in and got me enjoying it. This is so far away from that. This album on a level that is way outwith my musical comprehension and appreciation.
In A Silent Way was a 5 star album for me, even though I'm not a big fan of jazz. Miles Davis' genius is big and bold, and I can appreciate this album even though it's not my cup of tea. I don't "get" jazz- especially experimental jazz, but I know that I am listening to a true work of art.
dog soup
ggrroooovvyyyyy, i vibed
Not my genre but cool
A hard listen
Not super my bag. But there are some cool sections.
A little bit spazzy but some cool sounds throughout as well.
Multiple tracks being 15+ minutes is wild
Jazz isn't typically my thing, but this almost changed that. Overall a pretty interesting experience, not always enjoyable but that's what you get with experimental stuff. It's objectively good though
Miles Davis is undeniable, but I'd rather kill myself than listen to 105 minutes of confused jazz improvisation experiments. This is bad. I do love how the reviews skew toward the high end because people seem to feel bad about giving such a legendary musician a low rating. Bitches Brew exists for a reason, it serves a purpose, sure. And I'm glad I got to listen to it. It remains unbearable.
Don’t like jazz
I’d listened to Bitches Brew in the past. It was amazing. Somehow I didn’t quite have the energy for 1hr 45 mins this time round, so I guess that’s only four stars.
La verdad que se me hizo largo. De los discos de jazz que me tocaron hasta ahora es de los que menos me gustó.
Great album from Miles and the virtuosos he assembled… not quite as consistently good as In A Silent Way but it’s close. Favorite songs: Pharaoh’s Dance, Spanish Key. 4.5/5
No doubt Miles is a genius. And no doubting this is an album of great musicians at the top of their game. It’s just not quite for me.
Properly consuming this album increases the statistical probability of a person experimenting with more dangerous, illicit, or highly addictive forms of music later on.
Muito ruim de ouvir no fone de ouvido
I do not like dissonance, so disc 1 was hard to get through.
Not for me
Amazing cover art. However, I am not a jazz fan and after 7mins of the opening track I was really struggling. I know nothing about this record but this is surely a room of musicians playing whatever they please regardless of what everyone else is doing around them? Is that what jazz is? My idiot brain was crying out for some order to appear amongst the chaos but it never comes. I respect your right to enjoy jazz but it's not for me.
Musical horrors beyond my comprehsion. 8/10
A cool album, but not an easy one. The experimental and improvisational jazz makes for some very cool music, but also music that you won't just put up at random. Great album, I will listen to it again, but it will only be if I have the time and focus for it
boring
I understand Miles Davis is iconic... but jazz is for music nerds and the mentally insane.
Miles Davis the goat
This was POWERFUL. I'm sure one of the other enthusiastic reviewers said this earlier but the instruments work so well together, almost like they're singing its genuinely so beautiful. I listened to this while studying and I've not studied any better honestly. 10/10
Pre Listen: Finally some good fucking music. I love Miles Davis, and I'm fairly sure I've listened to this album before. Looking forward to all of it! Notable Tracks: N/A Post Listen: Well uh. Huh. This is awkward, I uh, didn't really like that. I must've had this Davis album confused with another, it was a little too freeform and experimental, especially the lengthier tracks. I love Jazz, and there is some exceptionally great Free Form out there, I think it's just gotta be a lot more lowkey than this one was trying to be. It felt too scattered, doing too much at most moments. The instruments felt as though they were fighting for a lead position. I was really hoping for more, or just something else I guess. 2/5.
https://youtu.be/0prkl3t5IdI?is=74edUMVMm81eE17k
i like this
a bit hard to get into, i kept pausing and trying to come back to it many times along the week, in fact i am 7 days behind rn. i appreaciate jazz and i really enjoyed the album overall, but non the less i still had a hard time sitting trough the first chunck of it.
I never understood this album, even after repeated listenings, it always struck me as a rehearsal session. I understand that it's considered a pivotal album for jazz fusion; combining a contemporary electrified sound along with modern production elements, but I feel all the tracks could benefit from trimming and directional tweaks. The tracks can get monotonous and at times seem like a cacophony of noise. Miles Davis was a visionary and his experimentation deserves to be applauded, but this album could've greatly benefited from a more mapped approach.
Jazzy but discordant it has good moments
This stressed me out
Bitch please