Reviews (page 2 of 10)
I'm sure a lot of people will like it, but I hate it. Absolute pish.
A bunch of instruments playing, but with no relation to each other. An interminably long album.
That wasn't pleasant.
Absolutely hideous every second of this album was like sound torture. Never again!
Miles Davis the goat
It challenges you. And it changed things. It’s art. But not pop art.
Classic record
Despite not being rock music, this album fucking rocks.
I first listened to this album years ago when I was much to young to fully comprehend what I was hearing. I hadn't listened to it until getting it today and it all suddenly clicked for me. I don't know if my musical maturity helped me fully appreciate it or if I knew more about what to expect going in, either way I loved it. I fully understand why someone wouldn't enjoy it, especially if its your first introduction to Miles Davis or jazz in general. Its long and the songs can seem to ramble on. But maybe give yourself some space between listens and come back to it and see if your opinion has changed. For me though its a 5/5
Listen to Bitches Brew again? Say no more 1001 albums generator. This album fucks, and I say this as someone that is deathly allergic to anything over an hour
I know one day this album will hit me at the perfect time, it’ll click, and I’ll rave about it. It’s happened before. I can’t force the issue in one day - 5 stars and moving on.
Pretty cool album with some highs and lows. This listen gave me exposure to John McGlaughlin and finally made me get his deal. The standouts are the electric instruments, experimentation, and deviation from a standard jazz quartet/quintet. Most every song had a couple times they really got a good groove going... and then they changed it up. I think the bass players (Dave Holland & Harvey Brooks) stood out the most to me. This rating is for the whole shebang of artists, album art, creativity, and music.
Hella long but what an album!
Absolute classic jazz rock
Que viagem!
Deu outra dimensão ao commute, senti que estava em homeland
Álbum muito bom. Capa também é 5/5
This was so interesting to come back to. I hadn’t listened all the way through in years but this is still a favorite. I will admit to a perhaps cheesy love story with this album: I’d tried to listen to it a few times in high school and it just sounded to me like discordant noise. I was a drummer, both in my schools jazz band and in a band with friends. I wanted to like it but didn’t. Fast forward to first year of university and my roommate puts it on one night while we were super high. It was a revelation. What had seemed discordant resolved into nuanced beautiful textures and exploration. Ever after I still hear it this way and find it at once engaging and interesting to as a listen, and surprisingly also relaxing.
Strange Brew.
Awesome record
This is one that I've actually spent a lot of time with over the years. It is 100% a journey. Its a trip. It takes you places. Its not something that should be passively listened to either, you kind of need a dedicated listen or a long drive with just you and the radio. The. music is so eccentric, and it goes every which way that you could imagine. Its loud, soft, heavy, hushed, mysterious, obvious all at once. This is probably one of the most "worthy of the 1000 list" albums on here. Its brilliantly layered and performed. Its an American masterpiece.
Bitchen
This actually kinda smashes. It will go insane, I think, when playing cards with homies
Immortalized by Midwest legends Luxury Bucket. Especially enjoyable today, since the first track lined up almost exactly with my morning drive.
Created a whole new sub genre, exciting to listen to even 50 years later.
5/5. In the late 60’s Miles Davis went electric and it nearly ended the world. jazz purists were enraged, they almost caused a nuclear apocalypse over it. But it was worth it, because fusion era Miles Davis put out some of the best records of all time, and among those is this hour-fourty-six behemoth, Bitches Brew. The songs here are large, expansive jams (the title track being 26 minutes long) which are demanding listens but also deeply rewarding with all the detail underneath. This is one of those albums where every listen I find something new. And Davis’s trumpet playing on this record is fantastic, there is so much power behind basically every note he plays on here, same goes for the rest of the ensemble that worked on this album. And as a bonus, this has one of the best album covers of all time as well which fits perfectly with the surreal, psychedelic vibe of the album.
’m no closer to understanding how Jazz works but this is easily the best Jazz album I’ve heard so far.
The first time I heard of this album was because Dogfishead had a tribute beer for it. Miles Davis is incredible.
Miles Davis is a genius. He can take any subgenre of jazz he wants and put a completely unique and insane spin on it. He has done it many times in his career and this to me is the pinnacle of his creativity. The credits on this record are insane: one massive name after another. It shows in the music too, as the playing throughout this entire 90 minute monster is tight and impressive as fuck. The album is crazy ambitious with the massive song lengths, challenging compositions that god knows how he came up with and its fusions of rock, ambient and others. There is a lot of clearly improvised elements and it goes to show how talented everyone is. The music constantly keeps you on the edge of your seat as you are trying to guess what's happening next. The craziest part is how good it all sounds on headphones. The recording is so clear, vivid and colorful that it makes you feel like you are right there while the band is performing. The album requires patience, but once it clicks it's so worth it.
I love you, Miles Davis
Very blue guy
Miles baby, Miles!
God I love this band.
Brilliant. Miles Davis is one of my favorites. I’m a big jazz person.
Even before you hear a single note, you know that this album will be revolutionary - the cover is one of the most striking visuals ever. And then you hear the music. I can’t imagine what this album did to the jazz scene, because when I grew up in the 70s, fusion was everywhere. But before that, you’d expect Miles to play Bebop. Of course, he invented that, too. I don’t know if it’s everyone’s cup of tea, but I do know it should be heard. 5 stars
Variety: 4 Adequacy: 5 Listenability: 3 Uniqueness: 5 Emotionality: 5 = 4.4 rounded up to 5 for... reasons “Music is an addiction.” Davis is one of those guys whose later discography I've tried numerous times to dive deep into, but always end up coming up for air way sooner than I would like. I can recognize the pioneering nature, and even enjoy the atmosphere and mood of a lot of it. In small doses anyway. And I can appreciate the massive influence this sound had on the decade to come. Few albums can be rightfully seen as cultural touchstones, and this is one. I have not tried this in a good 20 years, and I think I've since mellowed a bit on my jazz preferences ( much more into traditional hard bop). THE TRACKS Side one "Pharaoh's Dance" - This ones feels just as stressful and overwhelming as when I first listened to it. My wife described it as the feeling you get the first time you ride the subway, and aren't sure how everything works. Are you going to miss your stop? Is it too crowded? The line looks confusing. Is that guy staring at you? What's that smell? This is subdued, low-key panic stretched out over twenty minutes. The soundtrack to substance withdrawal. Uncertainty and doubt bubbling underneath while you go about your day normally, and maybe even with a smile on your face. I really liked this. Quite a bit. It wore me out though, and I can't say I loved it. But was it effective and emotionally captivating? Most definitely. Side two "Bitches Brew" - We enter much more sinister territory here. Mystical even. I know Davis and company used a lot more electric instrumentation and effects on this album than were traditionally used, and the echo here on the trumpet especially makes it hard for me to not imagine some sort of horrific noir movie where someone is being hunted through foreboding and alien city streets. The protagonist gets away at first, but must stick to the shadows. There's more control than chaos on display here compared to the first track, and this strikes me more as the score to a restless mind that just can't stop or focus, but is being forced to nonetheless. If the first track was chaos born into the world, this is the doomed attempt to capture and contain it. At several points it even seems successful, all the woes of the world get stuff briefly back into the box, but very quickly again and again they crawl their way back out, and by the end, the hinges are busted, the lid is in pieces, and the lock lays shattered on the floor. Side three "Spanish Key" - A hell of a lot funkier than what's come before. This one trots along with an intent and a laser focus lacking in the prior tracks that manages to feel like one sustained groove for the whole run time. Possibly the most accessible number on the album. "John McLaughlin" - Notable as the shortest track on the album ( the only one coming in under 10:00), this one feels the most like a jam to me. I'm sure plenty of improvisation came out of these sessions, but this feels the loosest and most free spirited of anything yet. Apparently the only track Davis and Wayne Shorter are absent from as well. Side four "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" - The funk and soul has been brought. This one feels like a lazy, drunken stroll down a midnight street. The night's revelry is starting to fade as your brain struggles to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. The lightest piece yet as we're able to stay under those street lamps for the entirety of our stroll, but the inky black night is present always, threatening to reach in and leave us blind. "Sanctuary" - My favorite track on the album. Davis has kept you in his grip for a good hour and twenty, staring unblinking with wild eyes, alternately shaking you and smacking you senseless ( and into alertness at times), and now, his energy spent, you're able to creep away as the sleep overtakes your captor. It's a restless sleep though, full of fits. HIGHLIGHTS - All of it MIDLIGHTS - All of it LOWLIGHTS - All of it FINAL THOUGHTS This was just as challenging a listen to me now as it was decades ago. I think the difference now is that I have a few more tools in my belt to process and appreciate it. This will never be something I would throw on for pleasure. But it's one I could see being endlessly rewarding as a musical archeology project. I think this would be an insane live experience if it were possible to replicate and I would totally be down for it. It was at times phantasmagoric, and intensely emotionally evocative. A 94 minute panic attack immortalized in 8-track analog tape. This album accomplished the rare feat of making me feel something deep in my gut. Like the best movie scores ( and I think this is HUGELY influential in that realm as well), this was able to peel back my emotional defenses, such as they are, and poke around in the old prefrontal cortex. Fear, stress, panic, and confusion were the raw material being mined, and while not a pleasant experience, it was definitely an experience. And that's a hell of an accomplishment by any metric. How much media nowadays can get even the smallest rise out of you? Think about it for a second. That said, Birth of the Cool, In a Silient Way, and Kind of Blue will beat this one out everytime as better, more enjoyable listens. As a unique experience though - this belongs up there in a class of it's own, and gets the rare bump ( despite my actual score) up for me into 5-stars, as I would recommend everyone hear this at least once. You might hate it. It might become your most favorite thing ever. You will not find it boring. But I don't think you can be taken seriously in a conversation about the genre without having experienced it at least the one time. In that respect, this album embodies the goals of this list more than most I think. PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - Nope. FURTHER LISTENING - Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock - Breezin' by George Benson - Heavy Weather by Weather Report - The Inner Mounting Flame by Mahavishnu Orchestra - Romantic Warrior by Return to Forever - Enigmatic Ocean by Jean-Luc Ponty
Alright! This is one of the albums I’ve been looking forward to listening to since we hit “Birth of the Cool”. It’s a new listen for me and I was saving it for the day it popped up on the generator. I adored “Birth of the Cool” earlier on the list so Davis jazz with electric guitars has to be a sound to behold, right? Dear reader, it was. First impressions: Bitches Brew is a 27 minute stress test. I felt like I needed a bucket of cold water over my head to cool down after listening to that track. The rest of the album is the treat for getting through Bitches Brew. They are more straight forward jazz numbers with hints and threats of funk and rock at the edges due to the introduction of electrical instrumentation. “Miles Runs Down the Voodoo” is a great showcase for this aesthetic. Loved that one a lot. Also “Spanish Key” was great enough to listen to immediately a second time. “Sanctuary” was a perfect close to the whole affair. I even listened to the “Feio” track, a later addition. And yet my mind kept going back to “Bitches Brew.” This is the feeling of being moved by art. We listened to this track on the morning commute and my wife’s much more musically educated ear complained “What about the 1970s made Miles Davis want to forget how to make music?” I’m not sure I agree with her on this one, but I see where she is coming from. And yet… Today did not disappoint. I’m glad I saved this one and gave it its own day in my head. Music can be a power unto itself.
Miles davis never dissappint
always feel at a loss for words with this one. like it's pushing beyond borders we haven't even seen yet into a kind of Pure Music, intuitive, searching, deep. nothing like it!
YES
Album #88: B!tches Brew - Miles Davis Genre (W): Jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz, jazz rock, avant-funk, psychedelia No singles. I have listened to this album at least three times. Thoughts?: Mysterious, funky, and haunting. I love the album’s erratic nature, how anything can happen. This is one of my favorite jazz albums ever! The production is outstanding as well, and Davis definitely had a thing going when he recorded this album with his band. Favorite songs: All of it!!
I love the combination of sounds on this album, the low rumbling groove provided by the rhythm section, the sax and bass clarinet played usually in a growling baritone range, electric pianos, and then John McLaughlin and Miles himself in there punching stabbing interjecting whatever the fuck is right. Generally speaking I prefer the "straight-ahead" (I mean *relatively* speaking--it's Miles Davis still) rock of Jack Johnson and meditations of In a Silent Way, and my first listen today left me thinking maybe I'd only score this a 4/5, but I jumped back in with Spanish Key (a tune I wouldn't think to call a high point), and it just felt so good with just a bit more attention to it, and I can't not give it its full due. 5/5.
So so good
That's some good shit.
I do prefer Kind of Blue, but this is undeniably a masterpiece.
got through the first song and half way through the second song while backstocking
One of the albums that changed it all for me. I'd thought of jazz mostly as cool jazz, or swing, or many of the popular styles from 1960 and earlier prior to hearing this album, but when I put this album on back in 2018 it blew my mind forward and back. Not only did it completely rewrite my perception of jazz, it rewrote my perception of what good music altogether could be! Enormous, freeform pieces incorporating fiery bass and bass clarinet grooves, wacky keyboard runs, and some of Miles' most incendiary trumpet work ever all cohere into one of the most monolithic, experimental, yet eminently groove-able albums ever. On top of that, the lineup is full of jazz fusion all-stars, like John McLaughlin on guitar and Chick Corea on keyboards. Just a perfect album.
Absolutely incredible stuff. Everyone on every instrument was playing their asses off. A lot of reviews on this one saying the album is too long… NONSENSE! IT’S NOT LONG ENOUGH! I WANT MORE!
fusion-era Miles Davis. unmatched 🎺🔥 Standout: Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (he really ran than shit down)
Classic jazz album.
One of my favorite jazz albums
can you go wrong with miles davis
Miles creates some incredible soundscapes on this album. It's unique and chaotic but still maintains a strong sense of identity throughout and really doesn't have a weak moment. Easy 5/5. Also one of the greatest album covers of all time.
Reminds me of red velvet club rooms in the Alphabet City in the East Village. Smokin weed out of one hitters in the early 2000s when we were young and it was still risky. Bitches Brew would put you into a movie scene.
Is it overrated? I'm not sure. Is it deserving of it's praise? Yes. Is it a key album for Jazz Fusion and Progressive rock and psych circles? Absolutely! Has it been, by it's very nature, very esoteric and difficult to digest? That has been my experience time and time again.
Ralph Gleason's original liner notes really express all that needs to be said. For some reason, I had to listen in stages this time because I think I was closed off in some ways. A lot has been going on. The truly great art becomes a mirror when you get to know it over a period of decades rather than years, and sometimes it's hard to see what's happened since the last listen. But suffice it to say that there is nothing like this record, there probably will never be anything else like this record, and there certainly wasn't anything like it before it. 10 stars. All the stars.
Everything you want from a classic jazz LP.
A masterclass in creativity. I'd be curious how much it helps to be into jazz already, because it's not an easy listen. But it changed the musical world.
Obv
Красивая обложка. Джиниус. Конечно, очень долго. Но приятно вернутся к посредственной музыке после такого. Отличный выход из зоны комфорта произошел.
One of the best jazz albums ever made. The way Miles directed all the talented musicians behind this record, its superb. The experimentation with every chord, with every instrument adding more complexity and textures to the music. I do not recommend this album to anyone, only for people that wants to try something risky and exotic. Also, this album started the tendency of electronic sounds in jazz, thats why its important for Jazz Fusion.
As a jazz band kid, I appreciate the virtuosic musicianship and how fucking fun their recordings all sound to be a part of. Will I sit down and listen to this more than once any couple years? Probably not but Ijazz band kid, I appreciate the virtuosic musicianship and how fucking fun they’re recordings all sound to be a part of. Will I sit down and listen to this more than once any couple years? Probably not but I understand it’s importance to Jazz/fusion history.
Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (1970) On Day 113, I experienced a true masterpiece that makes a 5/5 feel like an understatement. There’s something about Miles Davis’s signature melody and overall vibe that draws me in every time. Having recently listened to In A Silent Way, I can feel him truly embracing and expanding that new sound here. "Miles Runs The Voodoo Down" was an absolute standout and my personal favorite, along with the title track and "Sanctuary." The way the band including Wayne Shorter and John McLaughlin just cooked throughout the sessions was immaculate. Despite the tracks often running over 15 minutes, I didn't care at all; if anything, I wanted them to be longer. I feel blessed to have finally heard this. A definitive 5/5.
Who wants to play this whole album on Rock Band 2 with me?
This is some good shit.
This is a candidate for greatest record of all time.
I've grown to love this album. In my twenties it seemed impossible that I would ever listen to something so weird and uncompromising. In my 30s I started to appreciate it's strange, other worldliness. In my 40s, I love how it mixes a calm undertow with a furious front of chaos. This is some freaky, voodoo shit and I can't get enough. Great cover art
lovely miles davis jazz greeat to put on in the background.
A 20 minute song to start the album is insane. 7 songs that run an hour and 45 is even more insane. Luckily, it’s from one of the greatest Jazz Musicians of all time.
Ahhh the lost quintet. Still comprised of the greats like Joe Z, Chick Corea, and Wayne Shorter but now and then we added that delightful spice of John McLaughlin's buttery electric guitar. Bitches Brew is udder fusion perfection. Incredible production value and depth, melodic themes and elements and yet catatonic, anxiety inducing, improvisational and out of key instrumentation. I'm very partial to the deep cuts on BB, but title track and Pharoah's dance are both killer tracks.
I first listened to this album in the early 90's. I was into jazz fusion and progressive rock, and it felt like I had discovered the swirling maelstrom from which all of that was born. It's obviously a masterpiece, the musicianship is stellar. I can see how a bunch of 20 minute atonal, unstructured songs would be pretty daunting to casual listeners. Nearly every player on this album would be the best musician in any band they were in. Invest some time listening, it's worth it. 5⭐️
Miles Davis defined the sound of jazz for a decade with his effortlessly cool album Kind of Blue. In 1970 he evolved his sound again, adding electric instruments to the mix and moving from hard bop to the fusion sound that was to revolutionise jazz in the 70s. He included some of the finest musicians of the time on this recording, giving them chords to improvise around a basic musical sketch and letting the music flow. In one memorable section Joe Zawinul, Larry Young and Chick Corea are all playing electric pianos and bouncing off each other in different parts of the sound stage (left, centre and right, respectively) - this really benefits from being heard on headphones and it feels like you are in the room with them. Nice. The only thing that I really don’t like about this album is the title, but you can’t have everything
Great Album
The GOAT
Puts me in psychosis. 5 stars.
I was waiting for this so much, such a brilliant and inventive work. Makes me laugh at reading some other reviews here and one guy said it best - do not be fuming if you get something out of an ordinary like this is, this should be the point of the list anyway. I guess some people are just happy listening to tons of mediocre indie rock albums on the list, well that's not me and I don't really give a ****. Clearly 5 stars, how can it be any less? Well 4.5 on RYM, but I could not give it anywhere less than 5
I was wondering what Birth of the Cool Miles listening to this would say; same sh*t, different background. A masterpiece in exploratory evolution.
Löst Ehrfurcht bei mir aus. Bin überwältigt.
No gloom here. That’s the thing with Miles — it just flows. Energy moving, shifting shape, never sitting still, never getting heavy. Evening. Warm light from a desk lamp. Marshall humming somewhere behind you. City lights far below the window, like they belong to someone else’s life. You’re in your own little bubble. Gaba tea. Notebook open. A few thoughts waiting, not in a rush. And then it starts to happen. The room kind of… wakes up. Fills with these invisible flashes of sound — bits of instruments drifting around, bumping into each other, fading out again. Not really songs. More like something alive, just unfolding around you.
brilliant. musically just out of this world
Some Jazz-ass Jazz. Driving, frantic, chaotic, yet musical and still super fresh. I have listened to this before and I will listen to it again. Am I always in the mood for an album like this? No. But when I am, it scratches an itch nothing else can reach.
Another masterpiece from miles! My favourite jazz album from him So cool!
Innovative and breaking with the traditional jazz format of the time, this is a pioneering album by a young jazz giant just getting started.
An absolute masterpiece. Miles' continued experiments with electric jazz and collaboration with Teo Macero paid off in a big way here. It is a flawless journey through creative expression and a perfect album. This is widely recognized as one of the greatest jazz records of all-time. Who am I to disagree? It's a landmark recording that influenced both jazz and rock in the 70's. It defined and popularized jazz fusion.
Wow. Such a lush recording!
1001 Albums Generator 253 (3/23/2026) Ah, Davis' fusion era. When I listened through his discography, the run from In A Silent Way through Get Up With It, was by far my favorite. All six of those albums are at least 4.5/5, and Bitches Brew is a crown jewel. While In A Silent Way saw Miles approaching fusion from a much more ambient angle, Bitches Brew is when he started to let all the walls down. It's more controlled and structured than the free jazz that had been coming out of Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders for the past few years, but for Miles, this is about as weird as it gets. Maybe Get Up With It is slightly stranger, but Bitches Brew is up there for sure. The opening two songs, which comprise the whole first disc of vinyl, are two of Davis' finest songs, with Pharaoh's Dance being a much more psychedelic, restrained piece of jazz fusion built on pretty much a one chord vamp, and the title track being more funky and free, with much of it built on this great bassline that comes in around 3 minutes into the piece. Disc two features more of the same, albeit shorter, with Spanish Key and Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (a personal favorite), and has two (relatively) shorter compositions in the rock song John McLaughlin and the most normal song on the album, Sanctuary. Feio is a fine bonus track, but it's not as strong as the material on the original album. Side note, the credits on this thing are incredible. Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Bennie Maupin, and Joe Zawinul all on the same recording. Insane. Additionally, you have Teo Macero's masterful, creative production, where he literally mashed tapes together, added delays and reverbs, and was just fooling around with the great material that Miles gave him. A great example of this is around 8:55 on Pharaoh's Dance, where he loops the same 1-2 second clip a few times, but this technique is all over this thing, especially on the two longer compositions. Also that whole intro part of Pharaoh's Dance was a result of these studio shenanigans. Bitches Brew is a total creative tour de force and an easy 5/5, although it wasn't for me when I first heard it. Definitely an album that is hurt, rather than helped, by experiencing it for the first time through this challenge. Favs: Pharoah's Dance Bitches Brew Miles Runs The Voodoo Down Least Fav: Sanctuary
This was a little heady for me. I liked it a lot, but it isn't the kind of music I can put on in the background; I need to focus on it to enjoy it. I guess it's not his most listenable album, although it's excellent.
As immaculate as it is exhausting, Bitches Brew is, in my (not unpopular) opinion, Miles Davis' magnum opus. It is a feat of improvisation, it is a showcase of emerging recording and editing technology, and it only works because it was assembled with an incredibly discerning curatorial ear. Jazz is dragged into utterly new territory here; our instrumental palette here consists of trumpet, sax, electric guitar, electric piano, bass clarinet, as many as two simultaneous drumsets, as many as two simultaneous bass guitars, and much more. The songs are edited together in a way that was kind of unprecedented (I'd advise you just look into the process instead of counting on me to describe it). And the rock influence on the compositions was trailblazing. Bitches Brew consists largely of lengthy, dense compositions upon which psychedelic, organic, funky, and often beautiful sounds abound. The pacing and assembly and composition of these songs is remarkable. This has a unique mix of tuneful and abstract that makes Bitches Brew incredibly easy to listen to passively, and *incredibly* hard to really digest. While rock influence comes through on a moment to moment basis, the free-flowing, organic nature of these songs is something that I think only jazz could have properly conveyed. I've listened to this a few times, and I still feel like I'm only at the tip of the iceberg. I think the most accessible songs here like Sanctuary, Spanish Key and Miles Runs The Voodoo Down can be enjoyed by those who are not true believers, and they convey a lot of what is so incredible about this. But also, this album would *absolutely* not be the same if not for the ultra-epics here. We kick off with Pharaoh's Dance, and it's immediately clear during the song's 20 minutes that this album exists on it's own terms. And the 27 minute long title track doubles down *hard*. And while I do think the fact that this album is exhausting is kind of important to it's identity, leading with the two longest songs does at least make you feel like you can easily tackle anything else it throws at you. Anyways, while this is probably not my favorite ever jazz album, it *is* kind of a perfect jazz album to me, and I am giving it a 5.
Exceptional and expansive
This is a very experimental side of Miles Davis. I love the push and pull between chaos and order. The fact that John McLaughlin is featured is a bonus. Great album to sit back and take it all in.
This is it.
high quality jamming
I think jazz has become synonymous with elevator music and grocery store white noise. So it's hard to realize how innovative the sounds and patterns and rhythms that came out of these players in their prime. You can hear them develop and test and move through the sounds so seemlessly, tempting each other to take their efforts to the next phase. Just imagine this statement: sounds like this didn't exist prior to these folks. It's so new that it feels like it has always been there.
Hell yeah, great album! Definite classic.
Kind of Blue is your brain. Bitches Brew is your brain on drugs.
A bold experiment in music. So many have tried to recreate it. Miles himself never recaptured it quite perfectly.
10/5. next
Dann zieh ich hier mal den Schnitt hoch. Habs früher schon mal mit der Platte probiert und bin nicht wirklich reingekommen, aber das fand ich jetzt schon ziemlich geil! Kann ich definitiv nicht immer und definitiv auch nicht am Stück hören, aber mir gefällt, dass die Songs hier so schön freidrehen. Man muss diesen Jazz-Fusion-Sound schon mögen, das ist nix zur Hintergrundbeschallung, aber gerade in seinen experimenellen Phasen trumpft das hier richtig auf. Alleine das Intro des Titeltracks... wow!
Wow what a ride, especially when listening through headphones. This is my second Miles Davis experience. The first was “Birth of That Cool,” which was good and felt like something you could hear in the background of a dinner party. But this album was not that kind of music, unless people tend to drop acid at your dinner parties. Psychedelic, strange, intense, blending different music styles like jazz, rock, funk. I will definitely revise this one.
More jazz. Second jazz record in a row. The good thing is that this one is actually GOOD! Can’t beat Miles Davis… cooler than cool. This album sounds much more improvisational and less structured than other Miles Davis I’ve listened to. But I don’t know much about jazz. I hear more electric music (guitar, keyboards) than I would’ve expected. Also, a lot of rock influence in there. Almost a a jazz/rock fusion especially on disc two. Really like what I hear.
Et av favorittene
Boy oh boy can this man play a trumpet. Loved the long songs with different acts blended seamlessly so that the whole album sounds like a continuous jam session. Loved it
Miles, man, Miles....
Such a brilliant and challenging album. Improvised and the electric elements are outstanding. Genius to think he guided them by just given some quick guidance and letting the players explore the sounds and where the mind and soul would take them. Just amazing
тотальный балдеж. ниче не понятно. ещё непонятно как этому альбому можно поставить 1
Outstanding LP.
Already loved this
i already listened to this album
Just amazing Jazz.
now *here* we go. this was the album that really blew my lid open in 7th grade. it must have been when I was reading through the myriad of different music that influenced Radiohead when they made Kid A. I guess I expected something along the lines of "The National Anthem", but there's no deep drum pockets or big brass band freakouts to be had with Bitches Brew. this was certainly an interesting place for me to have begun the process of getting acquainted with the music of trumpeter, composer and conceptualist Miles Davis, one of the most important musicians of the past century. when Davis (alongside producer Teo Macero, whose contributions during this period of Davis's career cannot go overlooked) recorded this album, he was in the process of both (1) alienating nearly all of his fans with a radical shift in his musical thinking and (2) changing music forever. his embrace of straight (as in, not swung) eighth notes and electric instruments on In a Silent Way was derided by purists; it's hard not to see this, the double-LP set that was his next album, as him doubling the hell down. Davis's touring band at this time was a quintet (Chick Corea on keys, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Dave Holland on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums); Bitches Brew retains this lineup, but builds ensembles around it that are often more than twice as large! In a Silent Way was notable for its use of multiple keyboardists playing simultaneously; Bitches Brew retains this aesthetic, with Corea, Joe Zawinul (who started Weather Report the year this came out) and Larry Young (most famous for his work as an organist) all playing electric pianos that weave in and out of each other with aplomb on "Pharoah's Dance" and "Spanish Key". the other tracks only feature them in combinations of two at a time, but Davis makes up for that by adding even more chaos in the form of Shorter (soprano sax) and Bennie Maupin (bass clarinet) completing the horn section; Holland and Harvey Brooks on double bass and bass guitar, respectively; and a massive percussion section with DeJohnette and Lenny White on drum kits, alongside Don Alias and Jumma Santos on congas and the like. at any given time, there's at least 10 (usually more than a dozen) bodies in the room making this music, and you can really feel the communal vibe. notably, there's only one six-string guitarist here: John McLaughlin. if you know his playing (especially with the Mahavishnu Orchestra), you know that he can make more than enough noise for two or three, although he spends quite a lot of time here playing more of a support role. Davis, known mostly for his even-tempered, delicate trumpet phrasing, spends much of this album going for the jugular in a way that would define the electric era he was firmly entering. also, the aforementioned Macero might be considered another player here, but in a more abstract sense. his presence is felt mainly through editing; there's multiple moments where you can hear him loop portions of tape, apply effects like echo and reverb, and splice parts of totally different sessions together for unexpected results. for pop and rock records, these sorts of "studio as an instrument" techniques are par for the course, but for a jazz album, you bet your ass it caused a huge stir! these edits are most prominent on the first LP, especially "Pharoah's Dance", which basically starts over once it reaches about the 1:45 mark. you can also hear multiple, shorter loops of materials at around 8:35. the "time, no [chord] changes" aesthetic of Davis's Second Great Quintet is very much at play here; although many of these tracks are based around a single chord vamp, Davis and co. are coloring far outside the lines. if it's too much to deal with, just try and listen to how everyone is coming together on the rhythmic front; the pockets the various bands here fall into are jaw-dropping, and their excursions into playing more "free", when a steady pulse falls away, are mesmerizing. it's interesting to think that jazz critics saw this music as Davis selling out; drop the needle anywhere in the middle of any of these tracks for just 30 seconds, and tell me with a straight face that he was trying to land on the pop charts with this. (he did reach #35 on the Billboard 200!) rock and pop artists were allowed to push the boundaries of recorded sound all they liked, but it's verboten for a jazz musician to do it, for some reason. jazz fusion, as it came to be known, started out as some of the most contentious new music around, but by the end of this decade it would represent a sizeable portion of the genre's mainstream, as artists found ways to make the combination of jazz with rock, funk and R&B more palatable to a mainstream audience. if I had to guess, Davis's work here was appealing mainly to the psych and prog sets; but I think it's multifaceted enough as a sonic and artistic expression that, here in 2026, it'll likely appeal to anyone that's looking for something out of left-field (if they somehow haven't heard it yet!). 10/10.
Another example of how this does not seem to be randomly generated as I had “In A Silent Way”yesterday. I’m kinda stoked to get these two back to back but also bummed tbat I won’t hear anything else like this ever again for the rest of the journey which will be for at least a couple more years. It would have been great to get these two spread out so that I could get another amazing ‘70s Miles Davis album later, probably after another string of crappy albums. What a big ask it would have been for the average listener to make them sit through those two albums back to back! Fortunately for me I completely understand the genius of this period of Miles so these last two days were a highlight of this project. Oh how I wish we could get some albums removed from the list so that we can add all the Miles Davis albums from 1970-1975. But alas I’ll enjoy them later on my own time, maybe after I have to listen to another shitty album from the 2000s to clean my palette!
Simplesmente espetacualar
Classic
Excellent artistry at work. The musicians stretch their creative muscles without ever losing the song’s backbone. Plenty of weirdness that reminded me of Zappa. I will be able to list to this many times without hearing the same thing twice.
An old friend and a perfect jazz album I feel nervous saying that because sometime after high school I decided that exploring jazz was kind of a poseur thing to do and gave up. I think it's part of an unfortunate acculturation process that happened to a lot of us white kids in college in the 2000s, the tastemakers of the time steering us toward whiter and whiter things as signs of cultural sophistication. I wish I had listened to my friends in high school who loved reggae and hip hop just because of how it sounded, not because of what it signified. But my time with Miles came before all that. This was a category of music I loved that made some of the people around me think I was a stoner when I was way too socially timid to do drugs. But I was confident in the setting of school, so when we pasted up the school paper late at night I usually put on jazz. I had no idea what jazz fusion was so this and albums like Herbie Hancock's Headhunters were just a part of the exploration. And that's what I especially associate this album with: going on a mental journey that you can't quite control. I could probably hum along with most of Kind of Blue even now, but I get completely lost in the world of Miles and John McLaughlin and Chick Corea. These days I need to get lost more than ever, so I'm happy to have this in my life again.
What a tour de force of sound
No puedo ser imparcial
An all star, beautiful chaos, have to be in the right mood, but when you are... 5 - a near-perfect album
Didn't even need to listen to know this is a 5-star album that I've loved for years. Blasted it regardless.
One of my favourite albums of all time. Bitches Brew had a part in changing my outlook on music. It’s a whole different world. Every time I listen to it I get something different from it. There’s no need to go into detail because it’s hard to put into words to make it relatable. But it’s always such a pleasure and has been a constant for me for most of my life. In my opinion, there should be at least another two or three Miles albums on this list. He changed music several times, but it is his 70s records that resonate and continue to astound me the most. FYI, Feio was an extra track added for the cd reissue so wasn’t part of the original album. Still a good track, but fits better elsewhere rather than as part of Bitches Brew itself in my opinion. Still an absolute joy, and the biggest 5.
This music teaches you how to listen to it as it’s happening. Ear following one instrument for awhile then on to the next through a musical maze anchored by an undeniable groove (except for the song Bitches Brew itself, which is totally insane). This is one that’s grown hugely through the repeated listens over the years, so that will impact my rating. Not an every day album, but one of my favourite listens to pop up on here yet.
This is probably the yazz album I am most familiar with. Playing it this time, I was curious as to how the 2 and 4 year olds would react. Would they dig it? There wasn’t much feedback from them in the end, but I believe they played with their blocks faster, with more intensity and focus.
One of the pinnacles of Miles Davis's career (and therefore, of 20th century music) this was both the birth and the peak of fusion music. The idea that it was "experimental" or that it came out of nowhere is wrong. The process of Miles giving the players a few chords or scales, saying what he wanted and then letting them improvise goes back 10 years to "Kind of Blue". He'd been increasingly electrifying his band over his previous two or three albums and the editing together of several takes first appears on the studio album before this, "In a Silent Way". The word "experimental" suggests that he was just putting things together to see what he got. The band recorded hours of material over three days and then this was edited down to form the final 90 minutes of music. Tapes were looped, effects were applied, takes were cut and spliced. "Pharaohs Dance" has 19 edits in its 20 minute run time, which cause quite the backlash amongst the jazz crowd. Only one track ("Miles Runs the Voodoo Down") appears on the album as it was played in the studio. Far from being improvised accidents, these things were meant to sound - were built to sound - exactly that way. When the album appeared it received mixed reviews. It topped some Record of the Year polls and was sneered at by jazz purists. "Too jazz for rock, too rock for jazz." Really, it's best to think of it as neither, but rather as a thing all to itself: expansive and twisting on the first two, long form, tracks and becoming tighter and more rhythmically focussed in the second half. Expansive, explosive, one of the albums that changed music. Give it ALL the 5s.
I have a lot of affection for this album because the first time I listened to it was the first time I really enjoyed weirdo jazz. I like to listen to other Miles Davis records more than this one, but I think this one opened a lot of avenues in my music taste.
Listened to this on my morning commute and felt like I was a gonna crash. 5/5 No notes.
He’s the goat, no doubt about that! Miles kills it every time and Bitches Brew is no exception.
Took me a minute but I really liked this. One to have on and drift in an out of for me, a bit like a set that’s just happening in your ears. There were moments where I found myself singing along spontaneously which I was really surprised at. The only Davis I know is ‘In A Silent Way’ and this is almost its sonic opposite which I found impressive. Halfway through ‘Sanctuary’ the whole thing felt like such an achievement and I was won over. Sort of loved the expansiveness by the end. Worth the time invested.
Damn... How time changes things! When I was 16 my friends recommended me that album and I thought that it's the worst thing ever. It sounded so pretentious, so overplayed, so purposeless. I listened to a lot of prog rock and to a bit of jazz, so I dug technical and long music with a lot of improvisations, but I just felt there is no reason for it to exist. Now, 17 later... I can't believe I could ever hate that thing. The whole album kept me focused and amused. I especially hated title track and now I really love it. That set up is magical. And that groove... it's 27 minutes long, but when it ends, you don't want it to end. Spanish Key is intense and everything else here is great too. Probably the most dramatic change in attitude towards the album in my whole music listening history?
Loved it, jazzy weirdness that made me thing of something that would have been in Disney's Fantasia, like when the dinosaurs were going extinct.
In-depth review of **Miles Davis – *Bitches Brew*** (double LP, Columbia 1970) --- ### 1. Lyrics There are none. *Bitches Brew* is a purely instrumental record; any “text” is carried by track titles, cover art, and the human voice only as wordless sound (whispers, shouts, chants caught in the studio). Interpretive meaning therefore comes from: - **Titles** – “Bitches Brew”, “Miles Runs the VooDoo Down”, “Sanctuary” – which hint at black mysticism, erotic power, and safe spiritual space. - **Miles’s muted, conversational trumpet** – treated like a singer who prefers vowels to words, bending pitches the way blues singers bend syllables. --- ### 2. Music – what is actually happening? | Element | What you hear | Why it matters | |---|---|---| | **Form** | 6 cuts, 20-27 min each. No head-solos-head; instead cyclic riffs that appear, dissolve, re-combine. | Davis erases the theme-improvisation-theme cage of bop; pieces become weather systems rather than songs. | | **Rhythm** | Two drum kits + two electric basses + Latin percussion = polyrhythmic web. | You don’t tap your foot; you *float* inside a drum orchestra. | | **Harmony** | One-chord vamps, modal scales, abrupt dissonant clusters. | Removes “changes” as the narrative engine; timbre and groove become the story. | | **Texture** | Fender Rhodes, organ, guitar, bass clarinet, trumpet, soprano sax all swim in echo & tape-delay. | Producer Teo Macero treats the studio as an instrument, foreshadowing dub, EDM, hip-hop splice culture. | | **Solo language** | Miles uses wah-wah-muted trumpet, smears blue notes, rarely shows off velocity; instead he *places* sound like a painter flicking color. | Emotional impact > virtuosic flash; makes every cracked note feel ceremonial. | --- ### 3. Production – the invisible band member Teo Macero’s post-production is the secret sauce: - **Roll-in/roll-out edits**: entire sections are faded in from one take, faded into another, creating “compositions” that never existed live. - **Tape loops & echo chambers** give the music its swampy, half-submerged aura. - **Slack tuning of drum mics** and close-miking of bass amps produce the first jazz record where drums sometimes feel *larger* than the horn. - **Stereo field** is wide: trumpets left, keyboards right, bass & drums occupy the whole canvas – headphones become a 360° ritual space. --- ### 4. Themes & Conceptual World - **Yoruba/voodoo subtext** – track titles, the bubbling cauldron cover photo, the trance-like repetition all suggest a ceremony rather than a concert. - **Black electricity** – Davis fuses the ancestral (field-holler intervals, African polyrhythm) with the futuristic (distortion, ring-mod, tape splice). - **Urban anxiety** – the music’s constant churn mirrors early-70s NYC: bankruptcy, heroin, black-out riots; beauty wrestled from chaos. - **Eroticism** – long, slow builds, wet reverb, panting percussion; the record *breathes* like body heat inside a crowded club. --- ### 5. Influence & Legacy - **Genre birth certificate** – While *In a Silent Way* sketched fusion, *Bitches Brew* is the floodgate: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Return to Forever, Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band all formed within 18 months of hearing it. - **Rock ears opened** – Pete Townshend, Jimi Hendrix, and later Radiohead cite it as proof that improvisation & studio art could coexist. - **Hip-hop sampling gold** – Portions appear on records by J Dilla, Madlib, Us3; the drum feel prefigures the *unquantized* swing of 90s boom-bap. - **Post-production precedent** – Macero’s splice-tape approach predates disco 12-inch remixes, dub, and modern DAW “arrangement by edit.” --- ### 6. Pros & Cons – the honest ledger | Pros | Cons | |---|---| | **1.** Invented a genre (jazz-rock fusion) that dominated the 70s. | **1.** Length & meander: 94 min can feel like a swamp with no trail markers. | | **2.** Star-studded lineup: Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Joe Zawinul, Lenny White, Jack DeJohnette, Airto, Bennie Maupin – a superhero team. | **2.** Low compositional memory: themes are short; if you crave melody you may feel lost. | | **3.** Production still sounds futuristic; headphone trip remains unmatched. | **3.** Murky mix: bass guitars often buried; some detail only audible on audiophile reissues. | | **4.** Emotional spectrum – spooky, sexy, angry, majestic – often inside one track. | **4.** Gate-fold double-LP price in 1970 = sticker shock; today = 2× vinyl runtime fatigue. | | **5.** Gateway drug: converts rock, electronic, even metal fans into jazz explorers. | **5.** Purist backlash: many acoustic-jazz devotees still call it “sell-out noise”. | --- ### 7. Bottom line *Bitches Brew* is less a set of songs than a weather system you enter. If you value structure, hummable themes or 4-minute resolutions, it will irritate you. If you want music that feels like a living organism – sweating, breathing, mutating – it can be life-changing. Historical importance is already settled; the real question is whether you’re willing to let the cauldron bubble for an hour and a half. Put on headphones, turn off the lights, and decide for yourself whose side of the brew you’re on.
Yes, this is easily an album you must hear before you die. I don't even like jazz, but this is the one I do enjoy listening to.
In a Silent Way había abierto el camino pero Bitches fue toda una revolución. Portada mítica. Una banda haciendo historia. Con Jimi Hendrix en la cabeza, "Miles runs the voodoo down" como mejor muestra de ello (el bajo y teclados podrían estar en Electric Ladyland). ¿Qué decir de Spanish key? Hasta los títulos parecen relacionarse con Hendrix... También se aprecian influencias de Sly & The Family Stone o, obviamente James Brown. La influencia era bidireccional, porque Miles les tocó la fibra a todos, especialmente a Hendrix. Con John McLaughlin, Corea, Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin en estado de gracia este trabajo supone una demolición del Jazz para fusionarlo con el rock eléctrico, la psicodelia y el funk. Mientras Ornette Coleman o John Coltrane iban en busca de una libertad absoluta desde sus propios parámetros, Miles lo hacía desde la fusión y la improvisación, algo que ya había introducido en Sketches of Spain o In a silent way. Es un disco en el que Miles toca relativamente poco, es más bien el director de la banda. Se trataba de tocar y tocar, improvisar sin dirección, y elegir los mejores cortes. Abstracción y groove que prioriza el conjunto por encima de solos por turnos. Un disco magistral.
It feels like almost an impossible task to properly digest and comprehend Bitches Brew in a single day. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Dense, experimental, and improvisational, this record really rewards you for focusing inward on the music. I really appreciated that there was almost always a driving rhythm line on percussion or the bass guitar that helped me to really lock in to the groove if I ever found myself lost. How are people rating this so low? Fav track: 3 - Spanish Key Best Three Track Run: 1, 2, 3
No notes
Hot damn I was honesty expecting not to like this, but damn, damn damn damn. This is fun groovy rockin’ jazz, damn.
This is stand out the best 1001 album I've listened to yet. From the off its innovative, experimental and engaging. Far more interesting than the majority of albums on this list I expect.
loved <333 love miles davis
High brow jazz music for a chill bar filled with jazz heads! Best paired with a good mood
Lovely bluesy jazz. Great for cooking
I've been on an interesting journey with this record. The first time I heard it - probably around 14 or so - I liked it and thought it was cool, but because it seemed so far removed from the other Miles/jazz I knew, I didn't think to go back to it. I listened to it a few more times in college and felt like I "got" it more, but again, didn't feel much of a returnability factor. The last time I picked it up 7-8 years ago, I wasn't really in the headspace for it and chalked it up to me not being much of a fusion guy. But goddamn, it hit me hard this time around. Much like In a Silent Way, the arrangements and playing are out of this world; unlike the calm and beauty of In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew is dark as fuck. So much swagger and intensity across the board. I've always felt a little tired by the end of the album's runtime, which is keeping me from getting to 5 stars right now on it, but that could very well change someday. Very glad this gave me another excuse to go back to it. 4.5/5
Bitches Brew is a dense body of work that demands a lot from the listener. Davis and his fellow artists curated a supremely perfect album that feels more akin to a fever dream than a jazz record at times. Miles’ trumpet playing is foreboding and truly some of his best ever. The electric keyboard adds to the dizziness of it all. This album cover is in my top 5 of all time, and it personifies the way this album makes me feel as if my brain is warping from the otherworldliness of it all. Miles Davis is a bad motherfucker.
I get why this album is so polarizing, if you don’t vibe with a 20+ minute track you’re probably going to hate it. I dislike a lot of prog and jammy music because of this. However, with an album like this I can’t quit grooving. Top to bottom this album catches me in it’s VIBE… and I love it. 10/10 Favorite tracks- “Bitches Brew” “Spanish Key” “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down”
Not an easy album. Tried in the past with mixed results. Finally worth the effort. Listen alone not distracted. Let it wash over you, sink into it and wow.
The best. This is not Kind of Blue Davis. Boundary expansion all of the place.
I don't feel qualified to discuss the album.
This beauty blends jazz, funk, soul, rock, dissonance and far-out experimentation. This is Miles Davis at his most groundbreaking. Let your mind and body float away while you listen to it.
Excelente!
I can't believe it's been 15 years or so since I last heard this album. I'm a big fan of Miles' second quintet, so that's what I usually listen to when it's Miles' time. I also tend to listen to In the Silent Way and also the live album Agartha when I need some electrification in my life. So I forgot how incredible this album is. So mysterious, so improvisational, so brilliant. Five stars forever and ever.
Découverte importante pour moi la première fois que je suis tombé sur Bitches Brew.
Outstanding album. Showcases classic Miles Davis, but also pushes the boundary of sound and music.
Classic, strange, moody
Like Mozart, this music is beyond critical appraisal. Sublime.
Great
I first heard this album when I was still in high school. I had only been listening to jazz for about a year when this was released in 1969. I didn't understand it at first, but I knew something important had just happened. And it had. A new direction in jazz had been, once again, spearheaded by Miles. He created at least three tectonic shifts in jazz in the course of his career. I love this album more every time I hear it. This album started a love affair I’ve had with Miles’ music for over 55 years.
Mind expanding, so much going on in the detail, the grooves, the evolution of tracks. My kind of thing.
Mystical, sometimes frightening
This made realize they never play Miles on the local jazz station because his tracks are too long
Classic
Miles Davis is a major jazz composer and performer. He's part of the Be Bop pantheon alongside greats such as Charlie Parker. This album, however, is very much progressive rock. The long suites with rock structures but jazz underpinnings sound more like King Crimson than Charlie Parker. Even the album art screams prog rock. The result is music that bridges the jazz and rock world and sets the stage for jazz fusion, jam bands, and 2000s prg rock revival. Bitches Brew is one of the most unique, intriguing, and influential albums of any sort, ever. Listen to it with an open mind or miss something truly remarkable.
Jazz glory.
Everything you could want from jazz
Psychedelic jazz with a touch of electric guitar. This is the good stuff
First off, amazing album cover. Bitches Brew may genuinely have one of the best album covers I've ever seen. Everything from the color scheme to the imagery is alluring. Secondly, the album itself fucking rules! I've made it no secret that I enjoy the works of Miles Davis. This is my fourth and final album of his that I've received through the 1001 Albums project. Is it the best one? I don't think I could say that myself, but the fact that it's widely considered to be among his best is something that I absolutely can see given just how great the album is. Of the four Miles albums on this list, Bitches Brew is by far the most experimental. Its predecessor, In A Silent Way, started to play around with what would become known as jazz fusion, but Bitches Brew embraces it. The added influences from genres like funk and rock create a style to the album that still sounds fresh and exciting to this day. I really appreciate that the album doesn't pull any punches. Let's face it; this thing is weird. Bitches Brew is batshit bonkers and I love it. More so than any other album of his on the list, it is not for everyone. Even people who like jazz seem to struggle a bit with this one. Not me though! I live for this stuff. Literally. The sheer amount of good music that exists in the world is genuinely one of the biggest reasons as to why I haven't killed myself amidst the political and personal turmoil that I've felt over the past few years of my life. This album project has saved my life in a way. I'm getting way too deep right now. Let's go back to the funny trumpet album. The compositions here are captivating. "Pharoah's Dance" is an enticing opener. The title track is just magnificent. "Spanish Key" nails the groove and energy that an album like this demands. I could go on. You know what else goes on? The album. Yeah, this thing is pretty long. 94 minutes of runtime for an album like this is not something that a lot of people can handle. But again, I'm not one of those people. I mean, this is far from the worst 90+ minute album out there. This is one of those double albums that warrants its length. Bitches Brew is an uncompromising artistic vision, the likes of which only come every so often. Not everyone will vibe with it, and that's okay. But for the people who can get behind it, Bitches Brew will provide an experience unlike any other. It is truly stellar. 5/5.
I can understand why it’s not for everyone, and it’s definitely unconventional when compared to Davi’s’ earlier work, but my goodness does it work. BB is an unprecedented work of art that transformed Jazz forever and cemented Miles Davis legacy as one of the all time greats.
Sounds fresh and surprising unlike other music from that time. A wild journey and I love how Davis is so generous with the sound he does not dominate everything but enters the songs strategically while letting the the others musicians construct a wide sonic soundscape. Loved this.
it's so good Will I listen to again: 100%
Masterful and exciting
Steeley Dan's Donald Fagan called Bitches Brew "unfocused garbage" Radiohead's Thom Yorke has cited Bitches Brew as "a major influence on OK Computer" - when Bitches Brew came out in early 1970 it really divided jazz fans- think Bob Dylan going electric at The Newport Festival in 1965. Jazz had its own Judas. Bitche's Brew would continue to inspire and alienate people in near equal parts for all of the 1970s and beyond. To many of the jazz elite Bitches Brew was the start of Miles Davis slow creative death and unlike Jesus Christ there would be no resurrection. So, what of the 93 minutes of music found on this landmark album? I have loved Bitches Brew since I first heard it a decade or so ago and have played it at least 30 times. Is it Miles greatest work? Not to me, it is not. Is it in all ways essential listening for anyone with even a passing interest in the music of the 20th century? It absolutely is. Is it as good as the best jazz albums of the 1950s? Not to me frankly as it's simply not on the level of the best works (which would of course include his own output) from the 1950s. By the end of the Me Decade jazz was a crippled if not flat out spent tamed beast but without Miles forward-thinking far-out at times angry album Jazz would not have prospered as well as it did for most of the decade (1970s) ironically many of the ideas/playing found on Bitches Brew (jazz fusion for one) inspired a lot of junk (a big chunk of jazz fusion albums released after 1974/75) during The Me Decade by 1980 a lot of Jazz fans looked to the past for great albums not the future and certainly not the present and we all know what happens to any artform when it's audience by and large stop looking forward. Of Note: I know very little about jazz music from 1980 to present (and I'm far from being an expert on Jazz music before 1980) I have no doubt that there have been some great albums (that whole Acid Jazz scene produced some masterpieces) released but since jazz is not my favorite genre, I do not keep up with new release to any degree whatsoever. Further Listening: Listed here are a few jazz albums released during the 1970s that I enjoyed, you'll find lots of jazz fusion which am not a big fan of by and large, but these albums are IMO essential listening, fusion or not. They are present in no order other than the order in which they popped up in my head. Charles Mingus - Let My Children Hear Music Herbie Hancock - Headhunters Pharoah Sanders - Black Unity Miles Davis - On the Corner Alice Coltrane - Ptah, the El Daoud Ornette Coleman - Science Fiction Billy Harper - Black Saint Eddie Henderson - Realization Herbie Hancock - Thrust Bill Evans - Symbiosis
This is a complex and wild album to review. I loved it, found it challenging, and some parts hard to listen to.
Not as accessible as some of my favourite Davis albums (the obvious Kind of Blue, Ascenseur pour l'Echaffaud) but so much worth a careful listen. This seems to be a divisive album, and I get why, but to me this absolutely must be on the list and it's a feat for the ears but only on the right day for it! The rhythm is great as is the musicianship and listening to this is like going on a discovery adventure. And it's almost "easy listening" compared to Trout Mask Replica :-).
This is a classic for me. I always think of late nights at Parks library in my senior year of college. Studying for vert bio and having this album on repeat. The unpredictableness was strangely calming. I believe i was gifted this album on Vinyl by my cousin Jackson, the same one who introduced me to this site. Either way I have the record and I love it.
Wow
Might be even better than Kind of Blue. You can hear the evolution in his sound.
Perfect album! Pharaoh's Dance and John Mclaughlin are the masterpieces.
Different from other MD recordings. Brilliant grooves that ebb and flow bring the listener along on an interesting journey. While most MD recordings leave me bored, this album kept me waiting to hear “what’s next!”
Loved this album from first listen, all band on top form
Great stuff
-Always wanted to fully listen to this album ever since my friend recommended it. -Probably going to listen to it once on and once off pschydelics.
Lindo demais este ter aparecido 3 dias depois do In A Silent Way. O que Miles & banda fazem aqui é inacreditável; um dos pontos mais altos da história do jazz, possivelmente o maior marco do jazz fusion e quase duas horas de uma música de outro mundo.
love love love love love
Not a jazz fan, but this was beautiful. 9/10
Oh shit
Jazz fusion perfection, this list has it correctly placed with how high it is. Maybe Miles best?
One of the best albums of all time, literally so good at storytelling
Challenging listen
This album is nuts in the best ways. Already a fan before this list, it’s impact can’t be overstated
One of the most influential pieces of art in the 20th Century. Resonates nearly 60 years later.
I've loved this album, definitely. It's such a pleasant and very interesting musical experience, so immersive and with so many layers and textures. This album is incredibly experimental but also beautiful and haunting, so soft and ethereal at times... So magnificent! It's truly a highlight for me.
All the Davis albums I’ve listened to properly are 5s and I’m thinking this is no different, I like his fusion stuff less than I like his cool stuff but this thing is WILD
What needs to be said about this one? Canonical jazz album for rock aficionados.
Brilliant. Absolute Genius.
Now that's my kind of jazz ! A gorgeous dreamscape with just the right mix of classic and experimental, complex structures and mad improvisations. It's hypnotic and meditative, sometimes even bizarre, but always vibrant and soulful. The electric elements blend perfectly with the more traditional instruments, and the line-up is insane. Even the cover art is beautiful. Truly a masterpiece ! It's a very laid-back and atmospheric album overall, absolutely not as messy or chaotic as some people make it sound (often in weirdly angry reviews, as if they felt personally attacked). If that's too strange for you, you clearly haven't listened enough music in your life. There are far, far more bizarre things out there... Maybe my favorite Miles Davis albums. I'm looking forward to his more conventional works as well, jazz is tragically underrepresented on this list. 10/10
One of the best. This album is great. The all-star gathering, Davis, Shorter, McLaughlin, Correa - list goes on. If this is not on your list why do you even listen.
5/5
Großartig! Ein Meilenstein in der Geschichte des Jazz
Damn this hits so hard. Sprawling hallucinatory jams that conjure a a primal scene, a fire in a cave, deep grooves plumping unknown depths of dark funk, febrile keys that come in layer and layers, swelling atmosphere and chaotic noise that dissolves as it resolves, a sweaty heat punctuated by a fire alarm trumpet from a nightmare echoing through and out of time. Frenzy. Fever. Fear. The bass arrives just in time, giving something to hold on to, a life raft for the soloists to climb aboard and keep the party burning. The jazz trance descends...
man, this album is so sick. listening to it, you feel like the coolest motherfucker on the face of the earth. the playing here is incredible. it can be all over the place, but it all still feels like a cohesive unit. the way this album sounds is incredible. there's nothing like it. truly a unique 1 of 1 album.
Jazz puro y duro, nada fácil de escuchar concentrado en mi opinión, pero de la mejor calidad posible. Obra de arte tras obra de arte. No volvería a escuchar el álbum entero igual no estoy tan adentrada en el jazz como para que esta escucha me sea ligera lol Fav: Spanish Key
I’m giving it five, not because I enjoyed it, as I really didn’t, but because it’s possible to marvel at the musicianship without feeling anything for the music being produced. The existence of music that asks questions or pushes boundaries is necessary, regardless of whether I want to listen to it.
Jag kan ha förståelse för de som tycker att detta bara är ljud som pågår. Jag fick lpn förra sommaren aven bekant som rensade ut en vind. Trots att det är svårt att skilja låtarna åt, att det i mångt och mycket bara är ett groove eller jam som pågår, så gillar jag detta skarpt. Miles storhet i det här fallet är inte hans spel eller kompositioner, utan att han plockat ihop rätt musiker för att genomföra sin vision. Lysande!
A great album but not an easy one. If you want 'easy' try bubblegum pop, it is probably more your thing. I've owned this for years and it gets better with every listen. A rare 5/5 from me.
95
Fitting that this was the next album after Bowie’s “Low.” I consider Miles Davis and Bowie kindred spirits in a way, both evolving with the times without sacrificing artistic integrity. It goes without saying that “Bitches Brew” is fantastic, picking up where Davis left off with “In a Silent Way.” I may prefer “Jack Johnson” and “On the Corner” as far as Davis’s “electric period” albums go, but this is undeniably his high-water mark from the era, insofar as ingenuity and popularity intersect. Portions of it even seem to preface the ambient and dark ambient subgenres of popular music which would emerge in the ensuing decade. Hard to believe that many jazz purists rejected this upon release. It may boast more electric instruments, but the language is still very much jazz.
Its soo good.
Psychedelic jazz with a sprinkle of electric guitar
I really think this album deserves to be in the top tier of the greatest albums ever made, especially when you balance its experimental edge with the overall listening experience. There are a lot of great avant-garde and experimental jazz albums out there, but many of them aren’t very approachable for the average listener. What really keeps this album grounded is the bass. It’s repetitive, hypnotic, and it’s groove focused, which provides a solid foundation for everything else to build on. I also found it fascinating that the album features dual drummers along with additional percussionists, creating complex rhythms that drives the improvisational element. From a production standpoint, this was one of the first albums to really use the studio as an instrument. The band recorded long, freeform jams built around rhythmic grooves and modal frameworks, and then hours of material were edited and sculpted into shape through heavy layering and post production work. Culturally, this album is also important because it was heavily influenced by the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s, but it doesn’t sound stuck in that time period. It has a timeless quality. If someone unfamiliar with it heard it today, they might not be able to tell if it was recorded 50 years ago or five. That’s rare. A lot of music from that era sounds like it came from that era, but this album still feels new and fresh, even decades later.
Hell yes, this is one of my all time favourite albums! Experimental jazz with some top tier musicians performing at the peak of their craft. I totally get how this will be too far out there for some, but I absolutely love it!
A trippy masterpiece I need to put back into rotation immediately.
Has an amazing song: super massive black hole. And many other great songs
This album is pretty immense. Very otherworldly. I tend to get laust in the sostce when it comes to these bepop/fusion albums but, having recently gotten into Mahavishnu Orchestra and just many of the other players on this record outside of Miles (Check out: Wayner Shorter, Bennie Maupin(of headhunters fame), John Mclaughlin (previously mentioned), Joe Zawinul (of the weather report), Chick Corea and Dave Holland (which his world trio album with kevin eubanks is very underrated); even Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams played on the previous record "In a Silent Way" which I like more/is more straightforward; also crazy that I did this rambling parenthesis that is grammatically unsound yet still kind of fits the layered theme of the music of this album). I really appreciate the grandiosity and the musicianship. There is always something new to pick apart with this record on each listen. This really is the kind of music that I don't understand how anyone can conceive let alone play. That's jazz for ya baby. Even if I like other albums more from Miles and the others in this group, undeniable classic in the genre and for jump starting so many other musician's careers.
Some albums just sound like a soundtrack for losing your mind. I listened to this half distracted on speakers and was coming up with a three but I gave it another shot and listened to it attentively on headphones. It's not even the same album. This comes through in ways I can't believe I didn't even start to notice. The drum is a grounding line throughout the entire first disc and everything interplays so uniquely it almost feels like a insane mix. As it builds into itself it showed so much more. Unreal album. It is long and likely could've been two releases but it is strong throughout.
I did my first listen on the car stereo. I was kind of impressed with some bits and the progression since the older stuff. Overall tho I was leaning towards a 4. Now with headphones in and eyes closed, this is a whole different beast. The mixing is taking me for a ride. This is a solid and interesting album. It provides something different compared to a lot of derivative albums on this list. I'd gladly give it some more listens some day.
This is the kind of jazz I really love. There's less structure, much less composition. It's all about experimenting and seeing where they end up, and for me is what jazz is all about. It’s not free jazz, but it's freer and looser than Kind of Blue. The musicians constantly playing off each other. For example In the first track, the trumpet starts picking up on what the drums are doing, then the guitar, bass, and keys fall in, and suddenly it locks into a solid groove. Then it breaks apart again, with everyone going their own way. That pattern keeps repeating coming together, breaking apart so each track feels alive, growing, and shifting in all kinds of directions. But it doesn’t just descend into utter chaos and insanity like true free jazz. There’s always an underlying groove holding it all together.
I've listened to it more than a few times. My uncle liked jazz and I played it at his celebration of life.
Do I understand this album? No. Do I groove with each of its tracks? No. Do I even feel touched at an emotional level? Not exactly. So why the hell do I like this album so much? I think it's because of its ability to create soundscapes that, even more than 50 years later, feel unexplored and possible. There's an optimism and curiosity and boldness and ebullience to this album that keeps me coming back.
Absolutely legendary piece of jazz. Messy, brilliant, noisy, and beautiful.
Second time I smoked was to this album. Everybody knows the second time is when it really hits. It was a revelation. I listened to it for a solid 2 weeks after that. It's hard to comprehend algebra 2 when Miles is empirically proving that I'm a product of Yakub.
Bitches Brew is one of many jazz masterpieces underneath Miles Davis' belt, but I'd argue it's his most important release of them all. It started a whole new movement of jazz and created a giant ripple into the world of jazz that can still be heard today in modern jazz and jazz infused projects. The music in this project doesn't quite reach the same heights as Kind Of Blue, but I do think it is the closest to reaching it out of everything by Miles I have heard. The songs are long but full of thought provoking sound combinations that keep your mind thinking from front to back. As I slowly wrap up the album I don't really have too much else to point out other then the textures of the sounds feel amazing with some good headphones on. It's a classic. Nuff Said.
I was so seated for this one. You have no idea how seated I was. In fact, I wanted to go to the toilet, like, 10 minutes in, but I remained seated the whole way through. That's how seated I was. Jazz sort of has a reputation of being a snobby genre because a lot of the highly regarded jazz records happen to be avant-garde. I understand how comments akin to "you just don't get it" can get frustrating. Everyone should be entitled to their own preferences. I also don't enjoy a lot of critically acclaimed albums. However, I personally think that there's nothing to "get" here. I think this just sounds awesome. I also think that people who don't agree that long-form songs are superior are just lying. This album has some incredible consistency for something so purposely inconsistent. You don’t know what’s coming next, but every time, it sounds incredible—and that’s what made it so fun for me. I feel like jazz is the perfect genre for this sort of chaotic, polyphonic music. With genres that heavily rely on electric instruments like rock, due to their inherent loudness, detail tends to get lost in the mix, and the fact that you can’t hear every individual instrument clearly makes me enjoy it a little less. You can use it to your advantage, of course, but more often than not, I find the mixing/mastering job on chaotic/noisy rock or electronic records to be less than stellar. You can certainly also go louder with jazz (this album is not the most frantic and definitely not the most aggressively loud jazz record that I’ve heard), and modern jazz fusion, in my experience, also tends to fall into that trap. But when everything is set up so you can hear every musician as clearly as possible, if everyone plays something great at the same time, all of that combined sounds even better—and that’s what this album does. I still prefer music with more pronounced crescendos, so I can’t say this albums suits my preferences exactly, but this was genuinely one of the most engaging albums I’ve ever heard. 9/10
++: Pharao's Dance, Bitches Brew, Spanish Key, John McLaughlin, Miles Runs the Voodoo Down, Sanctuary 9,9/10
An unbelievable album - a complete game changer, and not just for jazz. Highly recommended.
Perfect.
This fucks. Sexually
I wasn't that into the earlier Miles album but it did get me into a deep dive and it was his fusion era I was most into. I held back on this one as I knew it was on the list and even though it"s denser than the classic albums either side of this I think I was prepsred for it and I was into it more than I thought. One of those albums where it all comes together, cover, title and music - definately taking from Sun Ra's Afrotuturism but adding Sly Stone/Hendrix funk/Rock influences. Undoubtedly sprawling and not without some dips but managed to squeeze in a couple of late night listens where it's syncopated Rhythms and twistscsnd turns left me wanting more each time.
This album was my introduction to Miles when I was younger, I think it was my first jazz cd too. Incredible musicianship through out and it’s always inspiring to revisit.
Rating: 9.5/10 This man is simply a jazz genius: another Miles Davis album that pushes the boundaries of what jazz can sound like. All of the songs take you on a journey that is mystical: this is an album that is experimental yet beautiful and meditative. It is quite sprawling and long, so I prefer In A Silent Way, but this is also absolutely incredible.
amazing
I'm a Jazz interloper. I like it and listen to it quite a bit, but I am not knowledgeable. It's all very gut-level for me. I like what I like, and I have trouble explaining why. This, I like. It's just the right amount of experimental, in my opinion. It has long jams, but they all go somewhere. Standout Track(s): Bitches Brew, Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
He's great, no doubt. These days though, i'm not in the mood for this.
I love this, it is amazing to get to hear multiple master musicians improvising jazz sessions. It’s like you get to be a fly on the wall. It isn’t easy to digest and I definitely understand why this won’t be for everyone but the complexity makes it interesting to go back to and hear something new each time.
Jazz great 10/10. Did I clearly hear all of it no I was eating poke
Incredible album! What a masterclass in how to change you sound in a good way. The imagery is incredible and all the sounds just work
john McLaughlin I love you
Not all experimental Jazz works for me, but holy hell this one does. 5/5
Such a fabulous stew. I don’t love everything in it, but I love the everything that it is. I saw him play once pretty late in his career. He faced the back of the stage for most of the performance, but it was pretty magical nonetheless.
There is not much left to be said about this album that has not already been put into the throws of cliché jazz head nomenclature, but I will try my best. This album is an absolute MONSTER from start to finish. Almost no where else in the history of recorded music is so much passion, energy, emotion, and life found between the grooves on an album. Miles Davis made a statement with this beast and each listen somehow gets better and better. It is an album that will stand the test of time for the rest of time and most likely will never be replicated. The timing, the delivery, the cast, and the methodology of this album are unparralelled. Is it talked about all the time, yes. Is it talked about enough? Certainly not in my generation. One of those albums that you have to have listened to in order to hold a substantial musical take. Without question or hesitation a perfect 10/10.
My last Miles Davis from the list. It was cool to get them in release order. We've come a long way from Birth of the Cool. One thing I didn't know about this album was just how many musicians were involved in each session. It is incredible how they complement one another and don't trip over each other, especially the multiple bass players, piano players and drummers.
A journey
close to perfection
So so good
Legendary!
Live this album. If it wasn’t for Kinda Blue this may very well be the best jazz album of all time.
This is just plain good. Interest to listen to, layered, with the drum holding it all together
Just an absolute legendary jazz fusion record, probably the most important in the genre. It's jam packed with interesting moments and ideas, and when listening I can't help but think about being in the room with these musicians and what that vibe was like. Awesome album cover, one of the more memorable ones that I can think of.
I mean for real, does it get any better? One of the best records ever made.
A jazz fusion masterpiece. I mean it's Miles Davis... The fact that his backing band are some of the greatest fusion names of all time should tell you everything about the musicianship on this album. With that, the pieces themselves are masterpieces. 5/5
- Miles -
Simply perfect
Absolute masterpiece
apsolute cinema
Bah écoute c’était vraiment stylé. J’ai aimé, je me suis pas fait chier. À réécouter
Perfect.
"music is the greatest of the arts for me because it cuts through everything, needs no aids. it is. it simply is. and in contemporary music miles defines the terms. that's all. it's his turf." ~ Ralph J. Gleason, liner notes. How can you rate an album like this? It's like rating a Dali or Picasso painting. Although not the easiest listen - indeed, quite a challenge at times - I recognise geniuses at work. I will spend my life figuring out why this is such a special work. 5* (listened to on CD which I picked up in Book Off in Tokyo, Japan).
One of those albums I've always meant to listen to and never did till today, I'm aware of it's significance, an experimental jazz-fusion record, and on the first listen I think it's phenomenal, not something you'd listen to on repeat but come back to every now and then, the musicianship is next level.
I've struggled a bit with the other two jazz albums I've heard so far. I enjoyed them but couldn't imagine myself loving them or returning. But this is different and it kept me engaged for the entire hour and a half runtime. Even though jazz still isn't my favorite genre I'm going to give this 5* because I really can't imagine it getting much better then this
I worked on the interminable insurance inventory for all the stuff I lost in the wildfire to this album. It made the heartbreak a little less painful (even as I recall losing this album to the fire as well. RIP album. RIP house.) It’s a good album, though you do have to be in the mood for it. This was initially hard for me to get into when I got into jazz in high school, but it grew on me. It was the only jazz album my mom owned, lol.
I too struggled with ‘Bitches Brew’ the first time I heard it. If you’re a Miles Davis newbie, this probably isn’t the place to start. Go and listen to ‘Kind Of Blue’. On first listen, ‘Bitches Brew’ is dense and impenetrable—dark, atmospheric, even menacing. Thick like molasses. It’s jazz… but not jazz. It’s something else entirely, like stepping deep into the jungle, unsure of what awaits you. Frightening but mesmerizing. To many, it might just sound like noise. But if you stick with it, what begins as a muddy wall of sound slowly reveals its layers. It’s an album that truly rewards repeated listening. And even after all these years, it still sounds like nothing else. There’s jazz, rock, avant-garde, free-jazz improvisation—it’s all over the shop. A coalescing maelstrom of music and noise. Miles assembled a kind of electric jazz supergroup; he had a knack for spotting talent—many of whom would go on to define fusion in the ’70s with their own bands. Wayne Shorter on soprano sax, Joe Zawinul and Chick Corea on electric piano, John McLaughlin on guitar, Dave Holland on bass, Jack DeJohnette and Lenny White on drums, and more. And then there’s Teo Macero. He is the secret weapon behind this and many other Miles albums, especially during his electric period. It’s his innovative production techniques, sharp editing, and instinct for knowing where to cut, paste, and loop the recordings that gives ‘Bitches Brew’ its strange, hypnotic structure. He didn’t just produce the album—in some ways he sculpted it, and he was just as instrumental in its making as Miles and the musicians themselves. Over the years, I’ve grown to love ‘Bitches Brew’—not just as an album, but as an experience. Give it time—let it wash over you and unfold in its own way—it will eventually win you over. Bold, ambitious, and electrifying, it’s a true musical landmark—not just in jazz, but in music as a whole.
Perfection. The intensity of Miles here is next level.
Oh wow. Ethereal. Profound. Epic. Game changing. Life changing.
Well, it was a Miles Davis bonanza as I spun Sketches of Spain by mistake before realizing it was Bitches Brew on the docket. Kinda cool, as the albums were so different and helped remind me how diverse and deep and artistically challenging Davis was. I loved both albums, and was struck by how this record didn't seem to center around the trumpet, there were so many elements equally at play. I don't have a ton of analysis, I just need to listen to this stuff more often.
It was WAY more experimental and chaotic than I expected. The musicianship is undeniable but it's not exactly an enjoyable listening experience. For some reason, though, it absolutely pushed me to heights of productivity while I listened to it this morning so there's something there that's working on my subconcious.
An album that really made me appreciate the purpose of the rhythm section at holding everything together. This is such chaotic and rich and exciting music, yet it never loses that thread that makes it music and not noise. I already liked this album but it's a treat to have a reason to listen to it in its entirety again. It feels like there's something new to get from it every time.
It’s the soundtrack of getting blasted through a wormhole. What a record, nothing like it.
This is far more fun than the first Miles Davis album I listened to in this project, which was "Birth of the Cool", which I found solid but uninteresting. This is some out-there experimental jazz that I am here for. The cover art is fucking fantastic, too.
Fav songs: Bitches Brew; Sanctuary Challenging album. This isn't something you just put on to listen to for fun and relaxation. Although as it went, it seemed easier listening because I got into the groove of the album. It definitely has an opinion on whether jazz should be art or broadly marketable to everyone. Extra points for the killer album art.
Это какая-то квантовая механика музыки.
I understand why this is great. It’s artful and different and diverse which I love, but I don’t see myself reaching for it
5/5. I would argue this may be one of the most controversial albums I can think of. Some say its genius, others say it is an abomination. I guess I find it hard to pick one or the other. It's not necessarily "listenable" all of the time but also it's so unique and evocative that it's hard to turn away from. You can clearly tell the talent here is intentional and yet, you wonder why they started to record it at all. It feels like one long song through the whole album, like a story being told of the beginning and end of all things. It feels sort of epic and cinematic in some ways. I think upon finishing it fully again, I do think this album has more to offer than not and I have the desire to listen to it again. I do think it is worthy of its genius title. Best Song: Miles Run Down The Voodoo, B****** Brew, Spanish Key
g’wan lads!
nothing short of revolutionary
Jazzy!
revolutionary genius
The Master!
This is the 75th album I’m rating. I haven’t listened to a lot of Miles Davis. I hear he’s a jazz legend but I’ve found the little I’ve heard of him a bit boring. Adding to my Playlist - John McLaughlin and Sanctuary. Not Adding to my Playlist - Pharaoh’s Dance, Bitches Brew, Spanish Key, and Miles Runs the Voodoo Down. Pharaoh’s Dance - I like it but it feels a little too long and a bit bloated. Sanctuary - I liked it and added it but it still felt a bit too long. All in all I liked 2/6 songs. I’m glad jazz has begun to get less bloated because although this album is very good it all feels too long.
Whacky classic
Awesome! My favourite album ever!
A sublime classic. An introduction for the masses while also pleasing the hyper aware.
Could have this playing 24/7
Put the coolest dudes in a room together with a bag of weed and some hallucinogens. Get it!
Definitely a move in a new direction and as interesting as the previous music.
You can get lost in Bitches Brew. It is unapproachable and uncompromising in its vision, and there is nothing else like it.
Wild stuff
Probably my favorite Miles Davis. Not as accessible as Kind of Blue
Y'know, I already find writing about jazz hard enough. As much as I always talk about how I'm "melody first," talking about jazz seems to require an especially tuned pair of ears that I just don't seem to possess. Modes, tonality, interplay... I'm clueless about all of that. And so far, I've only had to talk about jazz albums of a normal album length. Imagine how daunting it was looking to me when I found out I had to tackle a jazz album that's **94 minutes**. 94 minutes. No one ever told me that this album was 94 minutes — across only six tracks at that, with the first two being **over twenty minutes**. Goodness me. Here's a real "no shit" statement fer yah: that's a **lot**. A **loooot**. I mean, sure, my group has tackled much longer, from 69 LOVE SONGS to that one Ella Fitzgerald box set, but the thing is, they were comprised of a **ton** of tracks. There was a mountain of material to deal with, but at least you could deal with it on a song-to-song, two/three minutes per basis, y'know? Versus here, where entire record sides are taken up by only one or two tracks. That's a fair bit of music you hafta consider all at once. Undeniably, it's a massive hurdle for a lot of people — and if I ain't getting flashbacks to Soft Machine's THIRD, I tell yah... But the thing is, despite my initial reservations about how long on average this thing is, I don't really have a problem with songs that go on for tens of minutes. Not as long as they can keep things moving and interesting. I mean, heck, I was one of the few people in my group to give THIRD the benefit, y'know? And besides, if there's one thing I've learned about Miles Davis from the last few records my group's gotten from him, it's that I really shouldn't doubt him in those regards. 'Coz, look, these aren't just long songs. Really, they're odysseys. Vast, expansive soundscapes where, yeah, you're hardly gonna catch everything you first couple go arounds — and, yeah, the terrain's gonna be a little rough for some people, and I won't blame 'em entirely if they tap out — but if you're willing to make the journey, it's damn impressive. Like, just that, first of all, this was all improvised. There's not a single moment of "prearranged shit," as Davis called it, across these 94 minutes. It's all down to Davis's instructions, his moment-to-moment cues, and the band just that fucking tight with each other that they could play off of one another like this. I can't imagine what it's like to be in that close sync with another person, let alone however many others played on any given song. Seriously, they all have, like, two drummers and two or three keyboard players. It's insane. This would have been an absolute mess if they just didn't click with each other — and thank goodness they do! And not just that, but you consider all of the **editing** that went into this, too. From what I read, the album was recorded in short segments before being stitched together in the editing process, and, honestly, I'd never guess if I wasn't told. It's seamless, and there were apparently a lot of edits. On just the first record alone there's 34, and some of them are as small as second-long fragments. It's nuts — especially in 1969! A lot of credit needs to be given to producer Teo Macero, not just for this, but for IN A SILENT WAY as well, as it turns out. Y'know what I think music is great for, honestly? Fantasiaing. That state of mind where you put the record on, lean back, and let the music paint your imagination. Throughout the entire album I was falling in and out of Fantasiaing, and, boy, lemme tell you, the wild stuff your mind can come up with to tunes like these... The way all these wild trumpet and keyboard and saxophone solos lend themselves so easily to— gosh, honestly, it's been a long time since I was able to do this with an album, and it was great. Non-zero reason why I liked this whole thing as much as I did, seriously. This is a 5 among 5's if I've ever heard one. Whatever praise this album's gotten, it deserves it all and way more. I used "odyssey" before to describe the songs by themselves, but really, you can, could and should apply it to the whole album. It's an experience I don't feel like I've gotten from any other album before. Jus', a masterwork, front to back. I'unno if this is the last Miles Davis album on the list or not, but if it is, then, dang, I can't imagine a better way to have gone out.
Solid 5 Stars. Simple As.
I'm at a 5, but I do think this is the weakest of the Miles Davis albums we've gotten so far. This is, from a technical standpoint, *really* impressive jazz work, and the instrumentation & experimentation it goes for does feel like a natural evolution from “In A Silent Way” – when we got that album, I said that “if Bitches Brew is indeed this even better, I cannot wait for that to pop up on the list”. Well, it popped up, and even though I do like this album, I think it suffers from two things that almost dragged me down from a 5. The first is obviously the length; 93 minutes is a long ask for jazz like this – it’s double the runtime of “In A Silent Way”, and with tracks going as long as 27 minutes, I think Miles Davis himself might've been sipping that brew, because it is HARD to make jazz sound compelling for 27 minutes, even for someone as good as him. I couldn’t even listen to the album in one full sitting; I had to break it up between the first two tracks and the last 4. The second is the fact that this is a mostly improvised album; few strokes of structure along the way, but for the most part, this is him & his crew riffing. It’s not a bad approach; I love the idea of letting the music take you wherever you think it should go, but the issue comes in the structures being a little too flimsy. More bluntly, I think too many people are stepping on each other’s toes, and it doesn’t create a good hierarchy of instrumentation, in such a way where everything feels too chaotic, too disjointed, and there’s never really a “dominant” lead instrument for too long on any of the tracks. Sure, some cut through more prominently like the lead sax (or trumpet, or whatever brass instrument it was), but it constantly feels like a fight between the guitar, piano, and the brass for the lead instrument. That structure might work for some people, and I can totally understand why, but for my tastes, I gave it a lot of leeway, and I just think the album never quite found the same groove as the other 3 Miles Davis albums we’ve gotten so far. When I wrote my review on “In A Silent Way”, I said the album succeeded in its simplicity – it never went risky, and it played itself super safe. The balance between the traditional jazz & the electric guitar & the keyboards was really strong, and I think this album throws that balance out the window in a way that’s just a little too forceful for my tastes (or for my expectations). It’s not bad at all; it sounds like I’m ripping into it, but this is still a fantastic listen that’s admirable for what it’s going for, but just a little too chaotic for me. I imagine the reasons I’ve laid out are why this has the lowest rating on the website of all the Miles Davis albums we’ve gotten so far. It’s a big leap in ambition that landed on a wet spot and never quite found its footing, but still landed nevertheless -- it's a 5, but just barely for me.
I will say that I listen to a lot of Miles Davis during my work day. 'Bitches Brew' is solid. My favorite is 'On the Corner'...so I'd say this gets 4.5 stars. Rounded up...that's 5.
I gave this a go about 10 years ago and was just a bit befuddled by it. I wonder if my taste in jazz has developed in the interim enough to wrap my mind around it. I haven't been back since, but I've definitely enjoyed a fair amount of experimental music including jazz. Interesting that there's no real mention in Miles Davis reviews on here to what an enthusiastic wife-beater he seemed to be. You can't move through Clapton or Jacko reviews for references to their various transgressions, and I've mentioned stuff myself. Just a thought that occurred to me. Anyway we're here for the music. I'm enjoying the first track. Vague memories tell me I was still roughly on board at this stage last time. Love the foreboding bassline throughout the title track, and everything that swirls around and about in it. Storm Eowyn is blowing a gale outside so this is the perfect soundtrack to watching the trees blowing about outside my window. The groove in Spanish Key is relentless. John McLaughlin lost me slightly, perhaps because it's only 4 minutes or so the lack of structure is more evident. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down brings the swing, and is another irrepressible groove. And by god it's pulsating. The keys! Oh lord the keys. And that bassline as well. Just awesome. So yeah, I think my tastes have developed since 2013 or whatever lol. Incredible record.
92/100. Incredibly relaxing. The instruments are so beautifully played that it’s hard to find many jazz records better than this.
Classic
astonishing
By my own admission, my knowledge of jazz is rudimentary at best. I enjoy it, I appreciate it, but I don't necessarily have the experience or even the lingo to properly assess it. That said, even a luddite like me has heard of—and heard—Bitches Brew, a landmark album that redefined the boundaries of jazz. Make no mistake, this is not an "easy" listen. It is dense, complex, and musically challenging. The extended tracks sprawl unpredictably, driven by layers of electric pianos shimmering with distortion, John McLaughlin’s jagged guitar riffs, and Jack DeJohnette’s polyrhythmic drumming that often feels like controlled chaos. Davis’s trumpet, sometimes distant and echo-laden, cuts through the mix like a voice from another dimension. These elements combine to create a sound that feels simultaneously hypnotic and disorientating. As someone new to jazz fusion, what struck me most was the tension between structure and spontaneity. There are moments—such as the throbbing groove of “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” or the rhythmic interplay on “Spanish Key”—where I found myself fully immersed, even if I couldn’t quite explain what was happening musically. It’s this tension that both draws me in and pushes me away; the music feels alive, unpredictable, and perhaps that’s what makes it both brilliant and inaccessible. What makes it challenging for me? Partly, it’s the sheer length of the tracks, which seem to reject conventional forms in favour of free-flowing exploration. The unconventional instrumentation and lack of melody in the traditional sense also play a role, making it harder to latch onto something familiar. Yet, despite these challenges, I find myself admiring the audacity of Davis and his band, who weren’t afraid to throw listeners into deep, uncharted waters. Ultimately, I respect Bitches Brew more than I enjoy it, but I do enjoy it, and I can’t deny its impact. It’s an album that demands you meet it on its own terms. Don’t worry about fully understanding it. Just let it wash over you, and appreciate the fact that it exists at all—a bold, risk-taking creation from an artist who was never content to stay in one place. Did/Do I own this release? No Does this release belong on the list? A complex, genre-defying statement piece. Not easy, but undoubtedly monumental. Would this release make my personal list? Yes Will I be listening to it again? I will keep trying to crack it
More like 'Witches Sonic Brew". Not my favourite Miles LP -- in his "free-form" period, for instance I have a stronger lean towards the meditative "In A Silent Way" -- yet you can't deny how groundbreaking the whole thing -- infusing rock and latin tones to jazz -- is. And what a star-studded cast as well. My most preferred contribution within the personnel is Bennie Maupin: his clarinet performance is so dark and ominous! Another "milestone" in a career ripe with them 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes (5/5 for musical competency + 3.5/5 for the artistry + 1 for the ambition and the stellar, incredibly evocative artwork). Number of albums left to review: the 80-ish extra LPs listed on this app, included because different past editions of the book have mentioned albums that have since been dropped in subsequent editions. Number of albums I'll keep in my own list: half, approximately (including this one, I've temporarily lost count here) Number of albums I *might* keep: a small quarter, approximately Number of albums I won't keep: a large quarter
Amazing except the last song kinda felt too all over the place, which says a lot considering how all over the place the album is. I loved it though otherwise
Am sure very impressive, but experimental jazz just washes over me and I couldn’t say it did much for me
Den er så fed. Miles Runs the Voodoo Down 🤌🤌
This was the jazz album I grew up with. Its a journey through experimental jam jazz. If you like jazz this is great but I can see how if you don’t like jazz this would be a slog. This album is very long and although the songs go through multiple evolutions, it can get very repetitive, especially when the songs are nearly 20 minutes each. However this to me is the definitive Miles Davis album. 9/10
Exceptional
Absolute madness
Extraordinary. An intuitive adventure of mind every time I experience this album.