Miles and Miles to Go
Review of the Bloomsbury Academic 33 and 1/3 paperback (October 22, 2015), released simultaneously with the eBook.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/BitchesBrewGatefold.jpg
The full gate-fold cover for the original double LP edition of Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew.” Painting by Mati Klarwein. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

it will never be the same again now, after in a silent way and after BITCHES BREW. listen to this. how can it ever be the same? i don't mean you can't listen to ben. how silly. we can always listen to ben play funny valentine, until the end of the world it will be beautiful and how can anything be more beautiful than hodges playing passion flower? he never made a mistake in 40 years. it's not more beautiful, just different. a new beauty. a different beauty. the other beauty is still beauty. this is new and right now it has the edge of newness and that snapping fire you sense when you go out there from the spaceship where nobody has ever been before. - excerpted from Ralph J. Gleason’s liner notes* for the original double LP edition of Bitches Brew. These were intentionally written in lower case letters.

With its rather stunning album cover, compelling liner notes and its mysterious, sometimes abstract sometimes funky music driving it along, the Bitches Brew album was a complete immersion into the future worlds of ambient and fusion music that were yet to come after its release in 1970.

George Grella Jr. provides a complete background to the assembly of the musicians by Miles Davis, the recording process in the studio and a track-by-track examination of the results. The value added element is the analysis of the amount of post-recording production work that was done by Teo Macero in piecing together huge amounts of the recording out of spliced fragments and edits. The opening track Pharoah's Dance has 19 edits for instance, something which I was completely oblivious to when I first heard it, imagining it as being played live in the studio as were most jazz albums back in the day.

Almost all of the musicians from this recording would go on to lead their own prominent jazz-rock or improv jazz ensembles: Wayne Shorter and Joe Zaminul with Weather Report, Chick Corea with Return to Forever, John McLaughlin with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Keith Jarrett with his solo concerts & the European Quartet & Standards Trio etc. But Miles had them all first together in the studio in August 1969 where magic was born.

Footnote
* Read the complete original liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason and the additional liner notes by Bob Belden for The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions at Album Liner Notes.com.

Soundtrack
Listen to the expanded (1 hour 45:54 minutes) Sony Columbia Legacy Edition 7-track edition (which includes 1 bonus track) of the Bitches Brew album on YouTube here or on Spotify here.

Listen to the 21-track edition of The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (4 hours 24 minutes) at a YouTube playlist which begins here or on Spotify here.

Trivia and Links
Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew is part of the Bloomsbury Academic 33 1/3 series of books surveying significant record albums, primarily in the rock and pop genres with a few that are jazz and classical related. The GR Listopia for the 33 1/3 series is incomplete with only 38 books listed as of May 2024. For an up-to-date list see Bloomsbury Publishing with 193 books listed as of May 2024.

Bonus Track
I don't think this is a story from the Bitches Brew sessions, but pianist Keith Jarrett tells a funny story and performs an excellent mimic of Miles Davis' raspy voice in Miles Davis and the Very Slow Beat. ( )

Immaginiamo un' ostrica con tante conchiglie una dentro l'altra, come una matrioska, e una perla luccicante al centro. In venticinque anni di musica, Miles era riuscito a schiudere quelle conchiglie, una dopo l'altra. E la perla che lo aspettava era Bitches Brew. ( )

Bitches Brew is not one of my favourite albums by Miles Davis - bit too fraught for my liking.
I prefer his more thoughtful smoother work, Milestones, Round Midnight and Kind of Blue.
From his time at the Juilliard when he was eighteen years old, Miles has been an innovator.
He has played with most of his contempories - John Coultrane, Thelonious Monk etc.
This is a comprehensive book full of the author's take on Miles's life, how his music changed as the years progressed and how he influenced others.
It has also made me dig out my cds and listen again!
All in all a very informative account of one of the greats of jazz.
Highly recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review. ( )