Jazz & Blues > 1970 to 1979 Jazz & Blues

Funk Off

Advantages: Reinvigorated Davis, awesomely funky, with a superb band.
Disadvantages: You're kidding right?

...of the seventies. 'A Tribute to Jack Johnson' however is Davis at one with his material, interviews reveal this to be a project Davis dug, really dug. A longtime fan of boxing, and constant visitor to the ring to keep fit (relatively speaking for a cocaine addict with shot hips), in Jack Johnson Davis spotted a kindred spirit. The album was the soundtrack to a documentary about the legendary heavyweight. Johnson was THE great black hope in the early ...
...his opponents, and lived life in the fastest of the fast lanes. Cars, women, fine clothes, newspaper headlines, and a nation that baulked as a negro stood at the pinnacle of his profession. There was an awful lot for Miles to identify with. The energy on this record is palpable. A tangible electricity flows through the 2 tracks that make up the standard edition release. Davis was never just Davis though, in the early days of be-bop he was in the ...

dadmancat 07.06.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Tribute To Jack Johnson, A - Miles Davis

Aspiration

Advantages: The beginning of the jazz/rock-fusion era
Disadvantages: I don't think so

Before I begin with the review, let me make a small introduction to what the term fusion refers to. Fusion nowadays refers to bands, corresponding to a highly technical electric jazz idiom, with extreme improvisation, hyper-complex rhythmic patterns and unisono phrases. Moreover, is considered by many people, justified in a way I believe, that is a form of music designed for musicians to musicians and nothing more. However, if we look at the way ...
...that things were a little bit different than the above characterization explicitly implied. What was the firing point for that music to develop? The evolving interest, of young talented jazz musicians, for the new style emerging at the time, namely rock. Normally, the birth of fusion is considered to be Miles Davis' album "Bitches Brew". In my opinion, the birth of fusion is rather the album you are curently reading it's review, with the Miles Davis ...

kafouroutsos 11.02.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Inner Mounting Flame, The [Remastered] - Mahavishnu Orchestra

Roaring

Advantages: Authentic live feel
Disadvantages: Won't appeal to everyone

...you away on albums but live they're dead wood. Dire Straits for instance. Watching them was like putting a cd on in a huge hall and watching the telly from 50 yards away. I've got loads of albums by people I've never seen. Some I'd never want to see. Conversely, there are acts you've heard on disk maybe, been unimpressed and then been staggered at how good they are live. Rarely does one come across one who can do both, produce studio albums of great ...
...it on stage. Then the live album gets released which again manages to combine those qualities and bring that stage presence right into your living room. Rory Gallagher was one of those musicians. An Irish showband guitarist who came to England in the mid-60s after forming Taste to try and break out of the musically stultifying showband circuit, went solo and became an influence on artists ranging from Adam Clayton and The Edge, Slash and Stuart ...

The-Operator 20.06.2002 · Read full review
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Review of Live In Europe - Rory Gallagher

Essential chilled jazz funk from 1973

Advantages: irresitably funky
Disadvantages: only 4 tracks (but long all the same!)

This is the only Hancock album I own but being intrested in all styles of music I wanted to give this a try. Hancock is a very talented keyboard player, who with his very tight 4 piece band and his large bank of synthesisers and electric keyboards creates all sorts of radical and new sounds in jazz that shook the jazz world in 1973. First track chameleon is based on a low analog synth riff and off beat drum rythm, that starts the album off on a ...
...by the eerie 'watermelon man', starting off with an amazing african percussion section by Bill summers, and gradually a jazzy bass line creaps in, leading the way to another great slice of jazz fusion, complete with sax solos and funky harmonies. 'sly' is essentially a tribute to the music of sly stone, the famous funk musician, and is a long jam full of trademark clavicords, complex rythms and a very free funky style. The album ends on a more ...

joey_rza 14.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Head Hunters - Herbie Hancock

A Great Archive Let Down By Sequencing

Advantages: Fidelity is great, songwriting, guitar playing and vocals superb, thorough research
Disadvantages: Sequencing - the track order is frustrating

...music fans a like. The Complete Robert Johnson comes across like a standards song book, the contents of which has given birth to numerous cover versions from acclaimed and esteemed bluesmen and rockers from across the globe spanning six decades. There is however, one glaring disappointment with this set and that is with the sequencing. This is the most comprehensive collection of Johnson's material and as such there are alternate takes included. ...
...by side with their original counterparts which makes the whole very hard to listen to as each track is repeated, albeit a variant of the original. It still baffles me as to why the alternates were not on a separate disc from the originals. Even for me, a hardened fan of the genre, it makes for difficult listening if you using an old fashioned CD player. This is a wonderful and comprehensive archive but unfortunately does not work as a listening experience ...

Nixu1980 03.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Complete Recordings, The (All 41 Recordings) - Robert Johnson