Bitches Brew - Miles Davis' Ultimate Statement of Defiance

There's an eternal battle nearly every underground artist fights. In theory, achieving mainstream cultural acceptance and ubiquity for the art you create without having to change a note of it should be a major victory. But the taste is often bittersweet. You can't help but wonder what you've lost in becoming successful. Think of that little emocore trio from Seattle who's second album went on to become one of the most significant albums (and best selling) of all time despite being every bit as abrasive and-let's say-grungy as their first. But no originally revolutionary musical movement has gone so completely from the home of rebels to the toast of high society as the “Great American Art Form” known as jazz.

Contributor: Nathan Leigh

Jazz was originally the respite of absurdly talented musicians not welcomed by the white establishment in traditional orchestras. By the mid-60's the variant of jazz which emphasized small combos and long solos known as bebop wasn't just accepted by the establishment. It was the establishment. Codified in the “Real Book” and the “Fake Book;” two enormous volumes of simplified sheet music for the entire collection of traditionally accepted jazz standards. What in classical music and traditional theatre they call “the Canon.”
I often wonder what the heroin addicted rebel genius Charlie Parker would have thought had he lived long enough to see doctorate programs in jazz composition and performance and major universities, with his own music held up as the golden ideal. Though Parker may have lived fast and died young, one of his frequent collaborators, and another of the great innovators of bebop, Miles Davis survived to see his cultural victory was a Pyrrhic one. Witnessing the utter co-option of his art form at the hands of the mainstream Davis drew a line in the sand in 1970 when he released the landmark Bitches Brew.
He had been moving away from bop at that point for a decade at least, but his previous recordings (even the heavily electric In A Silent Way from 1969) still maintained a tenuous connection to the past. In A Silent Way, despite it's electric and free jazz leanings even borrowed the Sonata Form from classical music. Bitches Brew was a complete break from all this. It was an ugly, confrontational, emotionally brutal, noisy mess of an album.

With two drummers, two keyboardists, and two bass players, two percussionists, and an electric guitar, this was not your mothers' bebop combo. There are no standards. Barely any melodies at all. Sanctuary, the albums' sole ballad, only makes it about halfway through its running time before devolving back into the frenzied chaos of previous tracks. The guitars are slightly overdriven and recall hippie icons Grateful Dead and Country Joe and the Fish. The drums play straight rock rhythms rather than the ride shuffle that has come to define jazz in the minds of most listeners. The songs don't so much begin as much as happen, and rather than come to a satisfying conclusion, they simply end; crumbling back into the chaos from whence they came.

The term most often used to define the music is “jazz-rock fusion” or simply fusion. But the fusion which achieved success with bands like Weather Report (founded by one of the keyboardists and the soprano sax player from the Bitches Brew era band) still had melodies. What Davis was doing here was an act of defiance. With a 20-year legacy of classic recordings, and a band featuring some of the most talented jazz musicians to ever record, Miles Davis was declaring war on the jazz establishment.
What makes his rebellion all the more striking is the fact that this was not an album from a young upstart, eager to prove himself. Bitches Brew was the 34th full length album from an extremely successful 44-year-old man. Davis was as much a part of the world of jazz over cocktails at Lincoln Center as he was waging war against it.

Listening to the opening strands of chaos from album opener Pharaoh's Dance, it's clear that this is a revolution. 40 years later and the album's carefully sculpted noise is still ahead of its' time. Devin Ocampo from Faraquet and Medications may have borrowed from the instrumentation in Medications' latest album (seriously, who uses a bass clarinet? Amazing.), but even he still marries the sound to semi-traditional songwriting. Davis is going for nothing but total reinvention. Solos and melodies burble up from the primordial sonic soup and dissipate just as effortlessly.
Perhaps what is most amazing is the beauty of it all. The music walks a steady line between total noise and melody. If the players were any less talented, and it would devolve into an unlistenable jumble. Any more traditionally oriented and it would lose that excitement. That “we're doing something new” energy which every artist since the first caveman drew his lunch on a wall has sought but only about 500 or so have ever successfully achieved.

As a child raised in the 90's listening mostly to music made before I was born, I've often wondered what it was like to hear David Johansen first declare “When I say I'm in love you best believe I mean love L-U-V” and know you were hearing something truly new enter the world for the first time. In an era where Katy Perry samples Garry Glitter and no-one bats an eye, where post-hardcore bands appear on the Billboard charts, and every underground music scene is only one Jay-Z mash-up or TV soundtrack away from cultural ubiquity, hearing Bitches Brew is still a revolution. In Davis' quest to evade the popular co-option of bebop, he created something truly remarkable, an album that by its' very nature can never be co-opted by the mainstream.

Tags: Bitches, Brew, Davis, Jazz, Miles

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Comment by storm cloud(the native sun) on January 30, 2012 at 7:05pm: hi,

when i read stuff like this i always have mixed emotions. the way that the grateful dead and country joe and the fish are referenced in this article you would think that miles used them as motivation..trust me it was the other way around. also-this wasn't an attack on "jazz" it was an extension of it..an elevation that could be heard by younger ears.

i could go on-not the least of ironies is that the first video(from the dave chertok collection) has been removed from youtube...that collection came into being because dave chertok went around dumpster diving and found a bunch of old jazz footage and copywrote it(no exaggeration).

let me just say this-to note the genius of miles all you really have to do is follow the impact on popular music..or any music...of the people that were in his bands over the years..like wayne shorter and joe zawinul of weather report..not to mention chic corea of return to forever. if you use the form as motivation for your own musical freedom and not as a cookie cutter model like how they try to ape monk and bird then you'll get it.

if not then you'll be one of those who thinks they are profound and haven't really scratched the surface.

Comment by Dave Iasevoli on January 27, 2012 at 4:01pm: So cool you ran this: *BB* still shakes some earth--dirty & ethereal at the same time.

Comment by Laughing Man on January 27, 2012 at 1:57pm: There were actually 3 keyboardists, but only for Pharoah's Dance I believe. This album is one which opened me up to creative music. Highly recommended.

Comment by Cliff St. Croix on May 16, 2011 at 8:06am: If you'd like to trace the history of Miles .....evolutionary march towards the innovations which led to Bitches Brew check out 'In a Silent Way" which was the beginning of his experiments with electronics and features a number of young giants who would go on to develop and release their innovative works as well as bands all influenced by Miles ie: Chick Corea , Wayne Shorter, Gary Bartz, Mahavishnu John Mcglaughlin and the list goes on. His creative output was staggering as usual !

Comment by Jody The Grinder on May 16, 2011 at 2:20am: This is one of those albums that I must have on every new mp3 player or phone I've bought. It's also one of the longest albums I've bought with the fewest tracks. lol

Comment by benelson on May 12, 2011 at 1:20am: I have been lucky enough to have played in a band that was inspired by Miles Davis; and in particular, the album "Bitches Brew." The freedom, to perform music without the constraints of traditional western syntax is a liberating experience. I always encourage musicians to inject some "freeform jamming" into their routine. Miles Davis and other musicians: Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltraine to name a few, ignited a ture artistic revolution when they exploried Modal Jazz modes and the spiritual conceptionalization of "Outside" music. God Bless Them All.

Comment by Cliff St. Croix on May 11, 2011 at 11:59pm: Miles was the ultimate anti establishment anti hero-hero, embraced by the establishment. He led, they followed and they hated him all the way to the bank !

Comment by Audrey Alesia on May 11, 2011 at 8:19pm: I don't know much more than the average Jo when it comes to Davis, his work, and jazz in general, but this article makes me want to look him up and see what he was all about. Most excellent.

Comment by Newsoul on May 11, 2011 at 7:25pm: Miles was alternative before the label became vogue, and he changed his music after Bitches Brew from albums like "Around the Corner" and Agartha are noize- punk-funk chaos worth taking. His 1969-1975 output rivals any recorded artist for artistic risk and reward.

Comment by The Deacon on May 11, 2011 at 4:15pm: Excellent article; there are also alternate takes and unreleased tracks from Bitches Brew floating around the Net.