Title: Bitches Brew
Artist: Miles Davis
Year: 1970
Chronological position: Oh I don’t know: about his nineteen millionth, I think
Previous experience of this artist?: Kind of Blue
My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good
One track in --- Good
Halfway through --- Meh
Finished --- Meh
Comments: Aw hell, I don’t care what you think. Crucify me. You all know I’m no fan of jazz, though in fairness I did thoroughly enjoy
Kind of Blue so, you, know, maybe there’s hope. Mind you, this is over an hour and a half long, which triggers me a little, but we’ll see. Most of the tracks are in double digits in terms of length, and more than one is over twenty! ****in’ hell! One is almost thirty! But hey, this is jazz, right? Haters gonna hate, by which I mean, me. The first track is over twenty minutes, so I guess I’ll either love it or hate it. Starts off nice and ambient anyway, no complaints here, though I’m aware we have a very long way to go.
It certainly eases you in slowly, I’ll give it that. “Pharaoh’s Dance” has been going for about eight minutes now and it’s all been very quiet and low-key, not even so much of the trumpet Miles was known and famous for. I reckon so far (will probably regret saying this but) sounds pretty relaxing and almost in a way distant, as if the volume has been turned down or something, or I’m standing a long way from the music. Yeah it gets a little frenetic for the second track, and I have to be honest that I’m just really losing interest now. It’s all a little too improvisational for my tastes. I think this may be a hard sell for me.
You know, in fairness it’s all right, but I just can’t get a handle on jazz in general, and it always just bores me rigid and leaves me cold. This bores me rigid and leaves me cold.
Favourite track(s): “Pharaoh’s Dance” isn’t terrible
Least favourite track(s):
Final impression --- Look, you can all hate me for not sticking my tongue up this album’s, uh, spine, but it should also be noted that I have never ever made any secret of my aversion to, inability to get into and basic disinterest in jazz, so nobody should be too surprised. After all, if you told me you hated or were bored with prog, I wouldn’t expect you to enthuse about
Foxtrot or
2112 or, um,
Close to the Edge, same if you weren’t into hip-hop then its seminal albums would mean nothing to you, no matter how well they’re regarded, even outside its genre. I’m not denying every jazz fan loves this, but I’m not a jazz fan, never will be, and I don’t.
Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
G) Enjoyed this album just purely on its own merits
H) Glad I listened to it
I) Didn’t really affect me.
Big fat B here.
Now excuse me while I go into hiding.
