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[FinderDoug]

Miles Davis - The Complete ON THE CORNER Sessions

Missed this when it came out - put it on the "go get' list and didn't; then it went out of print, and secondary market prices went through the roof (the 6 CD set, list price $129, starts on the secondary market at $199, and rapidly climbs into the high $200s); discovered a copy at a music store here in Houston for $109 and nearly sprained my wrist pulling my wallet out.

The next step in Miles' evolution that started with BITCHES BREW, Miles kicked into high gear in 1972 - neither true jazz nor rock nor funk, but a synthesis of the three into something all its own. The critics hated it at the time. Long, sprawling takes; hard-edged sounds; music bordering on (but never quite going as deep into) the cacophonous space that late-career John Coltrane traveled. The band grew as large as eleven players on some tracks, and the sessions yielded the next three releases from Miles (ON THE CORNER, BIG FUN, GET UP WITH IT), with only WATER BABIES (itself made up of outtakes and leftovers from the late sixties) to come before Miles' retirement from music until the early eighties. Here, several tracks are restored to full length ("One and One", released at 6:09 on ON THE CORNER, was pared down from 17:55), along with some unreleased tunes from the sessions.

It took some time for me to learn to love ON THE CORNER, but having found my ways inside, this is a delirious expansion. Not familiar with the style? Check a sample on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Corner-S ... B000TLMWMO