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| Track list: 1. Pharaoh's Dance 2. Bitches Brew Running time: 47 minutes Released: 1970 |
What to say to introduce this? Two epic-length tracks. So much so that I am not sure I have ever sat and listened to either before, despite the classic status of this album.
It is a soft and low-key start, brushed drums and a distant organ. A bit discordant too. Waffling. Hopefully the piece improves and gains a bit of structure, a few more bold sounds and sommething to hung interest around because my first impressions are not positive. This is supposed to be a classic though; it must have a bit more heft to it later.
It's been an odd week; I have not managed to make good on the promise of last week's return to frequent posts. I took Monday off, and then two evenings of gaming in person (RPG Tuesday, boardgames on Wednesday) and two of gaming online (Far Cry 4, co-op) wiped out the time available to post. It doesn't feel that long since my last effort, but it is. Time flies, eh? Whilst I bemoan that, and Japan take a commanding lead over Samoa in the rugby, the Pharaoh's Dance has sprung into a little more life. Not a great deal, but some. It was welcome but I cannot help but feel this is just random musings, the wanderings of a stupid improv session rather than considered genius. As I approach the half-way mark on the first of the pair I have yet to find a theme to latch onto, anything that binds my attention and asks me to appreciate it. This may turn out to be a short post because the lack of tracks mean there is less cohesiveness to discuss.
Look - there are nice moments and movements buried in these pieces but it feels like a slog wading through everything else to get to them. The whole thing feels very dated, aging poorly and worse with every second. I can certainly see that something like this was once avant garde and of genuine interest because of that, but it feels tired, directionless and clichéd now, the epitome of what people would point to and sneer at for being jazz - structure-less and never-ending. Moments lost in the sea of irrelevance. It's a real shame for me, because finally as the track closes there is a real theme that I like, Davis' trumpet carrying a fair amount of weight. It's just too little too late as it comprises maybe the last couple of minutes of the Dance. Whether something better is brewing up for the second part - half as long again as the first - remains to be seen.
It is a bolder start, stronger sounds. However it is also disjointed, and when one set of sounds is completely jetissoned after about 3 minutes and replaced with another, much softer set it feels like a bait-and-switch. More life to it though, even in the softness. There is a more considered air to things which goes a long way - it doesn't feel directionless even if the change up was rather abrupt. The rhythm, I think that is what sets Bitches Brew on a higher plane than the Pharaoh's Dance. Something about the percussion is more compelling, something about how it survives whilst other sounds fade in and out keeps a thread running. There are still breaks in that thread though, clean tears that separate different sections of the piece from each other. This works to cut up the length into smaller chunks and ideally these would have been track breaks, allowing each section to be appreciated for what it is rather than forcing it into some unwieldy whole. I rather like the sections so far as the track hits halfway, but my patience for listening to them all right through in future is probably not there. If they were in practice the shorter 3-5 minute variations that they appear to be in the actual composition then I would happily sit and enjoy many of them.
It's all gone very quiet. There's a lot of busy little staccato sound going on, but all rather soft. This feels like regression, back to the meandering of Pharaoh's Dance. Its the first part of the title track I have not enjoyed in some way and it comes nearing the 20 minute mark. Just such a shame it's all one thing. Even as this phase strains my patience there are bits an pieces to like in there, just like in Dance. It feels like it is dragging on a bit now though and could do with another injection of theme and life as we enter the final stages. I am shivering cold, despite the thermostat reading above 20, and at this point am looking forward to the piece ending so I can shiver and wrap myself warm rather than sit arms-out typing. That reason is secondary to the dirge-like air that the tune has chosen to end on, piercing trumpet cries screaming out over a bleak landscape as the silence draws in.
Well that was disappointing. Anything but classic from my perspective, and the long uninteresting lead out killed any final chance of me wanting to maintain Bitches' Brew for the earlier movements. Hopefully the second disc will be more appealing.
It is a soft and low-key start, brushed drums and a distant organ. A bit discordant too. Waffling. Hopefully the piece improves and gains a bit of structure, a few more bold sounds and sommething to hung interest around because my first impressions are not positive. This is supposed to be a classic though; it must have a bit more heft to it later.
It's been an odd week; I have not managed to make good on the promise of last week's return to frequent posts. I took Monday off, and then two evenings of gaming in person (RPG Tuesday, boardgames on Wednesday) and two of gaming online (Far Cry 4, co-op) wiped out the time available to post. It doesn't feel that long since my last effort, but it is. Time flies, eh? Whilst I bemoan that, and Japan take a commanding lead over Samoa in the rugby, the Pharaoh's Dance has sprung into a little more life. Not a great deal, but some. It was welcome but I cannot help but feel this is just random musings, the wanderings of a stupid improv session rather than considered genius. As I approach the half-way mark on the first of the pair I have yet to find a theme to latch onto, anything that binds my attention and asks me to appreciate it. This may turn out to be a short post because the lack of tracks mean there is less cohesiveness to discuss.
Look - there are nice moments and movements buried in these pieces but it feels like a slog wading through everything else to get to them. The whole thing feels very dated, aging poorly and worse with every second. I can certainly see that something like this was once avant garde and of genuine interest because of that, but it feels tired, directionless and clichéd now, the epitome of what people would point to and sneer at for being jazz - structure-less and never-ending. Moments lost in the sea of irrelevance. It's a real shame for me, because finally as the track closes there is a real theme that I like, Davis' trumpet carrying a fair amount of weight. It's just too little too late as it comprises maybe the last couple of minutes of the Dance. Whether something better is brewing up for the second part - half as long again as the first - remains to be seen.
It is a bolder start, stronger sounds. However it is also disjointed, and when one set of sounds is completely jetissoned after about 3 minutes and replaced with another, much softer set it feels like a bait-and-switch. More life to it though, even in the softness. There is a more considered air to things which goes a long way - it doesn't feel directionless even if the change up was rather abrupt. The rhythm, I think that is what sets Bitches Brew on a higher plane than the Pharaoh's Dance. Something about the percussion is more compelling, something about how it survives whilst other sounds fade in and out keeps a thread running. There are still breaks in that thread though, clean tears that separate different sections of the piece from each other. This works to cut up the length into smaller chunks and ideally these would have been track breaks, allowing each section to be appreciated for what it is rather than forcing it into some unwieldy whole. I rather like the sections so far as the track hits halfway, but my patience for listening to them all right through in future is probably not there. If they were in practice the shorter 3-5 minute variations that they appear to be in the actual composition then I would happily sit and enjoy many of them.
It's all gone very quiet. There's a lot of busy little staccato sound going on, but all rather soft. This feels like regression, back to the meandering of Pharaoh's Dance. Its the first part of the title track I have not enjoyed in some way and it comes nearing the 20 minute mark. Just such a shame it's all one thing. Even as this phase strains my patience there are bits an pieces to like in there, just like in Dance. It feels like it is dragging on a bit now though and could do with another injection of theme and life as we enter the final stages. I am shivering cold, despite the thermostat reading above 20, and at this point am looking forward to the piece ending so I can shiver and wrap myself warm rather than sit arms-out typing. That reason is secondary to the dirge-like air that the tune has chosen to end on, piercing trumpet cries screaming out over a bleak landscape as the silence draws in.
Well that was disappointing. Anything but classic from my perspective, and the long uninteresting lead out killed any final chance of me wanting to maintain Bitches' Brew for the earlier movements. Hopefully the second disc will be more appealing.
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