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Miles Plugs In: A Survey of the Recordings of Miles Davis 1968-1975
Martin Booth, September 2025
I bought Bitches Brew on a late summer's day in 1970, at a long-departed record shop in Cambridge.
I was 17 years old, had listened to my parents' jazz records from the age of six, and had been
following rock, soul and blues (above all, blues) for most of the 60s. I was intrigued that Miles
Davis -- the epitome of 'cool jazz' (which I wasn't very interested in) -- should have turned his
hand to electric music, particularly when I heard the odd snatch on the radio (tracks from
Filles de Kilimanjaro and In A Silent Way had been given brief airtime on BBC
jazz programmes).
But none of that prepared me for the music I heard when I took the first of the two gleaming LPs out
of the stunning sleeve and put them on my sister's stereo. At first I didn't know what to make of it:
it was deep, multi-layered, confusing, passionate, completely contemporary with its rock rhythms and
electric sounds, and yet rooted deep in jazz history, especially when Miles played. Then after several
listens I was suddenly -- and permanently -- completely hooked. I just could not get my head around how
music could be that good, that original and compelling -- and to be honest, I still can't. Bitches Brew
changed my whole perception of what music could be, and in fact not just music, but art, and even
life itself. The sense of daring, of collective challenge and cooperation, of not being afraid to
go to the edge and beyond -- it is really up there with the greatest art, in my view, and I don't
think I am alone in believing that.
Of course, after that I had to pursue Miles' ongoing career, so within my extremely limited means I
bought all his subsequent recordings, at least up to his 'retirement' in 1975. Some I loved straight
off, some I found puzzling at first, but given patient and persistent listening all eventually offered
great rewards (in some cases, many years after I first heard them). And of course I pursued those
musicians who worked with Miles at that time as they struck out on their own; some I really went with,
others I didn't take to so much, but even so I found Miles' own music really stood out for reasons
that even now are hard to define.
A curiosity for many is that nothing Miles released after Bitches Brew came near its dramatic --
and highly surprising, given the nature of the music -- commercial success, meaning that his subsequent
output was rather overlooked at the time compared to the more 'accessible' music of his former sidemen
and associates. Yet few would argue that, with a few honourable exceptions, Miles' own music has stood
the test of time far better than most of that produced by his 'acolytes'; indeed, to take just one example,
On the Corner has gone from being almost universally dismissed to being hailed as the harbinger
of a whole new era of music.
I have long thought that a serious evaluation of Miles' 'first-period' electric recordings was needed.
There have been some fine books about Miles' 'electric period' (those by Paul Tingen and George Cole
are particularly important), but I felt some more attention needed to be paid to the records themselves.
Accordingly, when (like millions of others) I found myself more housebound than usual during the
COVID-19 lockdowns, I decided to do something I had pondered for years: write a simple descriptive
account of each new record Miles Davis released between the years of 1968 and 1975, as well as recordings
made during those years but not released until later.
I made a decision from the start to restrict myself to 'official' releases, as opposed to 'unofficial'
ones (so-called 'bootlegs'). That was partly because I wanted to focus on albums which had at least a
measure of sanction from Miles himself, and partly to set a boundary of which music to cover, as there
is simply such a huge quantity of 'bootleg' Miles Davis releases, mostly of live material. In some
cases this has meant omitting some really good and important recordings, such as the unreleased
Bitches Brew material or some of the better quality concert recordings. However, most of
this music can now be found on YouTube and I have pointed the reader in the direction of it where
appropriate. I have also attached YouTube links for the recordings I have written about, although
some of them are not complete and some may have changed.
My remarks are divided into chapters; the files below are PDF files which should open in any
modern web browser.
The main source of information has been the evidence of my own ears, although I have of course drawn
on many books, articles, interviews, etc. published over the years -- after all, few musicians of any
category, let alone jazz musicians, have had as much written and said about them as Miles Davis.
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