#bitches brew

Most historical accounts of jazz fusion call this riveting, electric, studio-manipulated masterpiece its center, if not its origin point. It sold five hundred thousand copies in 1970, its first year of release, bringing jazz back into the mainstream in a different way than Wes Montgomery had with his strings-laden, easy-flowing fusion experiments. The Bitches Brew band--well, sort of a band, since Miles conducted the album sessions as a highly stressful game of round robin, keeping tape rolling as he'd usher players in and out of the studio--featured many of the style's then and future stars, including three--the saxophonist Wayne Shorter and the percussionists Don Alias and Airto Moreira--who'd later become key in growing Mitchell's sound. The leaders of major fusion bands Weather Report and Return to Forever, keyboardists Joe Zawinul and Chick Corea, also appear on Bitches Brew, as do the guitarist John McLaughlin and the drummer Billy Cobham, whose Mahavishnu Orchestra influenced multiple generations of jam-band weirdos. Davis designed the project this way, a maximalist outing that would yield maximum results. He further ensured the album's revolutionary impact through innovative editing techniques and sound effects that turned the studio into an instrument: something rock bands like the Beatles and the Beach Boys had done, but Davis fully claimed these innovations for jazz, producing a double disc that sounded like it had been recorded live--maybe on Mars.

The late jazz musician Miles Davis was a big name familiar to many in the hippie culture. The Miles Davis album BITCHES BREW, with its surreal album cover art, was considered one of the most revolutionary jazz fusion recordings ever made. Davis was the quintessential personification of “ultra cool” and he was an artist and band leader who did not tolerate any lackluster performances from others. Davis was a leader in the modern jazz world for decades and was as well respected by the “Beats” as by the hippie set. Tim Lodite, editor.