Miles Davis - The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions
This five CD set has to be one of the most difficult sets to rate, as it works extremely well in microcosm and poorly in macrocosm. Or in English, my enjoyment is inversely related to how long I listen to it, except, perhaps, for disc 5 which has the actual album itself and shows quite clearly how Miles distilled all these sessions into something coherent. Jack Johnson is downright nasty and funky at times, with a rough bluesy hint and a focus on guitar, usually McLaughlin, but thanks to this set we get to hear Sonny Sharrock and know where he fits in. In fact like most of the electric Miles albums, the musicians are basically the who’s who of jazz. I don’t really ever listen to this with more than a disc at a time and started my final and file run on this a month ago or more, playing one of the five discs every so often. Even by this method one or two of the discs (iirc discs 2-3 in particular) really wears out its welcome with the repeat takes, but listening to one or two of these alone makes me think wow. I’ve settled on an 11 on this set overall as this musician and era are among my favorites if not at the very top, but it’s a drink best in short sips. And certainly not the first box in this series I’d recommend.