Outer Music Diary

Miles Davis - The Complete On the Corner Sessions (discs 1-2)

If someone were to say, hey let’s give Mike a real nice present, something he’d really like. And not just a CD but 6, well it might resemble the new Miles Davis box. On the Corner may split some fans up, but I’m completely in the pro camp, hell I’d go as far as saying it’s one of the great albums in any genre. It’s the avatar of the nasty groove incarnate. 

Of course after the Jack Johnson sessions box it’s right to have some jitters, not that the music on there wasn’t superlative either, but the nature of the repetition made it hard to play more than a chunk at a time. The On the Corner sessions box title is a bit of a misnomer, this is a series of studio takes that go from March 1972, through the June period On the Corner was created from and all the way to early 1975, inclusive of pieces you’ll recognize if you’ve owned Big Fun and Get Up With It. And then there are the unedited masters and outtakes. The music here sounds fantastic in 24 bit, just crystal clear. Miles during this period hits you with atmosphere from the getgo, a large band filled with a multitute of percussive coloring, a fierce, fuzzed guitar, surprisingly sparse and memorable bass playing and just bits and pieces of trumpet and wahed out organ. The sound is enormous.

On disc 1, we have five pieces. I started with the middle jam “One on One,” an unedited master that grooves right in the pocket for over 17 minutes. I wonder a bit what my initial opinion would have been going with the “On the Corner” unedit first, because ”One on One” is very impressive, it moves like wind, shifting perspectives with music phrases hurling themselves out of the advancing groove. The “On the Corner” jam has that repetition, the bass line steadily grounding the spaciness and it’s easy to see the final piece as superior, right to the point without losing your attention.

Disc 2 also has five pieces. Not everything is picture perfect, one gets the impression that you’re backstage in the process checking some of this out, but the shamanic intensity of “Chieftain,” like one of Mati Klarwein’s paintings, and the downright raunchiness of “Rated X” make you realize the lineage of remaining studio recordings is actually working not so bad in order. The coupling of a longer track with an outtake, especially when one is just kind of flowing with the music, often makes me feel like I’ve just been through the track at the combined length, but it feels broken up when a shorter piece is close by. So by the end of disc 2 and a few smatterings of promise in disc 3, I gave it a rest. But not for long…

The Eagles - The Summit, Houston, TX 11/6/76 (video)

A good video of the band in its prime doing stuff like Hotel California, One of These Nights and more. Like any band with this much name firepower, they have to do occasional diversions into solo things, the most grievous all the Joe Walsh stuff at the end - not that I don’t like it but it sure stops being the Eagles at that point. And of course, there are a few tracks that I just don’t like (Lying Eyes will send me careening for the remote control whether it’s a CD or not next time). But generally I find myself entertained by the good spots.

Discordance Axis - CBGB’s, New York City, NY 6/4/00 (video)

You’d never think that you’d need an audience recording in order to finally get a good view of a band, but that’s the way it goes given the legitimate DVD collection, which seems to have been chopped up on purpose for some sort of aesthetic thing. DA are a pretty heavy grindcore group with the occasional ambitious piece and here they seem at their best, although it’s definitely missing the bass. This isn’t too long, which is just right for a band battering your senses like these guys too. The vocals, very death metal with a lot of shrieking.