Jump to content

On The Corner


Jazzmoose

Recommended Posts

Keep it. I didn't care for it at first either, but it grew on me over the years.

And actually, I think now I like "On The Corner" better than parts of a some other of Miles' studio efforts in the 70's (no, not "Jack Johnson", which I love , but parts of some of the others (studio efforts) - which all blur together for me a bit).

If it's any help, I never cared for "Bitches Brew" all that much at first, nor did I take to "On The Corner" at first either. I love 'em both now, but FYI, I connected with "On The Corner" first, before "Bitches Brew".

Try listening to it in the car on a long trip, or at least when you're on the highway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't knock those garbage cans. Percusion insrtrument played by Bill Summers on Bennie Maupin's Jewel In The Lotus- "water filled garbage can"

I still have the first vinyl issue of On The Corner, I wasn't impressed when I first heard it and I've no desire to play it again. What did surprise my though was Bill Laswell's remix, there is so much going on that I didn't hear on the vinyl, fascinating?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i quite like this one.

i'd heard an interview with dave leibman and he'd described miles' recruiting process which left me in no doubt about getting it.

the mix is so muddy though you have to really listen to all the things going on in there but it pays off.

at first listen it can sound very repetitious, esp. the variations on a theme of those following tracks.

however, (and i'm sure i won't be the only one here) it sounds terrible when compressed to atrac for minidisc recordings. there are gaps all over and something weird happens with the stereo effect from the different instrument tracks. i'm not up on the recording technology of this album. i'll have to listen to it on my system thro' headphones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had this since it first came out. There's nothing like it, really, in some ways. . . sort of a standalone in the way that I view Filles De Kilamanjaro as being a standalone in Miles's work. . . .

I keep hearing within it JAMES BROWN and some of the things that I heard in Philly on transistor radios and from car radios in my neighborhood as a kid in the first half of the sixties. Until I came to Texas I didn't realy ever know anyone else who was into it until I started to work with a slightly older fellow who came down here from Cincinnatti and had a tape of this in his Walkman one day and turns out he's nuts about this. . .says it was the one Miles album he still had; he mostly had JB and Funkadelic and Parlaiment stuff . . . but he loved On the Corner.

Don't listen to it too often, but when I do spin it (have a Sony lp facimile issue now that sounds very much like the lp to me) I almost always find something new to focus on. It's dense and rich and really fertile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man. I am in the vast minority here. I have a basic CD copy of this album (which I keep meaning to upgrade) and have been hooked since I first bought it four years ago. I just yesterday bought "Get Up With It" and am getting into that now. Rated X.

What is it that you guys don't like about the music?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw a sealed cutout of this in a used bin a couple months back, so I went ahead and bought it. The cover of the album was always a bit of a turn-off, but I was nevertheless intrigued by the amount of attention this one was getting in a thread on the BNBB. I have to admit, I like it a lot more than I thought I would. It's not something I can listen to every day, but I actually enjoy the drumming and grooves quite a bit. I wish there was lot more trumpet and a lot less soprano sax (not a big fan of the instrument), but overall, I like it and say if you like electric Miles, then pick it up. It's not "Bitches Brew" or "Big Fun" or whatever, but it wasn't meant to be. It's enjoyable and a welcome addition to my collection, regardless.

Edited by vibes
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is it that you guys don't like about the music?

This is probably going to offend some people. Sorry, but I don't know how else to describe it.

From what I had heard about this, when I put the disc in the player, I expected funk. Not George Clinton, mind you, but something like Hancock's Headhunters. What I got sounded like a white suburban teenager's idea of what funk is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

White suburban teenager's idea of what funk is? Well I don't hear it that way. I can pretty much not picture it at all as what a white suburban teenager at the time would think of as funk.

Nor was it meant to be pure funk. It had a funk underbelly is how I hear it, with other pulses and currents swimming along. It was influenced by modern classical work as well, and a classical musician/composer very interested in Miles had a part in the process and performance. I think the recording was meant to be a statement of what Miles had in his head then. And Teo crafted from that something that he got Miles to stand behind as his "new direction" for the time period til the next "new direction" was released.

If you were expecting it to be FUNK it won't live up to your expectation!

Edited by jazzbo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think so too, and that is what is reported by some to be the case. It's said that Miles didn't want to be seen in the black community as the Italian-suited pure jazz artist, he wanted to be a popular artist again, cutting edge, and he wanted the concert money and high album sales that would allow him to have the very expensive edgy lifestyle he wanted or needed . . . .

If this is true, he missed the mark, ESPECIALLY I think with this album. This particular blend didn't seem to reach many of his target audience (I know he hit some from personal experience, but certainly not the droves he wished to.) He did change the approach some and he did reach a number of persons in various sections of youth culture, and he seemed to have really hit target with this young man, who was back from living in Africa and trying to see a way into a small midwestern town society, and failing. For the most part in my experience this music of the time from Miles was appreciated by a motley crew of young persons who were a little bit outcast-like. . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is a second listen in order?

Yep. A third, fourth, and fifith, too. Several hundred listenings are in order. several thosuands, perhaps. As John L noted, there is a LOT going on in this music, none of it readily apparent on first listen. At least it wasn't for me. I never disliked it, but it took me several years of bothe musical and audio growth to begin to get a handle on it. It ain't easy music, that's for sure. Stockhausen-meets-India-meets-"There It Is-era James Brown, all filtered through the Miles/Teo expereience is KIND of what it is, and that for damn sure ain't easy, nor commerical. "Red China Blues" is commerical.

You may never actually LIKE it. But I'm the type that believes that you should at least know as exactly as possible what it is you don't like when it's musicians of this caliber and music that has had such a profound, albeit stelath, influence.

This is one album where the essence is DEFINITELY beneath the surface. WAAAAYYYY beneath...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree. The music is multi-layered and, in turn, multi-faceted. There is no one influence that makes this music label-able as an obvious genre. There is less jazz influence than anything. I have a feeling this is why most of you who don't care for this music are turned off. You want jazz, even just a little bit.

While I agree that there is a lot more to the music than what you casually hear on the surface, I have been digging the shit out of the surface of this music since I bought the disc back when. I haven't been listening to it as long as Lon or Jim has, but I have listened to this disc a lot. It is most certainly art music, but an attempt to bring art music to the people.

I've read about Miles' envy when he saw Sly Stone turn the Newport Festival out. I've read that Miles became more interested in popular black music by way of James Brown. I definitely hear that influence infused within this music, but it is just one element in a true bitch's brew. This is a fusion in the truest sense that would be impossible to dissect.

I love all the vamps bumping into each other and overlapping each other, phasing each other, reversing each other. I love the wide range of rhythms working together to create an incredible static beat. All this talk makes me want to trade in my copy for the remaster!

Get Up With It anyone?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, this was apparently a big attempt by Miles to increase his popularity in the wider market place. To be honest though, the music was far too individual and (for the early 70s) out on the fringes to have any real chance of popular success.

Only in the last 10 years (helped I guess by the clearer CD transfers) is the importance of this music becoming apparent. I didn't like it when I first heard it years ago but as the years have gone on I've reversed my decision and feel that it is (along with the Agharta/Panghea and Get Up With It sessions) one of the greatest things that Miles ever released post 1970. I think of it very much as a 'variations on a theme' type of record, with not only strong influence from James Brown and Sly Stone but also considerable influence from Karlheinz Stockhausen - the way that themes/time sequences are varied and repeated with minor variation, ad infinitum. Indeed the cellist Paul Buckmaster (student of Stockhausen) was resident 'chez Miles' in NYC during the recording sessions and provided some of the conceptual input. According to Buckmaster though, the finished results did not adhere as closely as he had hoped to this original intent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...