Jamming With Miles on Isle of Wight

[7/4]

October 9, 2004

MOVIE REVIEW | 'MILES ELECTRIC'

Jamming With Miles on Isle of Wight

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

NY Times

The 38-minute jam that Miles Davis and an electric sextet played at the Isle of Wight Festival in the summer of 1970 is like a pungent, musky, musical soup. The sounds floating through the rock-funk murk evoke the Three Witches' incantation from "Macbeth": "eye of newt, and toe of frog/wool of bat, and tongue of dog."

That jam, titled "Call It Anythin' " after Davis's retort when asked to name it, is resurrected in impeccable sound by "Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue," Murray Lerner's film of the event, which introduced Davis to a screaming outdoor rock audience of 600,000. (Bizarrely, he followed Tiny Tim on the bill.) The camera remains onstage for much of a jam that one musician remembers as a "microhistory of jazz." The musicians joining Davis included Gary Bartz on soprano sax, Chick Corea on electric piano, Keith Jarrett on organ, Dave Holland on electric bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums and Airto Moreira on percussion.

The stock in which those newt eyes and frog toes simmer is a floating blues groove that changes key only gradually while hovering between major and minor. Its dominant note is Davis's instantly recognizable signature: a fractured, sputtering sweet-and-sour trumpet that hints at tunes but never draws them out.

"Miles Electric" is more than a concert movie. A few months earlier, Davis and a different crew of sidemen revolutionized music with the landmark album "Bitches Brew," which stands as the jazz equivalent of Bob Dylan's "going electric." At the Isle of Wight, Davis and his fellow musicians created improvisatory sounds, incorporating rock rhythm and electric funk inspired by Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and Sly Stone.

During the first half of the film, the original Isle of Wight sidemen and other musicians look back three decades to recall Davis's historic transition into electric instrumentation. That leap, which brought Davis to a mass audience for the first time, infuriated the orthodox jazz establishment. The articulate jazz critic Stanley Crouch recalls trying and failing to like "Bitches Brew," which he studied repeatedly (sometimes in chemically altered states). He accuses Davis of contemptuously selling out and calls the music "formless."

Davis's embrace of electric music was part of a personal revolution that saw him exchange his fancy Italian suits for flashy street clothes. His embrace of rock sound was heavily influenced by Betty Mabry, the flamboyant funk diva he wed in 1968 and divorced a year later. His jabbing solos also reflected his fascination with boxing, which he expressed directly in his soundtrack album, "A Tribute to Jack Johnson," released around the time of "Bitches Brew."

Musicians differ from critics in their descriptions of the experience of music. Carlos Santana, the film's most enthusiastic talking head, exalts the "spiritual orgasms" produced by jazz-fusion. Herbie Hancock remembers approaching the Fender Rhodes as a toy and learning to love its sound. Keith Jarrett, though a bit more guarded, recalls being in a trancelike state at the Isle of Wight concert.

"Miles Electric" is an exceptionally concise, well-organized concert documentary. There's none of the padding you often find in concert movies, and once the jam begins, there are no distractions.

Miles Electric:

A Different Kind of Blue

Produced and directed by Murray Lerner; edited by Einar Westerlund and Edward Goldberg. Running time: 87 minutes. This film is not rated. Shown tonight at 7:30 and 10:15 at the Walter Reade Theater, at Lincoln Center, as part of the 42nd New York Film Festival.

WITH: Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, Stanley Crouch, Bob Belden, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, Airto Moreira, Dave Holland, Gary Bartz, Herbie Hancock, James Mtume, Paul Buckmaster, Marcus Miller, Pete Cosey and Jimi Hendrix.

[DTMX]

Cool... B-)

[.:.impossible]

Plans for DVD?

[7/4]

Plans for DVD?

I hope so!

[Claude]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009QNXN

[kdd]

This played as part of the New York Film Festival last night but was sold out. There was also a panel discussion between shows. Perhaps it will have a limited release now or perhaps go straight to DVD. I've seen clips of this, it's incredible. Miles is on. Wonder why they would have Crouch in the film dissing Miles' electric stuff though. That seems idiotic and certainly has no place in this film.