{"id":20537,"date":"2021-02-24T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T10:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20537"},"modified":"2023-12-06T07:34:20","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T12:34:20","slug":"album-review-miles-davis-jack-johnson-at-50-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/24\/album-review-miles-davis-jack-johnson-at-50-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Miles Davis\u2019 \u2018Jack Johnson\u2019 at 50 (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a> \u2026 <\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"

album reissue with revised cover art<\/p><\/div>\n

Side Two of Miles Davis\u2019 Jack Johnson<\/i> features the same players plus<\/i> a different lineup, and in fact the aggregation wasn\u2019t credited on the original LP. McLaughlin returns, joined by gonzo electric guitarist Sonny Sharrock. The bassist now is Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette plays drums. Bennie Maupin \u2013 whose improvisational work is central on Bitches Brew \u2013 excels on bass clarinet. And the keyboardist this time is Chick Corea. \u201cYesternow\u201d is another cut-and-paste piece, joining together a 14-minute tape from Side One\u2019s lineup with another track (later identified as \u201cWillie Nelson,\u201d a nod to another historic pugilist) to bring its runtime to nearly 24 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesternow\u201d is quite minimalist in places, with Davis\u2019 horn at the center of things. There seems almost to be an unspoken challenge to the players: how little can you play and still be credited as being present? Happily, they\u2019re up to that challenge. Thirteen-plus minutes in, Davis leads the ensemble through one of Jack Johnson<\/em>\u2019s most melodic, atmospheric sections. But that\u2019s followed by a relatively smooth segue into the second lineup\u2019s section, a much more psychedelic \u2013 if nearly as minimalist \u2013 piece of music.<\/p>\n

The second half of \u201cYesternow\u201d is a meditation of sorts; Holland\u2019s repetitive, hypnotic bass line may not have been the most interesting thing for him to play, but it provides a foundation upon which everyone else can do their thing. In this case, McLaughlin\u2019s thing is to spool out jagged bursts of squalling guitar. Davis turns in his most active performance; none of that one- note-and-walk-off stuff for which he\u2019d sometimes be known.<\/p>\n

Around the 19 minute mark, the band locks into a funky groove\/lick redolent of Jimi Hendrix. Sharrock\u2019s \u2013 or McLaughlin\u2019s \u2013 guitar launches into outer space. And while there\u2019s an undeniable improvisational character to the proceedings, it\u2019s arguably more psychedelic than \u201cjazzy.\u201d And Davis seems inspired by what his sidemen are doing; he continues to engage of trumpet flights of fancy.<\/p>\n

Jack Johnson<\/em> did just-okay on the chart on its original release, and reviews of the day were mixed. But time has led to a critical reassessment of the album, and today it\u2019s appreciated for what it is. In 2003 a sprawling six-hour boxed set, The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions<\/i> presented five discs worth of material from the original sessions, arranged chronologically and without Macero\u2019s editing (the fifth disc presents the original album in its 1971 version).<\/p>\n

\"\"

the 2003 boxed set<\/p><\/div>\n

As fascinating (and ultimately essential) as the boxed set is, part of what it does is to spotlight the brilliance of the cut-and-paste method. The finished album in its 1971 form represents the most accessible presentation of the fruits of the musicians\u2019 labors. Serious fans will want to hear it all, but they\u2019ll likely return to that fifth disc again in the end.<\/p>\n

While a pair of live albums from the period \u2013 1970\u2019s Miles Davis at Fillmore<\/i> and Live-Evil<\/i> from 1971 \u2013 continued to explore Davis\u2019 interest in connecting jazz and rock, by 1972 he had moved on. That year\u2019s On the Corner<\/i> headed in a more explicitly funk direction, and was critically shellacked upon its release. (Though it too would undergo subsequent reappraisal, recognition of its place with what would come to be known as Miles\u2019 \u201celectric period.\u201d)<\/p>\n

There are, after all, many different Miles Davises. Each era of his music represents a radical stylistic departure from the one that came before it, and those who appreciate one period may well loathe another. But for those who approach his body of work from the perspective of a rock fan, Jack Johnson<\/i> may well serve as a more user-friendly point of entrance than its more celebrated precursor, Bitches Brew<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One \u2026 Side Two of Miles Davis\u2019 Jack Johnson features the same players plus a different lineup, and in fact the aggregation wasn\u2019t credited on the original […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,42,62,65],"tags":[1482],"class_list":["post-20537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fusion","category-jazz","category-rawk","category-review","tag-miles-davis","cat-32-id","cat-42-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20537"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26563,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20537\/revisions\/26563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}