The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions

Artist: Miles Davis
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Box set
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 5

UPC: 696998635920
EAN: 0696998635920
ASIN: B0000CF2ZI

Release Date: 2003-09-30

Related Categories:

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Fusion

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Jazz Funk

| Funk | R&B | Styles | Music

Listmania:

Jazz box sets, from mild to wild
Jazz Rock Fusion
Miles Davis Box Sets
The Electric Miles Davis-From Day One
Great Box Sets
Miles Davis Box Sets
No woman would be complete without...
Best Jazzz Box Setssss
Progressive Rock's Apotheosis
Get On the Good Foot

Tracks:

Willie Nelson (Take 2)
Willie Nelson (Take 3)
Willie Nelson (Insert 1)
Willie Nelson (Insert 2)
Willie Nelson (Remake Take 1)
Willie Nelson (Remake Take 2)
Johnny Bratton (Take 4)
Johnny Bratton (Insert 1)
Johnny Bratton (Insert 1)
Archie Moore

Tracks:

Go Ahead John (Part One)
Go Ahead John (Part Two A)
Go Ahead John (Part Two B)
Go Ahead John (Part Two C)
Go Ahead John (Part One Remake)
Duran (Take 4)
Duran (Take 6)
Sugar Ray

Tracks:

Right Off (Take 10)
Right Off (Take 10A)
Right Off (Take 11)
Right Off (Take 12)
Yesterday (Take 16)
Yesterday (New Take 4)
Honky Tonk (Take 2)
Honky Tonk (Take 5)

Tracks:

Ali (Take 3)
Ali (Take 4)
Konda
New Um Talvez (Take 17)
Nem Um Talvez (Take 19)
Little High People (Take 7)
Little High People (Take 8)
Nem Um Talvez (Take 3)
Nem Um Talvez (Take 4A)
Selim (Take 4B)
Little Church (Take 7)
Little Church (Take 10)

Tracks:

The Mask (Part One)
The Mask (Part Two)
Right Off
Yesternow

Similar Items:

Complete In a Silent Way Sessions
The Cellar Door Sessions 1970
Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings 1963-1964
Dark Magus: Live At Carnegie Hall [2-CD SET]
Pangaea

Customer Reviews:

A True Upgrade.......2006-05-28

A TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON never having been one of my favorite Miles Davis albums, I really didn't expect to like this boxed set much - especially when I saw how many retakes it contains. Granted, THE COMPLETE JACK JOHNSON SESSIONS does make for repetitive listening at times; and like most of Columbia's other "complete" Miles packages it's actually primarily composed of music which has nothing whatsoever to do with the album for which it is named. Chronology is clearly the chief priority here; but given the period in question (February to June of 1970) and the personnel Miles managed to assemble for these very electric sessions (Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett on keyboards; Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin and Steve Grossman on reeds; guitarists John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock; bassists Dave Holland and Michael Henderson and drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham), there's little to complain about. Indeed, the music on this box, performed by smaller combos within a tighter framework than that on, say, the BITCHES BREW box, exhibits a good deal more purpose, direction and energy than the extended drones which take up so much of that earlier compilation's space. The inclusion of the complete JACK JOHNSON album (which was actually pieced together from only one of these sessions and some additional fragments recorded over a year earlier) as a closer makes this set - at least for the hardcore fan - a fine summation of Miles' relentlessly funky work from the first half of 1970. Turn it up!

Perfect!.......2006-02-16

The original Jack johnson LP was my favourite Miles record. I also had an expensive Japanese CD but all this would not prepare me for what I discover here. Over these CDs one discovers the original sessions from which the record was made. This is simply wonderful. Ok sometimes it takes quite a bit of patience to sit trhough all this but it is worth the time.

Essential music in a questionable presentation........2006-02-10

In the spring of 1970, Miles Davis entered the studio a number of times, recording primarily with guitarist John McLaughlin with him. The apex of these sessions was the stunning "A Tribute to Jack Johnson", soundtrack for an underground movie about the pioneering boxing figure and a clear statement from Davis concerning his music-- the album was firmly entrenched as a jazz/rock fusion record, soaked it overdriven guitars, funky backbeats, and downright powerful playing. Typically, it was ignored at the time of its release. But the years have been kind to 'Jack Johnson', these days its regarded as one of the peaks of its genre.

And why not? Davis was playing as well as he ever did in his career-- exploring fluidity and his horn's upper register in a way he never had, and his band was pretty much all collectively destined for stardom-- McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and Billy Cobham have all gone on to be legends. To this, add the work of producer Teo Macero-- splicing together the two tracks that made up the album from several different sessions into two seemless suites-- the first revolving around a jam session the rhythm section had while waiting for Davis (before the trumpet player entered for what may well be his most ferocious solo on record), the second around a couple vamps and themes. The net result is something that mixes spontenaeity and composition; looseness and high production, and somehow, it all works, perfectly.

And so all of this sort of leads us into this boxed set-- 17 titles recorded over a bit less than four months in the first half of 1970 filling 5 CDs. Take after take, a couple jams, some fumbling, some missed notes, all the stuff Davis and Macero didn't really want you to hear, along with a bunch more sidemen who would go on to be legendary in the future-- Sonny Sharrock, Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter and a bunch more.

I would be remiss in telling you this material isn't exciting and powerful-- it really is, it's amazing in fact, and moreso than any of the other boxed sets, it really is a peek inside the working process and unedited majesty of Davis, but it's a bit much, and it's pretty obvious why some of these takes were never released. I'd also point out that Macero has publicly denounced this reissue series as exposing things that were never meant to be heard. And really it's a dilemma for me. This is great stuff, I'm glad to have it, but it somehow feels dishonest to me, like the kind of thing that I should be trying to trade for or pick up on sketchy European and Japanese record labels, not from Columbia.

But it is really fantastic music, and while occasionally some of the takes drag a bit, all in all it's quite a set.

Still, make your own decision-- is six takes of "Willie Nelson", which ended up spliced in the middle of 'Jack Johnson', too much? Maybe, the quality is sketchy but wow, Sonny Sharrock shines like you never knew he did. Is it really critical to have a dozen takes of material that made up the studio portions of "Live-Evil" with vocalist/songwriter Hermeto Pascoal? Not for me, but then again, I'm ecstatic to have 45 minutes of "Go Ahead John". The material on here wasn't just for 'Jack Johnson', it ended up on "Live-Evil", "Big Fun" and "Get Up With It". And as we've come to expect in this series, it comes in a lovely package complete with nifty metal binding, a rather extensive set of detailed liner notes, and quite frankly, the sound is untouchably fantastic. I'll call it four stars-- five star music in questionable presentation. More than the other boxed sets, this one convinced me maybe Macero was right.

Jazz With a Knockout Punch.......2005-12-07

As somebody who came dangerously close to wearing out his cd copy of "A Tribute to Jack Johnson," this 5-disc overview of the sessions stretching from February to June of 1970 (some of which resulted in the raw material for "Jack Johnson",)was manna from heaven. "Jack Johnson" is, in many ways, the greatest fusion album ever recorded - stunning in its originality, often copied but never equaled. Through this box set, we get to hear, chronologically, how the album was created. Although only a handful of these tracks wound up on the original release, all the sessions exhibit traces of the new sounds Miles and company were discovering.

Bob Belden has done an impressive job with previous box sets in the Miles Davis series, and this is no exception. Sometimes, the liner notes (by Bill Milkowski) seem a little amateurish, especially compared to Belden's scholarly, track-by-track analysis from the "In A Silent Way" set from a few years back. But this is a minor quibble. 6 takes of "Willie Nelson," each funkier than the last one, prominently feature the late experimental guitarist Sonny Sharrock, making great noise on crude slide. Most of Sharrock's playing was edited out of the original release. John McLaughlin is allowed lots of new solo room, too, on slow blues crawls and awesomely funky extended takes of "Go Ahead, John." Another interesting development in the set is the addition of Mike Henderson on electric bass and Keith Jarrett on electric piano. Jarret's distorted freaky playing is a key ingrediant to the band Miles would put together immediately following these sessions, the so-called "Cellar Door" band (and the next box set in this series centers on exactly that, 6 discs of live shows later partially collected on "Live-Evil"). New, never-released compositions like "Ali" and "The Mask" show a new band working out an innovative blend of jazz, rock and funk - simple themes and/or vamps, repetitive rhythms, and raunchy solos.

There's enough hot stuff in here to keep any Miles fan busy for days. And his trumpet playing is as strong as any other time in his career - tough, solid, probing, unforgiving. As with other Miles box sets, this release forces the listener to re-evaluate all the received wisdom about Miles and his supposed "deterioration" after he introduced electricty to his bands. We're still catching up with Miles, 35 years down the road.

Essential for Electric Miles folk.......2005-10-29

My first exposure to Miles Davis' music were the Dark Magus and Live Evil albums. Those live sets work, despite the editing. Im not saying Teo wasn't essential to Miles' creative process, it would have been impossible without them. However, due to the time and circumstances of vinyl's limitations, plus the demands of Sony's flagging faith in Miles' saleability, Teo did some weird stuff.

I thought the original Jack Johnson recording had some good moments but was a bit restrained. McLaughlin's playing was rudimentary but had some spectacular moments. But then you get into the odd splicing in of Shhh/Peaceful and you feel truly cheated. Thus you had to buy Big Fun, Directions and his other records, andfor a long long time those were very hard to find. I still have my Japanese import discs from Tower which was the only way to get them fo ryears, before fusion became truly mainstream and Sony's big reissue campaign.

The more Miles the better, as far as I'm concerned, thank goodness the tapes still exist in whole jams. The jams are consistently great. It doesn't even sound like the songs are being developed in subsequent takes. Just variations on the theme, it plays out so much more like film music which was it's original intention, though I'm damned if I can remember any moments in the 1970 James earl Jones flick where it is actually used.

What you can finally hear in the first few tracks are the long-rumored contributions of Sonny Sharrock. For years researchers have tried to specualate on the players since there were no original liner notes. Whether the drummer is Billy Hart, Billy Cobham or DeJohnette is a minor detail. But you can very clearly hear the juxtaposition of Mclaughlin's crisp brittle attack and the acidic scratch of Sharrock. There's also a keyboard effect common at the time, possibly ring-modulated minMoog that I think is Corea. I don't believe Jarret was proficient on this. At the time (dec. 70)he played Rhodes and Farfisa.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

The Slim Shady LP ~ Eminem

Ladies of the Canyon ~ Joni Mitchell

Back to the Blues ~ Rick Derringer

Face to Face ~ Steve Harley

Here and Now: (Live!) ~ Lazy Cowgirls

American Entertainers

Gold Collection ~ Barclay James Harvest

For You

Soul Food ~ Goodie Mob

Fly2K ~ Playa Fly