Agharta

Artist: Miles Davis
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Live
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2

UPC: 074644679922
EAN: 0074644679922
ASIN: B0000027DZ

Release Date: 1990-12-29

Related Categories:

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Fusion

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Live Albums | Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Funk

| Funk | R&B | Styles | Music

Listmania:

Evening Ocean picks some Jazz and cherished music.
Truly Great Live Recording Sessions
Great Moments In Fusion, chapter 1
Columbia's Cover-Obscuring Jazz Classic CD Series
Art Music
Jazz that doesnt suck- for rockers and fans of good music
The Electric Miles Davis-From Day One
Funky Grooves and Other Great Music I've Discovered
ESSENTIAL MILES DAVIS (In order)
Remakes of entire (or almost entire) albums

Tracks:

Prelude (Part One)
Prelude (Part Two)
Maiysha

Tracks:

Interlude
Theme From Jack Johnson

Similar Items:

Pangaea
Dark Magus: Live At Carnegie Hall [2-CD SET]
Live-Evil
Get Up with It
Live at the Fillmore East (March 7, 1970): It's About That Time

Customer Reviews:

Five plus for the music; two for the re-release! FIX DA MIX!!!.......2006-09-02

Columbia recorded HOURS of music on one day of Miles' 1975 Japan tour; Agartha and Pangaea are afternoon and evening concerts from the same day, and made up two two-disc vinyl sets when released. The sound, even with astonishing changes in volume and pitch, was recorded with amazing clarity for a live pre-digital recording of amplified instruments.

Fans bought Agartha,(the US release) listened, said "HOLY &^%&*$#@!"and then saved up to buy the (then) import-only Japanese CBS-Sony Pangaea, (with the special "Easter Island" disc center labels and matching obi-packaging) which was even better.

So what happened when they transferred them to CD? SOMEONE at CBS messed things up. The second guitar part is now often pushed WAY back in the stereo imaging, and the miking for the SNARE drum, of all things, is brought WAY forward. Dave Liebman described playing with Miles during this period, soloing with Michael Henderson playing bass behind him, and when Miles (as happens on this album) had Henderson "lay out" for a few bars, the sudden absence of bass being almost enough to knock him over. That "towering" arena bass sound, clean and window-rattling on the vinyl, is muddy and cluttered up here in odd places.

So it's an important piece of music for 20th century music fans to have, but they can't get the GOOD version right now...

The Apocalypse of Jazz.......2006-08-25

If jazz began with Buddy Bolden in the streets of New Orleans in 1890, then according to some, it ended on a winter evening in Osaka, Japan in 1975. This is an absurd exaggeration of course; still, it's difficult not to think apocalyptic thoughts when listening to Agharta and Pangaea. If jazz itself did not die that day, then surely one must confess that some great line did end; the line of musical development that commenced before the invention of recorded sound finds its Book of Revelation and its Armageddon in this performance.

From archaic beginnings to the Hot Fives, from the Swing era to bebop, from modal to fusion, the seemingly predestined course of the music had seen miraculous creativity and great leaders. With the retirement of Miles Davis in 1975, the music had no more great leaders. The essential course of jazz would thenceforth become a multitude of courses. Charlie Parker was dead; Bud Powell was dead; Satchmo and Duke were dead; Thelonious Monk had gone mad; Sonny Rollins was in India - the remainder of the 1970s would be a howling void, punctuated by the occasional flash of brilliance.

FUNK (16:39)
Agharta commences with a churning motiff that is called "Funk". It is a theme that developed from "Right Off" during the 1970s. The mood is violent and churning. Miles Davis's solo should silence all people who claim he had lost his chops. His ideas are fearsome, and despite his chronic illness and pain at the time, he plays with great energy.

AGHARTA PRELUDE (15:56)
My favourite tune on the album is Agharta Prelude. For those driven away from this album by its depressing reputation, rest assured that this piece, at least, is jaunty and puts a smile on the face. Miles again soloes with surprising energy.

MAIYSHA (12:20)
A gentle ballad by David Liebman makes its appearance here. It is a much more concentrated and gritty performance that the version on the album "Get Up With It". A bass line that sounds suspiociously like it comes from Super Mario Bros underlies a piercingly beautiful flute solo by Sonny Fortune. Midway through the groove shifts to the second theme, which sounds anxious and fearful. Miles' solo contains plaintive qualities that go all the way back to "Round About Midnight".

RIGHT OFF/SO WHAT (17:23)
A very fast, fearsome version of Right Off blows apart the peace of Maiysha. It starts off with the famous repeated riff that Miles was later to use in "You're Under Arrest"; before settling into the more familiar groove. But amazingly, the groove ebbs away into a swing beat, and Michael Henderson begins playing a walking bassline. For a moment, it is as if we are back in the 1950s, with only Miles' wah-wah reminding us of all that has been and gone.
Out of nowhere, Henderson begins playing the bassline from "So What". Not only is this the last performance of "So What" in Miles' discography, but it is the only time his band performs the tune after going electric in 1968. At first Miles ignores the bassline; but as the tune ebbs away, he begins to play the "So - What" motif on the electric organ; and in response Pete Cosey, who believes "jazz" is a dirty word, also plays the motif. It is a moving and fitting tribute to the past.

IFE (17:36)
A rather dull, lifeless performance compared to the same tune on "Pangaea".

FOR DAVE (a.k.a. WILI) (16:53)
A harmonically vague motif on the electric organ by Miles Davis heralds this obscure tune. An electric guitarist (ah, but which one?) plays the sombre, almost motionless tune, which sounds like a Spanish lament. Miles Davis' is sublime, another throwback to a more lyrical style.

"A Wallpaper Shredder" - Robert Fripp.......2006-04-05

Yeah, Robert Fripp, who knows a thing or two about heavy, intense music himself from his work with King Crimson, calls Agharta "A wallpaper shredder." A most poetic way of stating the fact. There just isn't anything as intensively heavy and funky you can purchase in CD format. Agharta is the ultimate Acid-Funk-Jazz-Metal trip. Try to imagine the loudest, funkiest band with a guitar player who is every bit as wild as Jimi, their laying down a groove with Parker-esque alto sax playing dazzingly be-bop riffs over the top of that and you kind of get the idea of how this CD sounds

I first purchased Agharta on Lp back in 1976, was blown away then and I'm blown away now by the CD release. I don't see a problem with the mix as another reviewer has complained. I do think it is time to update Agharta, Pangaea, and Dark Magus with 24 bit remastering. And speaking of these three releases, they sort of go together. Agharta and Pangaea were recorded on the same day, Agharta was the earlier concert. It is fierce, furious music, dark and frighteningly intense. There is a lot more of Miles's spacey organ on Agharta than Pangaea and his playing on Pangaea is probably better. I think both releases are fantastic and you can't own one without the other. Dark Magus is very similar but Dave Liebman is the sax man rather than Sonny Fortune. Azar Lawrence also appears on Dark Magus. Really, if you hear any one of these three CDs and like it, you want to own all three.

This is by far the heaviest, funkiest band ever to set foot on a stage anywhere, at any time. I sincerely believe that when Miles slipped into retirement after these concerts were recorded, there simply wasn't anywhere else to go, they represent the pinnacle of Miles's electric phase (as a true artist rather than the 80's Miles the entertainer).

The reviewer below who states he'd rather listen to Live-Evil or Live at the Fillmore March 7, 1970 is right in the sense that Miles's playing on those releases is far superior. But the music, the fundamental concept of Miles in 1970 and Miles in 1975 were very very different. It isn't a rational comparison. It's like comparing a group of race car drivers to a group of head-hunting cannibals! I love 'em all!

And you were wondering why.................2006-03-29

......Miles recently got elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

This is why. The energy, the vibe, the electricity, the danger of taking musical chances, screaming electric guitars, Sonny Fortune blowing your head off, that dark voodoo funk.........

.......like another poster said, this really is why modern jazz is on life support. Nobody takes chances like this anymore, nobody explores, nobody adds different things to the jazz mix. Agharta is worth a dozen of Wyntons' jazz "theme" albums.

This album is well worth your money. I just thank God they recorded this show.

Where's Miles?.......2006-03-28

While the band plays some firey funk, Miles pokes his head up only occasionally, takes a brief look around, plays a few biting and sometimes off key notes and retreats back into his hole. Because Miles is awol for much of the set, I just don't find it all that impressive. The honest truth is that on Agharta Miles contributes some of the lamest trumpet playing he ever commited to record. He was sick at the time of this recording, just before his six year hiatus, and he sounds it. The other players are more engaged, especially Miles' Hendrix influenced guitar henchmen Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas who lay down some good (not great) eclectric guitar. Sonny Fortune on flute and sax is also quite good and often inspired. But they just don't tickle my pickle enough to warrant much in the way of repeated plays. Where's Miles? I'd rather listen to Pangea recorded on the same date but later in the evening or the FAR superior Live/Evil or the excellent Live at the Fillmore East (March 7, 1970), with a cast including uber-saxophone player Wayne Shorter. Now that's some electric and smoking Miles playing with the best musicians from his electric period.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

You're My One (Remix) ~ Seduction

All Rise ~ Inara George

Silver Side Up / Live at Home (CD & DVD) ~ Nickelback

Accordion Solo ~ Ten in the Swear Jar

Marky Ramone & the Intruders ~ Marky Ramone & the Intruders

Push the River ~ Lauren Ellis

Lost Sides ~ Doves

In Debt ~ Disco Inferno

Masta I.C. ~ Mic Geronimo

Ride Til We Die 1 ~ Garden Blocc Ridaz