Agharta

Artist: Miles Davis
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Live
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2
EAN: 4988009972091
ASIN: B00004VUJP

Release Date: 2000-06-21

Related Categories:

General

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Fusion

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Funk

| Funk | R&B | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Prelude, Pt. 1
Prelude, Pt. 2
Maiysha

Tracks:

Interlude
Theme From Jack Johnson

Similar Items:

Pangaea
The Cellar Door Sessions 1970
Live at the Fillmore East (March 7, 1970): It's About That Time
Decoy
Flood

Customer Reviews:

jazzman.......2006-12-31

They didn't call him the "Prince of Darkness" for nothing. What is so
scary about this recording is that these guys knew EXACTLY what they were
doing. They KNEW. I first heard this when it was released back in the
70's on that Columbia double gatefold album, with Miles looking so cool
on the back cover with those aviator glasses holding his trumpet. I had
read the review in Downbeat magazine, but I still wasn't properly prepared
for what was to come when I dropped the needle onto that first vinyl disc.
I can STILL remember my emotions upon first hearing this. It was like,
Oh My God! The sounds just BURNED off of that vinyl. I thought my stylus
was going to melt. I was a huge Miles Davis fan even then, but had never
heard anything from him as intense as this. Of course, it's now been
released and remastered by the Japanese as the present item we are now
reviewing. It's just so incredible what they they have done with the
sound on this. I had the first Columbia double cd issue of Agharta, but
this remastered edition just buries it. THIS is how it should sound. It's
like a totally different recording. The other reviewers of the music
itself have nailed it dead-on in their descriptions. I can only add that
it has to be heard to be believed. Some won't be able to take it. This
stuff is on a whole other level altogether. Kicked up, out there, acid
loud, relentless, mind blowing, insanely hip, and they knew EXACTLY what
they were doing at that afternoon concert in Japan. What is so hysteric-
ally unblievable about all this is that this was just the FIRST concert
that day. An even darker, more menacing performance was to come later
that evening in the form of Pangaea. Scary, scary stuff.

A WORD OF CAUTION.......2006-11-03

AGHARTA is certainly Miles Davis' finest hour, his most intense moment. But if you hear the original LP you'll see that this music is infinitely more radical and wild than it sounds now, on this LOUSY CD MIX. Columbia SANITIZED this recording on CD: it now sounds utterly FLAT!! IT REALLY DOES NOT SOUND AS IT SHOULD: I JUST WISHED BILL LASWELL HAD A CHANCE TO RE-MIX THIS POWERFUL RECORDING. CHECK THE ORIGINAL LP: Reggie Lucas and Pete Cosey are upfront, menacing; Michael Henderson's bass is EXTREME, and Miles opens up a river of shining light-sound. To make a long story short: transfer the LP to a recordable CD, and then you'll be able to hear the AUTHENTIC AGHARTA!!

Agharta has never sounded better.......2006-06-17

I first heard the old, unremastered release of Agharta about 10 years ago, and I have been transfixed by Miles' electric recordings ever since. The only way I could describe this album to the uninitiated- imagine the thickest, dirtiest funk you've ever heard, like early Funkadelic times Infinity. Heavy wah across the boards. Now imagine a legendary trumpet player (Davis), an extremely funky sax player (Sonny Fortune), and am insane guitar player, Pete Cosey, aka 'evil Hendrix', trading off solos over a constantly shifting background. Now imagine a drummer and percussionist (Al Foster and Mtume, respectively), banging away into eternity, like this music could. Imagine all of the accompaniment emulating percussion, from the bass to the rhythm guitar, and even to all the other players when they are not tearing solos. Now add to this a brooding, dark undercurrent pervading the proceedings. The result is a storming, mindbending and addictive stew that is Agharta.

Enough about the music. On to the sound quality, the only reason you would even be looking at this ridiculously expensive import: It really is no hyperbole to say that the Japanese remastering is light years ahead of the original release. There are instruments brought up in the mix that you couldn't hear before, and much of the murkiness surrounding the original release has been corrected. The solo lines are no longer quiet and obscured, and in fact this edition features the sort of sound you might expect from a studio release. I would recommend this edition to true Davis fans who already know what they are in store for and are looking for the best possible sound for his live electric documents. For those who haven't heard it, I would listen to it first since not everyone is going to like music this intense and, for lack of a better word, extreme (and I don't mean that in a Mountain Dew kind of way). As far as I am concerned, music doesn't get any better than this.

AGHARTA: an overwheling dark force.......2005-09-25

for people who have a spark of curiosity about the legendary music of Miles Davis, knowing where to begin the search can be a frustrating issue. with a back catalogue as vast as a small continent, figuring out where to start and where to go can be tricky. especially considering the many phases of Miles' long and adventerous career. he spawned many followers and imitators and made many enemies along the way. a larger than life figure who would dominate the jazz scene for decades and whose music still holds power and brilliance even to this day. Personally, i have been such a big John Coltrane fan for so many years, that i somehow blindly overlooked Miles Davis' recorded output for a long time. it's just been in the past 4 years or so that i have gotten the opportunity to dig into Miles' absolutely stunning and quite frankly, overwhelming music. whereas Coltrane was the master of melody, Miles is the master of the mood. a true genius whose musical impact and influence is felt even stronger today than it was when he was alive.

funk is a musical genre that i am not particularly fond of. and since i was under the impression that Miles Davis abandoned jazz for a funky sound for his controversial electric 70's period; i was in no big hurry to dip my toe into these waters. i took a chance with Agharta because a friend of mine who knew i liked jazz and had an open ear for avant garde music, recommended it to me. the first thing that caught me off guard was the cover. a weird looking collage type of piece with two women who appear to be in a hawaiian jungle paradise are looking over a city at sundown. but instead of a sun, there's the words "Agharta - Miles Davis." on the flip side, there's a similiar scene, but instead of a jungle with women, there's an undersea theme going on. with batches of coral and seaweed overlooking the city. there's a jellyfish floating past a diver in the sky and a few fish drifting out of the corner. in the distance, a spaceship is hovering on a beam of light. wow. based on the cover art alone, this album is either going to be so bad it's good, or something that i just cannot anticipate. well, quite frankly, i just had no idea what i was getting myself into.

before i heard this album, i had no conception that music like this ever existed. it's like a savage snarling primal beast who has dipped his entire body in some kind of hallucigenic potion and is dealing out tarot cards while ringing up the devil on a direct line. seriously, some of this music on Agharta is so intense that it is frightening. it's beyond the ideas layed out in Bitches Brew and it's certainly nowhere near the funk of James Brown or Funkadelic. it's like the party in funk music has been overshadowed by a dark strange force that has got your ears in a stranglehold. that dark force is Miles Davis.
his direction in music on this night in Osaka, Japan on February 1st, 1975 is dirty and hungry and just doesn't give a damn what you think! the drums flow like a river of blood and only stop to let the organ make a few stabs into the air, the it's back to the onslaught. when it's time for their solo the guitars creep up like distant radiowaves transmitted from an outerspace swamp. the bass slides around and stalks you like a panther, and the trumpet seems to scream and pitch out a fierce cry that rallies the troops to continue. when you've finally gotten to the last 20 minutes of Agharta, you find yourself floating restlessly in that undersea world pictured on the back cover. you've somehow survived the night, but you'll never be the same again.

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