CD: Time Further Out

Tag: I'm it.

So I ordered a copy of Brubeck's "Time Further Out" from Amazon, because I remember some great recordings of drums on it.  Was excited to play it over my speakers and see how great it sounded.

But... it didn't.  Sounded a little distorted even, and very bland.  What's this?  She-he-it, it's mono!  The cover makes NO MENTION of this being a mono copy, and in fact it sounds like it could have been MP3s at one point -- not hi-fi at all.  It's not a Columbia pressing -- it's somebody called "Hallmark" which the fine print identifies as "a label owned by Pickwick" - one of the world's worst discount labels.

Time for me to go shopping again.  Serves me right for being cheap.

Just for reference I played my Columbia 20-bit remaster of "Time Out" and it's glorious sounding.  As good (or better!) than any contemporary recording.  Even Desmond's alto sax has a "digital bite" of a square wave truly captured.

Ah, that's better.

Just got back from the only CD store left in town.  They had a single copy of "Time Further Out" in stock -- for $5.99 new!  Deal.

And it sounds divine.

I felt so glad to find it that I had to spring for the Miles Davis "classic quintet" box containing "Steamin'," "Workin'," "Relaxin'," and "Cookin'."

Ha! Have to remember that in that era, most of the records were mastered in both stereo and mono. Many were mastered only in mono and later remastered in stereo (and normally sound like shit, in my humble opinion). And some people still prefer the mono version of some recordings.

Nice to hear you are a Miles Davis fan. The very first CD I owned was "Kind of Blue". It was a gift from my daughter. A few years ago, my wife gave me a gift of this boxed set of Davis' recordings. Magnificent.

_Howard wrote:

A few years ago, my wife gave me a gift of this boxed set of Davis' recordings. Magnificent.

Nice set!

It really is. Some live performances that are really entertaining. Of course, I already had some of the albums, but I can live with that.
I haven't watched the DVD yet. Gotta do that.

It's fascinating listening to the changes in his style over the years. I once heard him say that he always hates all of his previous music. But his early stuff will always be my favorites.

Miles was nothing if not restless. His '50s quintet - Coltrane, Garland, Chambers & Jones - are the height of bop IMO, and his '60s quintet - Shorter, Hancock, Carter, Williams -- are the height of 'transitional' jazz on the way to fusion. "Kind of Blue" and "In a Silent Way" are masterpieces.

To be perfectly honest his '70s bands - "Big Fun," "On The Corner," "Agharta," "Black Beauty" and even "Bitches Brew" - never really turned my crank. I have them, but they just don't hit on all cylinders for me.

NoCoPilot wrote:

To be perfectly honest his '70s bands - "Big Fun," "On The Corner," "Agharta," "Black Beauty" and even "Bitches Brew" - never really turned my crank. I have them, but they just don't hit on all cylinders for me.

I have to agree with you on this. I certainly appreciate the artistry and musical ability displayed on these albums; some pieces are staggering in their brilliant departure from other jazz, but sometimes I just find them pretentious and boring.

I was fortunate to attend one of Miles' last concerts just a few years before he died. He had a friend who taught jazz history at the university I attended, and he talked Miles into putting on a performance in the gym. He put on a for real, big time concert for a very small audience. Out-fucking-standing. I still have the t-shirt I bought at the concert. I took my wife and my academic advisor, neither of whom were familiar with Miles' music and didn't expect much (hey, he was performing in a fucking gym). They were both enthralled and maybe enjoyed the performance even more that I did.

_Howard wrote:

I just find them pretentious and boring.

Hmmm, not the words I would use.

Well maybe "boring" fits because his sidemen tended to get into a groove and he would let them ride it into the ground. In "Kind of Blue" and "In A Silent Way" Miles perfected what came to be known as modal jazz, where he'd set up some minor patterns in the rhythm section, and a restricted range of notes, and then everybody could solo within these boundaries and it all sounded like it sorta fit, even though nobody was really pursuing a tune.

He tried to do the same thing with his '70s electric bands, but aimless noodling works a lot better for acoustic low-energy stuff than it does for electric pseudo-funk. On "Jack Johnson" he developed some powerful themes (Miles always said he could've put together a killer rock band) but most of the output from this period was just, I dunno, aimless and lost IMO.

And the Columbia boxed sets of KoB and IASW proved just how much of a magician Teo Macero was, pulling structure out of Miles' long rudderless improvisations. No amount of editing could fix "Black Beauty" or its ilk.