Big Fun (Miles Davis album)
Big Fun | ||||
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Jazz-fusion[1] | ||||
Length | 98:45 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Teo Macero | |||
Miles Davis chronology | ||||
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Big Fun is an
Background and recording
Big Fun presents music from three phases of Miles Davis's early-seventies "electric" period. The album is named for a composition Davis recorded in 1973, but it was not released until 2007 on the box set The Complete On the Corner Sessions.
Sides one and four ("Great Expectations/Orange Lady" and "Lonely Fire") were recorded three months after the
"Ife"—named after James Mtume's daughter[4]—was recorded after the 1972 On the Corner sessions, and the framework is similar to tracks from that record. It has a drum and electric bass groove (which in fact at one point breaks down due to mistiming) and a plethora of musicians improvising individually and in combinations over variations on the bassline.
"Go Ahead John"
Recording
Recorded on March 3, 1970,
Davis's trumpet and McLaughlin's guitar parts were heavily overdubbed for the recording.[10] The overdubbing effect was created by superimposing part of Davis's trumpet solo onto other parts of it, through something Teo Macero calls a "recording loop". Macero later said of this production technique, "You hear the two parts and it's only two parts, but the two parts become four and they become eight parts. This was done over in the editing room and it just adds something to the music [...] I called [Davis] in and I said, 'Come in, I think we've got something you'll like. We'll try it on and if you like it you've got it.' He came in and flipped out. He said it was one of the greatest things he ever heard".[11] DeJohnette's drums were also manipulated by Macero, who used an automatic switcher to have them rattle back and forth between the left and right speakers on the recording.[6] In his book Running the Voodoo Down: The Electric Music of Miles Davis, Davis-biographer Phil Freeman describes this technique as "100 percent Macero" and writes of its significance to the track as a whole, stating:
This doesn't create the effect of two drummers. It's just disorienting, throwing the ear off balance in a way that forces the listener to pay close attention. The drums cease to perform their traditional function. Jack DeJohnette's beats, funky and propulsive on the session tapes, are so chopped up that their timekeeping utility is virtually nil. Macero has diced the rhythm so adroitly that we are not even permitted to hear an entire drum hit or hi-hat crash. All that remains are clicks and whooshes, barely identifiable as drums and, again, practically useless as rhythmic indicators. Thus, the pace is maintained by Dave Holland's one-note throb and the occasional descending blues progression he plays. The feeling one gets from "Go Ahead John" becomes one of floating in space.[12]
Composition
Titled as an exhortation by Davis to McLaughlin,
In Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis, Chambers writes of Davis's segment and the complex production of "Go Ahead John", "In spite of the gimmickry, the blues segment manages to state some old verities in a new context, and state them powerfully. Most jazz listeners can hope that someday Go Ahead John will be unscrambled and re-presented to them as, among other things, an unhurried blues by Davis accompanied only by Holland".
Release and reception
Released on April 19, 1974, by
In a positive review, Billboard stated "Much of the existentialism in musical forms that has characterized Miles Davis' recent offerings are embodied in this new album, but Davis has the creativity of mind and expertise of profession to break away from the conventional and still remain an exciting, interesting, innovative and acceptable artist. This album is in that genre".[18] Bob Palmer of Rolling Stone commented that "essentially Big Fun is the most consistently appealing, varied and adventurous Miles Davis album since Live/Evil, commands attention as such, and will doubtless give Davis's many imitators something to think about".[10]
Legacy and reappraisal
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Tom Hull – on the Web | B+ ()[25] |
In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau believed three of the album's "side-long" compositions "wind down prematurely", but "for the most part this is uncommonly beautiful stuff, and it gets better". He singled out "Lonely Fire" as a highlight, writing that "after meandering at the beginning [it] develops into lyrical mood music reminiscent in spirit and fundamental intent of Sketches of Spain".[20] The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) said the album "defies easy categorization, although its dark, moody tracks boast a strong undercurrent of Indian classical rhythms in addition to the expected swathes of rock and funk".[23]
"Big Fun has a very consistent vibe throughout. In contrast to its title, the album is moody and hauntingly lyrical—not entirely unlike In a Silent Way. Imagine the foreboding nature of Bitches Brew, with the primitive and funky undercurrent of On the Corner, but also with the majestic melodies of In a Silent Way cresting the surface. Plus, Big Fun is tied together by a stronger Eastern vibe than any of Davis’s other albums ... Big Fun is the work of a true musical craftsman and an even truer artist."[9]
Track listing
All compositions by Miles Davis, except "Mulher Laranja" and "Recollections", composed by Joe Zawinul.
Original release
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Great Expectations" "Mulher Laranja" | 27:23 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Ife" | 21:34 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Go Ahead John" | 28:27 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Lonely Fire" | 21:21 |
Double CD edition
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Great Expectations" "Mulher Laranja" | 27:23 |
2. | "Ife" | 21:34 |
3. | "Recollections" | 18:55 |
4. | "Trevere" | 5:55 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Go Ahead John" | 28:29 |
2. | "Lonely Fire" | 21:21 |
3. | "The Little Blue Frog" | 9:10 |
4. | "Yaphet" | 9:39 |
Note: Some issues mistakenly omit "Mulher Laranja" (better known as "Orange Lady"), along with its composer, from the liner notes and tracklist. However, the piece does appear on all editions of the album.
Personnel
Musicians
Additional personnel
- 2-LP original
- Teo Macero – original record producer
- Seth Rothstein – project director
- Frank Laico, Stan Tonkel – original audio engineer
- Russ Payne, Stan Weiss, John Guerriere – original mix engineer
- Steve Berkowitz – A&Rfor Legacy
- Patti Matheny, Darren Salmieri – A&Rcoordination
- Corky McCoy – original cover art
- 2-CD reissue
- Bob Belden – reissue producer
- Seth Foster – reissue digital remastering at Sony Music Studios, NYC
- Bennie Maupin – reissue main liner notes
- Swing Journal Co., Ltd. Japan – reissue backcover photography
- Uve Kuusik – reissue liner notes photography
- Howard Fritzson – reissue art direction
- Randall Martin – reissue design
- Rachel Dicono – packaging manager
- John Jackson – production assistance
Notes
References
- ^ "The Rhythm & The Blues". Billboard. July 22, 2000. p. 41. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-203-93564-4.
- ^ Miles Davis.com
- ISBN 0823083462.
- ^ a b Kolosky, Walter (December 31, 2008). Miles Davis: Go Ahead John (part two C) – Jazz.com | Jazz Music – Jazz Artists – Jazz News Archived May 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Jazz.com. Retrieved on 2011-04-03.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Freeman (2005), p. 92.
- ^ Allmusic. Retrieved on 2011-02-02.
- ^ a b c d Jenkins, Todd S. (June 1, 2001). Review: Big Fun. All About Jazz. Retrieved on 2011-02-02.
- ^ a b c Faust, Edwin C. (September 1, 2003). Review: Big Fun. Stylus Magazine. Retrieved on 2011-02-02.
- ^ a b Palmer, Bob (June 20, 1974). Review: Big Fun. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2011-02-02.
- ^ a b c d Chambers (1998), p. 199.
- ^ a b Freeman (2005), p. 93.
- ^ a b c Ephland (2007), p. 302–303.
- ^ "Miles Davis: Big Fun". Miles Davis Official Website. Archived from the original on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
- ^ Top LP's & Tape – For Week Ending June 8, 1974 (108–200). Billboard. Retrieved on 2011-02-02.
- ^ Tiegal, Eliot (June 1, 1974). "Jazzmen Fusing Rock Into Music for Wider Appeal". Billboard: 1, 10.
- ^ Charts & Awards: Big Fun. Allmusic. Retrieved on 2011-02-02.
- ^ Columnist (May 4, 1974). "Review: Big Fun". Billboard: 62.
- ^ a b Product Notes – Big Fun. Muze. Retrieved on 2011-02-02.
- ^ ISBN 0306804093. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
- ISBN 0825672538.
- ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
- ^ a b Hoard, Christian (ed.) (November 2, 2004). "Review: Big Fun". Rolling Stone: 215, 218.
- ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
- ^ Hull, Tom (June 2, 2020). "Music Week". Tom Hull – On the Web. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
- ^ Cook, Richard (2004). "Review: Big Fun". The Penguin Guide to Jazz: 424.
Bibliography
- Alkyer, Frank; John Ephland (2007). The Miles Davis Reader. ISBN 978-1-4234-3076-6.
- ISBN 0-306-80849-8.
- Freeman, Phil (2005). Running the Voodoo Down: The Electric Music of Miles Davis. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-87930-828-1.
External links
- Big Fun at Discogs
- Big Fun reviewed at Head Heritage