Jack Johnson (album)

Jack Johnson
Jazz-rock hard rock funk
Length	52:26
Label	Columbia
Producer	Teo Macero
Miles Davis chronology
Miles Davis at Fillmore (1970) Jack Johnson (1971) Live-Evil (1971)
Alternate cover
Subsequent reissues

Jack Johnson (also known as A Tribute To Jack Johnson on

The album was conceived by Davis for Bill Cayton's documentary of the same name, on the life of boxer Jack Johnson. Its two 25-minute-plus tracks were produced from recordings made on February 18 and April 7, 1970, at 30th Street Studio in New York City. Davis was inspired by the political and racial subtext of Johnson's saga as well as the hard rock and funk sounds of his own era, leading a rock-inspired line-up of musicians in the studio: guitarists John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock, keyboardists Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, saxophonist Steve Grossman, bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin, electric bassist Michael Henderson, and drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham.

Jack Johnson performed modestly on the

In 1970, Davis was asked by boxing promoter Bill Cayton to record music for a documentary he was producing, on the life of boxer Jack Johnson.^[2] Johnson's saga resonated personally with the musician, who wrote in the album's liner notes of Johnson's mastery as a boxer, his affinity for fast cars, jazz, clothes, and beautiful women, his unreconstructed blackness, and his threatening image of large black manhood to white men.^[3] The resulting album, Jack Johnson, was the second film score Davis had composed, after Ascenseur pour l'échafaud in 1957.^[4]

The music recorded for Jack Johnson reflected Davis' interest in the eclectic jazz fusion of the time while foreshadowing the hard-edged funk that would fascinate him in the next few years.^[5] Having wanted to put together what he called "the greatest rock and roll band you have ever heard",^[6] Davis played with a line-up featuring guitarists John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock, keyboardists Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, saxophonist Steve Grossman, bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin, and drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham.^[5] The album's two tracks were mainly drawn from one session on April 7, 1970, which producer Teo Macero edited together with Davis' recordings from a February 18, 1969 "In A Silent Way" session^[7]

The first track, "Right Off", was constructed from several takes and a solo Davis had recorded in November 1969. It also contains a riff based on Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song", most prominently at 18:44. Much of the track "Yesternow" is built around a slightly modified version of the bassline from the James Brown song "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud".^[9]

"Right Off" comprises a series of improvisations based on a B♭ chord, but changes after about 20 minutes to an E chord. "Yesternow" has a similar B♭ ostinato and shifts to C minor.^[10] It concludes with a voiceover by actor Brock Peters: "I'm Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion of the world. I'm black. They never let me forget it. I'm black all right. I'll never let them forget it."^[11] Liner notes accompanying a later release of the album provide a description of the music:

Michael Henderson launches into an enormous boogie groove with Billy Cobham and John McLaughlin. Miles immediately leaves the control room to join in with them. He achieved exactly what he wanted for the soundtrack by creating the effect of a train going at full speed (which he compared to the force of a boxer). By chance, Herbie Hancock had arrived unexpectedly and started playing on a cheap keyboard that a sound engineer quickly connected.^[12]

According to

Release and reception

Jack Johnson was released on February 24, 1971,

period fashion. The intended cover—a photo of Davis playing trumpet in a bent-backward stance—was used on subsequent pressings,^[18] which were titled A Tribute to Jack Johnson.^[19] In 2003, the album was included on The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions, a five-disc box set featuring previously unreleased music from the original recording sessions.^[20]

Reviewing the album in June 1971 for

The Hartford Courant called the album "magnificent" and "another gem" in Davis' 20-year "string of gems", and wrote that the tracks "really make up one long, churning, steaming, brooding, slashing musical experience that never dips below the highest of art." Starger found the sidemen's performances masterful and said that Peters' voiceover at the end gives "Johnson's words frightening majesty".^[11]

Less enthusiastic about the record was jazz musician and journalist Leonard Feather, who wrote a review for the Los Angeles Times titled "Miles Ahead and Miles Behind". Viewing Jack Johnson as a "letdown after the unflawed triumph" of Bitches Brew, Feather was particularly dismayed by Davis for aligning himself with "the thumping, clinking, whomping battering ram that passes for a rhythm section" on the album.^[10]

Legacy and reappraisal

Retrospective professional reviews

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[22]
Blender	[23]
Boston Herald	[24]
Christgau's Record Guide	A+[25]
DownBeat	[26]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[27]
The Guardian	[28]
MusicHound Jazz	[29]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[30]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[31]

Jack Johnson was a turning point in Davis' career and has since been viewed as one of his greatest works.

electric period and among his best albums.^[33][34] The Boston Herald cites it as one of Davis' "last truly great albums" and as "some of the most powerful and influential jazz-rock ever played."^[24]

Critics in retrospective appraisals also note the uniqueness of Davis' playing and the crucial contributions of his band and producer on the album. AllMusic's Thom Jurek highlights its "funky, dirty rock & roll jazz" and "chilling, overall high-energy rockist stance". He also calls it "the purest electric jazz record ever made because of the feeling of spontaneity and freedom it evokes in the listener, for the stellar and inspiring solos by McLaughlin and Davis that blur all edges between the two musics, and for the tireless perfection of the studio assemblage by Miles and producer Macero".^[22] John Fordham from The Guardian observes a transition in Davis's playing from a "whispering electric sound to some of the most trenchantly responsive straight-horn improvising he ever put on disc". According to Fordham:

Considering that it began as a jam between three bored Miles Davis sidemen, and that the eventual 1971 release was stitched together from a variety of takes, it's a miracle that this album turned out to be one of the most remarkable jazz-rock discs of the era. Columbia didn't even realise what it had with these sessions, and the mid-decade Miles albums that followed – angled toward the pop audience – were far more aggressively marketed than the Jack Johnson set ... Of course, it's a much starker, less subtly textured setting than Bitches Brew, but in the early jazz-rock hall of fame, it's up there on the top pedestal.^[28]

Jack Johnson and Davis' other electric-period albums influenced rock musician Iggy Pop's early music with the Stooges.^[35] Around 1985, he purchased copies of Davis' Sketches of Spain (1960) and Jack Johnson in a no frills used record shop for less than $5. "They have been my inspiring companions ever since", he told The Quietus in 2010. "The one tears me apart and the other puts me back together."^[36]

Track listing

All songs were composed by Miles Davis.

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Right Off"	26:53

Side two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Yesternow"	25:34
Total length:		52:27

Personnel

The information below is taken from Sony Music's milesdavis.com.^[37]

The following lineup was recorded at Columbia Studios, New York, April 7, 1970: Miles Davis – trumpet Steve Grossman – soprano saxophone John McLaughlin – electric guitar Herbie Hancock – organ Michael Henderson – electric bass Billy Cobham – drums Brock Peters – narration Additionally, the following participants were credited for roles outside the band: Teo Macero – conduction of "unknown orchestra", production Stan Tonkel – engineering Miles Davis – compositions

The following lineup, recorded at Columbia Studios, February 18, 1970, was uncredited on the original LP and are only heard on a section of "Yesternow" (from 14:00 to 23:55) playing a composition called "Willie Nelson": Miles Davis – trumpet Bennie Maupin – bass clarinet John McLaughlin – electric guitar Sonny Sharrock – electric guitar Chick Corea – electric piano Dave Holland – electric bass Jack DeJohnette – drums

Charts

Chart (1971)[16]	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200	159
U.S. Jazz Albums (Billboard )	4
U.S. R&B Albums (Billboard)	47

References