Miles Davis - The Alternative Bitches Brew

For three days in August 1969 Miles Davis took a large band of musicians into the Columbia studios, to create the double LP Bitches Brew, one of the most important and influential records ever made, a foundational statement in the genre of jazz-rock fusion and a major innovation in the use of recording technology. In much the same way that Ornette Coleman had lead a 'double quartet' on his important album Free Jazz (Atlantic, 1960), so Miles had his then current 'Lost Quintet' (Shorter, Corea, Holland, and DeJohnette) paired with its mirror image- Maupin, Zawinul, Brooks, and White. Added to this were twin percussionists plus McLaughlin on guitar and, on one session, additional keyboardist Larry Young. Long, sprawling jams were then restructured through editing by producer Teo Macero, sometimes using repeated loop sections and echo effects, foreshadowing the use of the studio in the making of disco and hip hop records in the late 1970s and 1980s. A by-product of this approach is that large amounts of music were left on the cutting room floor. Six years ago we posted the complete outtakes from these sessions (   • Miles Davis- The Bitches Brew outtake...   ). These outtakes are fascinating for Miles scholars as we hear each piece start to take shape- rehearsals, false starts, breakdowns, between-take discussions, and some long stretches where the musicians start to grasp the material. But the overall effect can be disjointed and more casual listeners may find trawling through them a frustrating experience. I had the idea to compile a 'best of' the outtakes, using only the longer takes. While planning that I had an even more intriguing idea- what if I channelled my inner Teo Macero and edited the most usable music together, to create whole alternate versions? That is what is presented here, uninterrupted re-edits of five of the original six LP tracks (plus a bonus alternate). First, let's say what's missing. There are no unusued outtakes of Sanctuary- two takes were recorded, both of which ended up on the album, edited together back-to-back. Pharoah's Dance was problematic; although there are multiple recorded takes most of them are of the band rehearsing a difficult passage of music, often only a few seconds in length. I compiled the longer stretches and gave it some structure using repeated sections, as Macero had done on the original album, but it's still only a meandering three minutes. The other pieces are more substantial. There are two versions of Miles Runs The Voodoo Down: the long opening one is less intense than the LP version, each take featured a different soloist- perhaps the original intention was to piece these sections together in editing- but it's fascinating to hear the different approach. This piece had given Miles and the band some problems, despite it having been played by the quintet at gigs before the recording session it still didn't quite jell with the expanded line up. The 'early version' at the end compiles the first takes of the piece, before percussionist Don Alias took over Lenny White's drum kit and played the funky, New Orleans influenced beat familiar from the album. Spanish Key is perhaps closest in quality to the release version- there's some very fine playing here. A ten minute portion of these outtakes was released on the Bitches Brew 40th Anniversary boxed set in 2010 but there was much more music recorded- this version is twice as long. There was also very little outtake material for Bitches Brew itself, just a few sections of the band playing the groove, which eventually morphs into 'Part 4' of the composition, eventually spun off into a separate piece, retitled John McLaughlin on the LP. This version makes the connection between the two pieces much clearer. 6½ minutes of this music was released on the 40th Anniversary box- again, there is much more here. I hope these re-workings of the outtake material make for rewarding listening and even add a new perspective on one of the most important records in the Davis catalogue

Exclusive re-edits of outtakes from Bitches Brew. August 19, 20, and 21, 1969 Columbia Studio B, New York City, New York

Exclusive re-edits of outtakes from Bitches Brew.

Miles Davis - The Alternative Bitches Brew 

MILES DAVIS Miles Davis -trumpet Wayne Shorter- soprano saxophone Bennie Maupin- bass clarinet John McLaughlin- guitar Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Larry Young (-2)- electric piano Dave Holland- bass Harvey Brooks- bass guitar Jack DeJohnette- drums Lenny White- drums (out on -1) Don Alias- percussion, drums (-1) Juma Santos- percussion*

Miles Runs The Voodoo Down -1 0:00 Spanish Key 26:42 Pharoah's Dance -2 47:07 Bitches Brew/ John McLaughlin 50:13 Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (early version) 59:46 closing titles 1:05:19 All compositions by Miles Davis, except Pharoah's Dance by Joe Zawinul Compiled from studio session outtakes for the album Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) *credited on the LP as Jim Riley, often spelled Jumma Santos. This spelling comes from his Wikipedia page.