No artist has ever reinvented themselves quite so much as Miles Davis. By 1969 he had already upended jazz by championing modal jazz (and in the process recording Kind of Blue which is almost universally acknowledged as the greatest jazz album of all time). By 1969 he was ready to upend it again, and his previous album In A Silent Way had already given hints of what was to come with its increasing shift from an acoustic to an electric sound.

I can't really explain what Bitches Brew is all about without a bit of historical context. This was 1969 when experimentation in music was at its height. In Britain Pink Floyd were popularising psychedelia and King Crimson were about to release In The Court of the Crimson King and invent progressive rock. In America Davis, ever the restless genius and unable to stand still musically was looking for something more radical and dramatic still. Supplementing his band up to no less than 3 keyboard players and a bass clarinet, and surrounding himself as ever with musicians of the highest calibre he went into the studio for 3 days to record a double album of 6 densely layered tracks.

So what came out? Well, easy listening this ain't and I certainly wouldn't reccomemd this as an introduction to Jazz or to Miles Davis (Kind of Blue does very nicely for both of those - you might as well start with the best!). The first disc consists of 2 side length tracks, "Pharoah's Dance" and "Bitches Brew", both over 20 minutes. They're both wild cocktails of smoky improvizational jazz. Pharoah's Dance is famous for having no less than 19 edits within it, some as short as 1 second long, and really marks the start of using the studio and the editing booth as an instrument in its own right. I actually can't describe eiither of these tracks well as each time you listen to them they sound different: there's little structure to hang on to and a mellow groove can qu
ickly dissolve into shards of dissonance with Davis's distinctive trumpet shrieking over the top.

The second disc of the album is somewhat more relaxed. "Spanish Key" actually stays on the same groove for nearly 17 minutes (but certainly isn't boring for it). This is followed by "John McLaughlin" (yep, the track is named after the famous jazz guitarist) and "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down", a menacing track that can almost sound like Led Zepellin in parts. Finally comes "Sanctuary", a soft sad and superb close with Davis's trumpet at its most plaintive.

The album is now released digitally remastered on Columbia's Legacy label, and if you buy it now I'd recommend getting this package. Not only is the sound crystal clear but on the end of the second side you get a bonus track: "Feio" written by Wayne Shorter and recorded by the band 5 months later. It continues the mellow vibe of Sanctuary, although for historical accuracy I normally program the CD player to leave it off.

The effects of Bitches Brew were revolutionary. Davis had merged rock and jazz, inventing what we now call fusion (perhaps I should say remerged - after all Rock is a 50's ofshoot of Jazz). Extraordinarily for such an experimental album it was one of Davis's biggest sellers and also won him a Grammy. It's influence still permeates todays music. Thom Yorke from Radiohead admits that previous to recording their masterwork OK Computer, Bitches Brew had been lodged almost permanently in his CD player. After its release in 1970, jazz, rock, and the whole of music would never be the same.

My own views on the album are almost all positive. Like much great music it's not something you can understand or appreciate fully on the first listen because the whole sound is such a shock to the system. After repeated listens it stops sounding like discordant noise and patter
ns, themes and melodies start to emerge. Family members passing by will come in and after listening to about 20 seconds ask why you're listening to that bloody awful racket, but sod 'em. Buy a 4-figure sound system to pick out the details, get your living room a layer of sound-proofing, expell your relations, sit back and let Miles take you on a journey that changed the world. And for 10.99 for 2 CDs and a booklet if you shop around, that's pretty damn good...............