The Song of the Day is:
Miles Davis – “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down”
From the album Bitches Brew (1970)
I used to have a theory that Miles Davis seemed to deliver his most startling, innovative and influential master works as each new decade approached. In 1949, he introduced cool jazz upon the world with the Birth of the Cool recordings. Ten years later in 1959, the modal jazz pinnacle of excellence was captured on Kind of Blue. Then in 1969, he recorded the albums that would fuse jazz with rock and roll rhythms and instrumentation with the one-two punch of In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew. There are some holes in this very loose theory though, as Miles Davis was always innovating. He didn’t release a 1979/1980 album, and while he did have a flurry of work around 1990, it wasn’t particularly earth-shaking. This theory also diminishes the excellence of ‘Round About Midnight, Sketches of Spain, Miles Smiles and my personal fusion favorite, A Tribute to Jack Johnson. Bitches Brew is the standard bearer of the jazz fusion genre, and most of the offshoot fusion bands were headed by members of Miles’ bands (Headhunters, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, and Weather Report). “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down” is one of the most accessible performances of Miles’ fusion period. Its lumbering rhythms and horn wailing always conjures visions of lazy elephants to me. Contrary to how it sounds, the songs on this record were not performed as a whole jam, rather they were often spliced together by producer Teo Macero. All the players on this album were legendary talents, they include Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Bennie Maupin on bass clarinet, John McLaughlin on guitar, Dave Holland and Harvey Brooks on bass, Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul on keys, Lenny White and Jack DeJohnette on drums, and of course Miles on trumpet. This song was performed in concert, but it could be wildly different.
Hear Today, Grown Tomorrow 