Miles Davis invented a whole new jazz form with the release of Bitches Brew in 1970, and now here's a whole new way of listening to that jazz rock masterpiece-a 4-CD set containing not just the complete original album and material from the Big Fun, Circle in the Round and Live-Evil sessions, but NINE unreleased tracks totaling about 85 minutes of newly discovered music! And this new longbox version gives you *$20* off the price of the original release!

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All of the extra material included is from unrelated sessions led by Miles in the following winter, when Miles introduced a sitar into his band and worked mostly on open-ended, spacey slow jams, which people today would call "ambient" music.

Apparently, most reviewers here are not put off by this fact. After all, the music from the original album is incredible and now sounds better than ever; and you may find the later ambient experiments involving the sitar as fascinating as they do.

I just can't help feeling disappointed that the box does not deliver what the title promises. The tape was rolling for everything, the notes say, and yet... we get to hear nothing but the masters from the sessions that actually produced the album. I was hoping for insight into how the music of B*Brew came together (as Box 5 in the series does for In A Silent Way), and the notes tease us with stories about key little moments in the studio; but, although Bob Belden and Michael Cuscuna apparently thought these moments were interesting enough to discuss in the notes, they share none of these tapes with us.

Five stars for the music from the original album. Take away one star for the misleading title, and another because the extra material is less interesting to me. Unless you're a fanatic for Miles, and must hear everything he did, then the 2-CD reissue of the original album is probably a better bang for your buck. It has the same great remastered sound, and even comes with "Feio" as a bonus track. If you got that and the reissue of Big Fun, you'd have all the major cuts from this set except for "Corrado" and "Guinevere."

24 of 24 found the following review helpful:

You Gots To Get This ...Aug 25, 1999

Yes, you should get this rather than the 2CD version. I'll admit there is a little stuff on here that's "filler", where not much is happening. But not very much. The tracks which were issued on subsequent releases over the years (when Miles was still alive by the way) namely "Guenniviere", "Great Expectations", "Lonely Fire", "Orange Lady" demand to be heard. They are actually a bit heavier than the tracks on "Bitches Brew", which were the first tracks cut. Now, you could buy them as part of "Directions", "Circle In The Round", and "Big Fun", but I think you're better served getting them in this package. That way you get the previously unreleased pieces - which are rather heavy also! The fact that they stayed unreleased all that time, that there were more secret treasures to be unearthed from those sessions, is amazing. To dig something up unheard in 30 years and for it to sound fresh and gripping ... The newly released tracks are generally skeletal and/or spacey. Some of them, written by Zawinul & Shorter, clearly serve as the ancestor to Weather Report.

Much of modern music aspires to the sense of etherial groove present in this music. It's beautiful and perfect. I've been listening to it for 15 years now and I'm as into the music today as I ever was. Miles was an artist of the highest caliber, and this is a peak era of his.

17 of 17 found the following review helpful:

Very nice...Dec 04, 2006
By Grigory's Girl "Grigory's Girl"
I remember buying this in high school. Miles wasn't particularly popular at the time, and my brother gave me a look and said "why did you buy this crap?". My brother, ironically, would get into jazz when he got into college, yet, never apologised for this insult. As for this music, it's truly outstanding. It's incredibly complicated stuff, sometimes with 3 keyboardists, 2 drummers, 2 bassists all playing at once, with Miles on top of it all. The initial 6 tracks are some of the greatest stuff I've ever heard, with Spanish Key being my favorite. I remember being put off by it a bit at the time. The only Davis albums I had at the time were the mediocre The Man with the Horn, and the better We Want Miles, so I wasn't up on the great Miles. I have around 28 Miles CD's now, and this is definitely top five. I like Big Fun better, but the music there was from these sessions, so it's a bit confusing. The remastering is light years superior to the vinyl, and is definitely worth the upgrade. It also has superlative liner notes, detailing the sessions and some good historical background. As for the bonus tracks, most of this material was released on other albums. The songs Great Expectations, Orange Lady, and Lonely Fire ended up on the original release of Big Fun. Recollections, Trevere, The Little Blue Frog (master take), and Yaphet were also released on the remastered version of Big Fun. Guiniverre ended up on Circle in the Round (in a slightly shorter version), and Double Image (the short version) ended up on Live Evil. So there are only 6 actual new tracks (Corrado, The Big Green Serpent, an alternate take of The Little Blue Frog, Feio, a slightly longer version of Double Image, and Take It or Leave It). These 6 are good, but unless you really adore Miles, you may be able to do without them, even though I think this is a good set to have.

23 of 25 found the following review helpful:

*****ESSENTIAL*****Nov 30, 1998
By AfSucSker
In addition to this 4 disc box set, I own the 2cd original. There are many reasons why owning this box set is important, even if you have the original.

Most importantly: THE SOUND. The overall sound of the music on the set is almost 100% better. It is no longer murky, the drums and bass are actually audible(!), and you can hear things that you simply can't hear on the original.The music breathes at last!.

Almost as important as the sound, are the un-released tracks. As a guitar player, I don't feel that the original Bitches Brew displays (guitarist)John's chaotic and beautifull guitar playing as well as it should. With the new tracks that is definitely not the case! They are full of skillfull Fuzz-tone guitar that would make Hendrix proud! Now, don't get me wrong, the musicianship of everyone else on the album's un-released tracks is beautifully executed as well.

Keep in mind that this is one of the most controversial albums there has ever been(In Jazz especially!). It's a piece of history and this set helps to put Miles' puzzle together(through the new sound and tracks).

Last but not least, the amazing and stunning packaging doesn't hurt it one bit. The new liner notes are insightfull and shed new light on the music.

So if you are a fan of Miles(and have some extra cash), get this, it won't dissapoint!

*Oh yeah, anybody who loves this as much as me, please e-mail me so we can talk about it

15 of 16 found the following review helpful:

the apocalyptic moment for jazz revistedAug 03, 2006
By cvairag
The release of Bitches Brew in late Spring of 1970 marked the end of an era - not only for Miles - but for jazz as a genre. Jazz would never again revel in the melancholy splendor of bluesy isolation, or the somewhat self-absorbed innocence of groove or `avant-garde'. At the time, I was a devout fan, and I can remember the first time I heard "Miles runs the Voodoo Down" which was the first track I heard - before many, many others would. Jazz would never quite return to the large ensemble swing mix, although Qunicy Jones and Grover Washington did carry on for some years, with albeit muted electricity - but the McLauglin/Miles collaboration - in the final analysis, perhaps more historically significant and impacting for jazz than Miles/Trane, was and remains an extraordinary listening experience. What is more pervasive is Miles' tortured revelation of the apocalyptic sound that is first achieved here and continues notably through Live/Evil and Dark Magus and less stellar moments through the early and mid 1970's. These are the new classics of jazz in which its leading exponent deals with this universally acknowledged feeling of world dissolution - our lives spinning out of presumptions to and pursuit of control - the return to chaos - inexorable and inevitable. The recordings of the initial flowering of Mile's post-modern period collected here en totem for the first time give us an insight into the tension between Miles' supremely rigorous and complex sense of order and the recognition of the endless flux of electricity and being, all too overwhelming in the totality of its energy to be channeled or directed for long. The previously unreleased material here, such as 'Yaphet' and 'Corrado' which followed the original sessions is most welcome in that it presages the future, in which the electric and fusion elements would gain dominion over spent, traditional forms. Simply put, these sessions stake profound claim to being among the greatest of all time, and the extras which are included, regardless of their being more of a coda or an afterthought to the recording dates for Bitches Brew, make the package that much better.




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