over 2 hours of moodily atmospheric soundscapes from 4 different ensembles led by miles davis on trumpet. there are four superb bonus tracks as well as the original four that came with the original LP.great expectations, the opening piece, lasts for nearly half an hour, and features intriguing orchestration featuring, among other things, electric sitar and exotic percussion. its basically in 2 parts, with a slightly sinister 1st theme repeated for about 10 minutes, with variations in texture bubbling under the repetitions, played by miles and bennie maupin (on bass clarinet). then there's a wonderfully breathless and spacious section with a new theme, wonderfully played by miles, with support from the other musicians. the music speeds up to become quite jaunty, before the 2nd theme returns and the piece ends in a hush.
Ife is around 20 minutes long, opening with larry young's horror movie organ chords, before michael henderson's super groovy bassline comes in (it dominates the piece). miles enters, briefly stating the theme, then blasting off on a great solo on wah-wah trumpet. there's also a saxophone solo from sonny fortune to savour.
reccollections is the 1st bonus track, also around 20 minutes in length. It has a beautiful, haunting melody and mood, slowly developed over its running time.
trevere is another bonus track, the shortest piece of the whole album, at just under 6 minutes. A dark, sinister atmosphere is evoked by dissonant organ and thundering percussion, over which miles plays a theme which I've seen described as 'sci-fi gospel'.
disc 2 begins with the longest piece, Go ahead john (28:27). it has no theme, basically being a lengthy jam with a quintet of steve grossman (soprano sax) miles (trumpet) john mclaughlin (electric guitar) dave holland (electric bass) jack de johnette (drums). it opens with a brief sax solo, then miles blasts away with his, then mclaughlin takes the spotlight for a bone-crunching, ear-drumming blasting solo: 'suggesting a hornet trapped under a glass thats repeatedly lifted and lowered'. after that, miles' extraordinary multi-tracked, pastoral solo, then more sax, then the end.
Lonely Fire is another moodily beautiful soundscape, this time featuring the excellent wayne shorter on soprano. what a bonus! at times, it sounds like 'in a silent way'.
The 2 remaining pieces are bonus tracks. 'The little blue frog' has a haunting theme, played by miles, who solos for a while before stepping aside to let the ensemble 'collectively jam' (no solos, just group improv), then finishes thing off.
'Yaphet' is pretty dark stuff, with a bubbling, atmospheric eleven-piece group growling away.
So, my verdict? Miles was the maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.....
