Back on the Corner

The following review, from online feature-zine, earplug (part of the Flavorpill network).

i'm privileged to have a 2-disc special (Japanese market) issue of the One The Corner sessions, but this six-disc full set is part of Columbia/Legacy's ongoiong orgy of Miles product in the wake of the 80th anniversary of his birth in 2006.
The music? Coming on the heels of his Bitches Brew sessions its some of the darkest, yet most rhythmically complex stuff to come out of Davis' ever-fertile muse.


Album Review
January 3, 2008 Miles Davis
The Complete On the Corner Sessions
Columbia Legacy
September 25, 2008

"Overlooked" is perhaps the wrong way to describe this six-CD collection of unfurled funk fury. For those with a more casual interest in Miles Davis, "unexpected" may be the more apt adjective (followed by a long string of superlatives). Almost every recent review goes certifiably apeshit — a stark contrast to the critical reception the same tracks received when they were first released in the '70s. After plugging in for Bitches Brew, Davis and his ensemble were at the peak of their powers, and here they deliver a series of rhythmic manifestos, leaving a choppy wake that musicians have been wading in ever since. Culled from recordings of one of Davis' most legendary and controversial bands, the box set comes with the added, poignant bonus of stellar liner notes from recently passed writer Tom Terrell. Angular, dark, and angry, the unfettered grooves are informed by everything from Sly Stone to Indian music and Karlheinz Stockhausen, all later looped and pieced together (by hand!) by producer Teo Macero. Simply put, it's a milestone in the use of electronics.

-PCS