Search - Miles Davis :: On Corner

(3.5 stars) Sure am glad I gave this one another chance...

finulanu | Here, there, and everywhere | 11/29/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"So, here we have it. On the Corner. The most controversial album in Miles' history, arguably of all time. And to be honest, I can't think of a record that polarizes fans more off the top of my head. There are those - some of them massive fusion fans - who detest this record with every fiber of their being. I used to fall into that camp, but that was before I went over my fusion records again and realized there was more to them than I thought. And how is it? Well, it's interesting. I don't love it, but there's certainly never been anything like it. It's a mix of funk, rock, Indian music, African music, electronica, proto-hip-hop (or perhaps "proto-trip-hop" would be a better term), and jazz. When him and his group - mainstays McLaughlin, Maupin, Hancock, Corea, Henderson, Cobham and DeJohnette, plus newcomers Ivory Williams (synthesizer), David Libman and Carlos Garnett (saxes), David Creamer (guitar), Colin Walcot and Khali Balakrishna (electric sitar) and Badal Roy (Tabla) don't let you go. Witness "Black Satin", with its genius use of Indian instruments and its insistent soprano sax melody, contrasted with a buzzing synthesizer. It also has an amazing introduction - a few seconds of sitars screwing around, to be honest, but the sound of it... whoa. They also work up a nice, bottom-heavy groove on "One and One", which allows Maupin (in such upper register I originally thought he was playing a soprano sax) loads of solo space. I like that one. I also like the first ten minutes of our title suite, with its "wall-of-sound-from-hell" approach, though I think that after those ten minutes it ends up repeating itself. That's where it should've stopped. After those ten minutes. But McLaughlin and Libman really play during them, you know? So do Miles and Maupin, of course, but it's more for the guitar and soprano sax that I like that piece. And the Indian instruments. Finu Lanu likes Indian instruments. So anyway, after one track of brilliance ("Black Satin"... it's all about "Black Satin"), one track of half-brilliance ("On the Corner/New York Girl/Thinkin' of One Thing and Doin' Another/Vote for Miles" - I'm guessing it loses my attention at about when "Thinkin' of One Thing" starts), and one track of all-around goodness ("One and One"), we've got the comedown. See, here's how I think they should've sequenced this: side one is "On the Corner/New York Girl" (dropping the second half); "Black Satin"; "One and One" and "Big Fun", a great outtake available on the recent Complete Sessions boxed set. It's the only track from that set I've heard, though. And then make all of side two "Ife", a brilliant space-funk outtake from these sessions that found its way on Big Fun, a superb odds-and-sods collection that ranks among the best work Miles ever did. But instead they insisted on replacing it with "Helen Butte/Mr. Freedom X", which is, if you ask me, a total waste of space that pretty much rips off "Black Satin" for a while (seriously, there are some direct quotes from it - an attempt at conceptual continuity? Or just an accident? I'm betting on the first, of course). Yeah, it's got some good sax playing, and some good tabla playing as well, but those solos I'm talking about are too brief to help it. And there's over twenty minutes of it. You know what else is over twenty minutes? "Ife", that's what! Are you getting where I'm going here? Just to warn you, there's not much in terms of traditional melody - or traditional anything - on this album, which is probably why I initially loathed it. But it takes more than a couple listens to sink in, I'll tell you that. And once you get over the "what is this noise?" factor, you might find it's an incredibly creative, unique disc with some very good songs on it. Then again, you also may hate it. It's hard to tell with this one."