Miles' "On the Corner"

Wow, Phil totally OTM here. I always feel like everyone has a different top-five Miles records. The other day I found out that a friend of mine's favorite is, like mine, Filles De Kilamanjaro. I've never met ANYONE else who shared this opinion. I have another good friend, a musician, who loves Jack Johnson and loves Nefertiti and Sorcerer and stuff like that, but when I played him Filles, he couldn't get into it at all. I myself can't get into Jack Johnson, but I'm really loving On The Corner. I think whoever made the Can comparison above was also pretty on point.

It's a remarkably repetitive album, but the changes that take place over the repitition make it effective. It's amazing how different the same groove sounds when it comes in on Black Satin and when it comes in on One on One, all because of the handclaps on the former, versus the second drum track added on the latter.

I think I lost On the Corner, which is too bad because I'd really like to hear it again.

some djs have, regardless of when these were released.

MD: "Sonny, give me your amplifier!"
SS: "But Miles, you don't play guitar."
MD: "FUCK you!" [slams down phone]

Maybe he doesn't like white people.

http://kaufman-center.org/merkin-concert-hall/event/street-talk-miles-on-the-corner

on the corner otm

lol this is great

Sonny Sharrock once recounted the following exchange to me:
MD: "Sonny, give me your amplifier!"
SS: "But Miles, you don't play guitar."
MD: "FUCK you!" [slams down phone]

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, May 31, 2006 3:19 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

listened to this on the way to work this morning. so good

it's kind of an unbelievable record

lol @ Sharrock story.

It's such a cliche at this point, but this record still sounds ahead of its time. I can't even imagine what listeners -- of any stripe -- must have made of it at the time.

I was listening to Hancock's Sextant last night, which I just got a couple months ago. It's great, I love it, but I can't shake the feeling that it's Hancock basically saying, "Oh yeah? Well...I made a record like that...too...! ...called... Around the Block!" Like a shinier OTC, but with synths.

Those two records sound nothing alike.

Henderson's playing on the Herbie record is a dead ringer for Miles', right down to some phrases xeroxed from Miles records.

sextant sounds a bit more like some of miles OTHER fusion-era records, but not especially like those even, the synth prominence and the band makeup and the full on slow funk in the rhythm section makes sure of that

The synth prominence is the key difference in terms of the arrangements, and I'm not saying the two records are utterly indistinguishable from one another; more that Sextant strikes me as Hancock's more tidy and/or slick (not meant pejoratively) impression of what Miles was doing. ymmv, presumably.

the two recs that hancock made just before sextant - Mwandishi and Crossings - are even more milesean fusionoid.

slick?? are you sure you're even talking about sextant

Yep, relative to OTC.

One of the things I love about the first Mwandishi album is that Hancock hired Ronnie Montrose as a session guitarist on it, then had him play a little tiny clicking noise for 20 minutes, like the most minimalist possible interpretation of James Brown-ian rhythm guitar. Hilarious.

a lot of Sextant sounds almost like minimalist techno while On The Corner sounds like a full on industrial funk freak out

"Hornets" from Sextant is basically Hancock trying to do side one of On the Corner.

I have been casting around for other stuff like On the Corner the last few days myself - nothing quite does it, although some things are close. and I am now getting pretty annoyed that I can't find any of Alphonse Mouzon's stuff from the period on the internets

was listening to a couple tracks off Weather Report's Sweetnighter, which comes a little close

maybe stuff like this? rhythms upon rhythms but not the insane cocaineyness of OTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S10OZqd8DS0

A couple of Alphonse Mouzon's MPS albums, which cover art would indicate are definitely from the mid 70s, are now available on iTunes; don't know if that helps.

Still trying to figure out how I never bought the box.

The Miles era of OTC/Big Fun/Dark Magus/Get Up With It is some of the most wondrous noise ever made, holy fuck!

Wonder if there is any chance they might reissue the box at a price in line with the reissues of the other boxes that came out around the same time. Would love a physical copy but I can't afford $100+
and I think the rest of the boxes are around €15-€25 or at least available for that price.

Yeah, the Complete OTC box is out of print, as is the Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (six CDs' worth of what became the bulk of Live-Evil). I have zero doubt they sold much worse than the acoustic-era boxes.

man bendy's story upthread is really bumming me out now

listening to get up with it right now, in some ways i prefer it. seems murkier and messier and denser than on the corner. such a weird album

this Larry Young album "Lawrence of Newark" was a great suggestion (waaaay upthread) many thx

I like the Fuel stuff too but that Lawrence of Newark is otherworldly.
His work with Lifetime when John Mclaughlin was onboard is great too.

and "love cry want" is a perpetual mind-melter

And Young's good on Jimi's Nine To The Universe---also McLaughlin's Devotion, with Buddy Miles! I've heard that at least one of the CD versions leaves out one of the Devotion LP tracks, but having any of it makes you one lucky cat. Deftly edited jams, tightly loose and more fun than any electric McL.-led sessions I can think of (although Remember Shakti's live collection on Ryko has many espresso acoustico thrills).
I was listening to Miles in the early 70s, but he was putting out so many, each with its own identity, OTC kinda got lost in the crowd. My orbit was more Live-Evil-centric for quite a while there. But! When Ornette formed Prime Time, and No Wave-punk jazz started converging, some of us dug up OTC again, and it was like, "Oh yeah, now I get it..."