Miles' "On the Corner"

what year is that?

1977
https://www.discogs.com/Mtume-Rebirth-Cycle/release/892202
doesn't appear to have ever been reissued?

sounds pretty good, more spiritual jazz action than agharta

this is dope thanks tyler

more spiritual jazz action

idk about this, would need to see evidence of number of spiritual jazz hats to confirm

there are pyramids on the cover that should qualify it

http://coldfrontmag.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/01/mtumepic.jpg
spiritual jazz headband?

Ooh a head band is good cuz it leaves the Spirit Topper (scalp) uncovered, reduces interference.

Seriously though that line up is something else!

Like these folks have all played on some of the best jazz records ever, this is a literally a supergroup! I have never even heard of this record

me neither! here's some info

With credits that read like a who's who of early 1970s jazz, Mtume, then with Miles Davis, produced his third solo album, including one cut with the Miles Davis band sans Miles. This album is full of spirituality, Africanisms, and real jazz. "Umoja" even includes invocations to Obatala, Yemaya, and the other deities of the Yoruba religion/Santeria. Fascinatingly, Mtume and Lucas went on to produce funk, and then disco, and then Madonna, all with a trademark conga plus electric guitar sound. There, I always wanted to include Madonna in this website. (Ian Scott Horst)

Rebirth Cycle is an amazing lineup (see Ian's discog listing at for details) whose African roots are clearly breaking the surface. "Sais" is a sidelong cut initiated by a bass clarinet ostinato and textured with dense percussion and multiple voices (Jean Carn, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Tawatha Agee, damn!) and some absolutely penetrating narration. Also included is "Yebo", an electric cut with the Miles '74 players (Cosey, Foster and Henderson) that's more soul-jazz than what the players might suggest, and this weirdo percussion piece called "Body Sounds". [DW - freeform.org]

Rebirth Cycle, though released in 1977, was actually made in 1974, and the album’s personnel list reads like a veritable who’s-who of the musicians who where working in the more independent jazz scene of the early seventies. Working on this album, you had Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jean Carne on vocals. Strata East players like Cecil McBee and Buster Williams on bass, Stanley Cowell on piano and Jimmy Heath on reeds. This album is also the first introduction to the mighty voice of Tawatha Agee who would remain the co vocalist with the Mtume band right through to the mid eighties.

Musically, Rebirth Cycle is a fusion of afro-centric deep jazz and psychedelic spacey funk. The main piece on here, and the album’s high point, is the side long “Sais” (sigh-us). This 20 plus minute tune starts with the spoken introduction by Senegalese poet Mustapha, explaining the story of “Mystery System of Sais, the Egyptian school of higher learning from which Greek and Western philosophy was developed”. Once the introduction is over one of the most magical and hypnotic musical 20 minutes you could sit through begins. From the slow and haunting bass clarinet solo through crashing waves of vocal chaos plus one almighty guitar solo by Reggie Lucas, all backed by a solid groove that is cut so deep it would be impossible to climb out of, even if you wanted to. There are moments in this piece where the cacophony is such that it feels like you’re consumed in a hypnotic aural cloud, and you find yourself not wanting to come out of it, or at least for the tune not to come to an end. Then the chaos ebbs away, the bass clarinet solo slowly unearths itself from the onslaught of the other instruments and the poetry returns. You then find yourself coming to from this 20 minute musical roller coaster ride, and you cannot help but feel total exhilaration. On Side two of this album the tracks are shorter in length and are much more afro-centric funk in style. The vocal work on this side of the album is truly sublime, whether it is “Yebo” the Oneness Of Juju style groover with magical vocals by Tawatha Agee, the haunting beauty of Jean Carn’s performance on Cabral, or the traditional African nasal style on the closing track “Umoja”. Rebirth Cycle does not contain a weak moment anywhere on the entire recording, and is really worth seeking out a copy.

Damn I can't wait to listen this

just listened to the whole thing it is a great record

Yes but are they all running thru a wah wah pedal?

I dug it but agree it's much airier and loose than OTC/Agharta band

yea definitely, more afro-centric spiritual jazz & less hard otherworldy funk

one of those reviews up there says it was recorded in 74 (but not released til 77), which makes sense, I think.

Holy damn what a surprise relic!

Listening now -- pretty different from the Mtume stuff I'd heard (which is like smooth jazz-funk/boogie)

i feel like i need to buy a hat before i can even listen to this

wasn't it thoreau who advised "beware of any record that makes you want to buy a new hat"?

^^ board desrip

the melody from "Black Satin" will stay in your head for a week after the first time you hear it.

accurate

I tended to prefer the In concert recording from the same era because it didn't have the annoying typewriter instrument that I didn't like.

Would love a physical copy of the box set. Shame it seems to be the one MIles set that didn't get repackaged in that book form at much lower price.
Box set mops up a lot of the more out electric era I think.

Also wish somebody'd reissue that Mtume set mentioned up thread on cd. I think it came out as a ltd edition vinyl over the last couple of years.

Discovered this last year, it's a perfect amalgamation of all the krautrock, funk and ambient stuff I've been listening to lately.

Revive just because.

I can’t believe no one has done anything cutesy like make Funko Pop style dolls out of the figures on the cover.

Would buy

I went looking for a T-shirt with the cover art recently. Supreme made one in 2008, but nobody else has done one since.

I found the "On The Corner" box set to be a bit overwhelming so I cherry-picked the best stuff and it makes a great companion disc:

1. One And One (unedited master) - this is a completely different track!
2. Jabali
3. The Hen
4. Peace
5. Mr. Foster
6. Hip-Skip
7. What They Do

I still have my OTC shirt, and I wish I'd gotten the Jack Johnson and In Concert shirts when they were around. Just yesterday I saw an ad on fb for (presumably bootleg) Miles shirts, and one of them was the OTC cover.

xp

xpost giving that playlist a listen now, thanks! even that smaller selection adds up to an hour and a half, but that's approachable for me. i do get overwhelmed by massive boxsets, so this is nice.

1. One And One (unedited master) - this is a completely different track!

Here's some comments I found on the Steve Hoffman forum. I'm still confused:

> Again, don't know what happened here, but this is *not* the unedited master of "One and One", but entire different tune altogether. My notes show that this has been partly released before in
> 1998 on "Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969–1974", under the title "What If", mixed by Bill Laswell.

> "One and One" on the original album is really Black Satin.

> The discography lists "Black Satin" as being an overdubbed edit from the "On the Corner" master, while it is obviously an overdubbed edit of the "Helen Butte/Mr.Freedom X" master.

Giving your list a try now. Unlike the other complete sessions sets, I feel like I didn't give this one the attention it deserves because I never got a physical copy.

"One and One" is basically an alternate/dub mix of "Black Satin." Less melodic, more focused on the groove. The long opening track "On the Corner...Vote for Miles" and the long closing track "Helen Butte/Mr. Freedom X" are lengthy studio jams sliced up by Macero.

There was a single released, "Molester," which is "Black Satin" chopped into two parts like a James Brown single.

To be clear, “One and One” on the On the Corner LP is indeed a mix of “Black Satin.” “One and One – Unedited Master” on the box is a completely different track, none of which appears on “One and One” or the LP best as I can tell. Unless some of the solos are spliced on to the “Black Satin” groove?

this album has come to rule my life after years of love and affection. I listen to it every day. I listen to it slowed down. I listen to it sped up. I listen to this incredible 1972 Palo Alto show (an attendee says every non-percussion instrument was hooked up to a wah-wah pedal). I love this fucking music so much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyBUUUj306M

whoa never heard that show, thanks

Thanks, flappy--killer show. OTC era live band is super underrated/under-documented and I haven't explored too much beyond the In Concert album.

Lately I've been obsessed with this boot from January 1974 (Dark Magus band), especially the Ife that opens set 2, early drum machine sputtering in and out of the mix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTT9pyfVAx0

This Palo Alto show is killer!

They really need to do an In Concert/Dark Magus/Pangaea/Argarta-era live box

the story about New Riders of the Purple Sage playing after Miles is pretty funny and depressing. Lots of fist fights

If you haven't been following it yet, I highly recommend The Heat Warps, a project that is "exploring every available Miles Davis concert recording from 1969 through 1975 in chronological order". It just recently got into 1970, a lot of good material to come.

from the comments on that 1972 Palo Alto show, Eric Golub:

I was at this concert! In fact it was my first Miles Davis concert. On this tour, Miles introduced the new "On The Corner' sound -- but the "On The Corner" record wasn't released until a few weeks later! So we were a little puzzled, if awestruck. My buddy who was sitting next to me made a photo that day; I'm trying to find my copy of it to post! Every non-percussion individual in this band was playing through a wah-wah pedal -- including the soprano sax player (whom we'd never heard of, and who wasn't long in the touring group) and the electric sitarist. It was outdoors on a cool, overcast day. Miles Davis was, incongruously, the opening act; after his set, the New Riders of The Purple Sage performed. The contrast in musical styles and lack of demographic overlap was perhaps the most extreme I've ever experienced, in 50 years of concertizing & attending performances! Miles had his serious car crash just a couple weeks after this as well, and my next Miles Davis concert was spring '73 in Berkeley, in which Miles was on crutches -- and mustachioed as well. Dave Liebman had replaced Carlos Garnett, and I believe the electric sitarist was gone, but not the tabla player Badal Roy.

another comment by someone else:

I was there also, my buddies and I drove up from San Luis Obispo to see the show. It was new music from Miles I had not heard before from his new album "On the Corner" which as you mentioned was released by Columbia weeks later. The stark contrast in mood that Miles set for the audience was punctured by the onset of country-rock/ Grateful Dead influenced Bay Area rock band New Riders of the Purple Sage who definitely was challenged to keep the audience after Miles's departure. I too was disappointed by the fist-fights that punctuated an otherwise pleasant afternoon of Miles and his band. I couldn't understand why violence would take place among such wonderful music and outdoor ampitheater ambiance.

xp

amazing thanks!!

In Concert is so sick, I don’t mind the rough audio quality

I adore it as well. The “Rated X” open alone is worth the proverbial price of admission.

Just discussed this with a friend, I would really like to hear actual sessions from this album (as opposed to other tracks – tho they are generally quite good during this era). There was so much post-production and editing going on with those sessions that supposedly Herbie Hancock heard a track he was on from OTC and didn’t even recognize it. Whether or not that was actually true, I think it would be illuminating to hear, for instance, what the studio take(s) of something like “Rated X” or “He Loved Him Madly” actually sounded like in the studio.

As for the former, I think it was Jack Chambers who first floated that Teo Macero pasted a Miles organ part over a rhythm section from a completely different piece. I’m slightly doubtful of that story as In Concert reveals Miles conducting that track more or less as it appeared on OTC. But, you know, session tapes would clear that up.

Aren't the un-messed with tracks on the "Comnplete On The Corner" box?

yeah, some of them are.

at this point, i honestly wouldn't be surprised if columbia just started releasing all of the unused studio stuff, like they did here.