Davis, Miles - On The Corner (Mega Blowout Sale)
SKU
28-SBMK198475.2
Of all the great, crazy-ass albums Miles released in his drug-addled but musically brilliant 1970s period, there was nothing as crazy or as utterly confoundingly brilliant as On The Corner.
Completely inspired by Sly and the Family Stone and contemporary, hard-rocking r'n'b, Miles made what I *think* he thought would be his commercial breakthrough, but he turned it all inside out and made the most conceptually reductionist funk record ever which was also anathema to the jazz world (I seem to recall Downbeat giving it 1 star) and which was ignored by the contemporary r'n'b market.
Well, what do you expect for a funk album that basically had a bunch of tracks on all side one that all ran together with no real differentiation musically between the tracks other than who is taking a solo (it's been 'fixed' for the CD issue), and featured mutant funk playing from John McLaughlin, among others. Highly recommended IF this sounds interesting to you; it still inspires loathing among some folks.
Funny aside: When the lp was originally released in 1972, Miles insisted that none of the musicians be named. There's just lots of Corky McCoy's drawings of 'street folk' and then on the inside was a really bad-ass picture of Miles. Now, 35 years later, there's great liner notes that talk about the project and the musicians are named, but there is still some dispute about who actually did or did not play on this album! Love it or hate it, it is a unique and weird futuristic art/funk/sound-sculpturistic adventure. Personally recommended.