Miles Davis - Big Fun (1974)

This is the last of the boot fair purchases from earlier in the month, a Davis double CD from 1974. It was released as a double LP, with four long pieces, one on each side, but this CD compilation also includes four shorter bonus tracks.

Great Expectations was recorded months after Bitches Brew, in 1969, with many from that line up still present, including John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. It's got a very film noir feel to it, with a repeated trumpet theme over electric piano and meandering guitar, co-written with Joe Zawinul, but far darker and less relaxing than In A Silent Way, Davis' earlier Zawinul collaboration. However, the quiet section halfway through, just meanders aimlessly, without any hook, and the sitar section on twenty minutes doesn't bring the piece back to life, and it's left to a more upbeat last five minutes to round this off.

Ife is from 1972, combining electronica with an African beat, and after a promising start, it's only in the middle third that the trumpet and the strong bassline (Michael Henderson) seem to come together, only to become more free and abstract in the final third. But it somehow works. First bonus track, Recollections is a Zawinul composition, very much in the vein of In A Silent Way, but less compelling and more soporific. The final bonus on CD1, Trevere, feels like an introduction to something which never gets started.

CD2 begins with Go Ahead John, almost half an hour of funky beat, with McLaughlin's guitar noodling to the fore in the first half before Davis' trumpet takes over, but it isn't providing anything more than background. Lonely Fire opens very slowly and gently, with some abstract sound collages until about two-thirds of the way through, the band comes together with more of a beat.

Again there are two shorter bonus tracks. both from the same time as Great Expectations. The Little Blue Frog is listenable without being memorable, as is Yaphet, while somewhat slower.

Let's be honest. If these works were classic Miles, they wouldn't have been sat on for four years, and released on a compilation. They're interesting experiments with some big-name players and worthy of release, but expect incomplete experiments rather than undiscovered gems. But there is enough to keep the interest here.

Link to full album

3* - an interesting compilation of an experimental period, some hits, some not quite there.