Bitches Brew
- Scores: Noise 4, Unease 4, Complexity 4 (each 1 to 5)
- Genre: Jazz, Jazz fusion
- Mood: murky, volatile, sprawling
- Sound: double album, electric instruments, dense improvisation, rock rhythms, tape splicing, long songs
Bitches Brew is where Miles Davis went electric on a large scale. In August 1969, over three days at Columbia's Studio B, a band of around a dozen played live in sections with little prearrangement, with electric pianos, electric guitar, two bassists and two or three drummers all playing at once. Producer Teo Macero then spliced, looped and added tape delay and echo to the takes, with 19 edits on "Pharaoh's Dance" and 15 on the title track. The result is extended improvised suites that move between rock patterns, hard bop and free jazz, closer to symphonic or raga forms than to a song. It helped define jazz fusion.
Track list
- Pharaoh's Dance (20:07)
- Bitches Brew (27:00)
- Spanish Key (17:30)
- John McLaughlin (4:23)
- Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (14:03)
- Sanctuary (10:54)