My dad turned me on to Miles Davis when I was very young. He was more of a “Kind of Blue” or “Sketches of Spain” fan, but electric Miles struck a chord with me. I especially love his early and mid-1970s recordings. The influences of James Brown, Stockhausen, and Sun Ra along with idea that we should just hook any instrument possible to a wah-wah peddle made for some intense listening. Here’s a 1973 concert:
I slightly exaggerate Miles hooking up practically instrument to wah-wah peddles, but he certainly figured out how to hook up his trumpet to one. The sounds he was producing at the time were almost otherworldly. Oh, and he was starting to experiment with electronic keyboards a bit, if memory serves. The music fit the times – dark, jaded, with the world seemingly in a downward spiral. Wait – that could be today as well.
Enjoy the gig. I’ve found plenty of live bootlegs from his 1970s septet era over the years. Sometimes I’d play pieces off those on my radio show, back when college radio was still a thing.
Cheers!
By the way, it’s been an insane month. In terms of my own day-to-day situation, March came in like a lion and will leave like a lion. I had a bad respiratory infection that made life difficult for a couple weeks. My spouse ended up with a similar infection. Then she had two falls requiring ER visits. The latest landed her in a hospital, and although home now, we’re still trying to get the hospital to figure out if she is more in need of home health care or inpatient rehab, until a mildly fractured pelvis heals.
If there is a bright side, I have had a grand total of one beer since I first got sick. That’s it. I love certain beers and red wines, and I have either been too sick to enjoy them, or have had to be sufficiently alert to handle any caretaking needs late night. It’s weird. I miss it, but I don’t at the same time. So it goes.
Hey everyone,
Haven’t been by in awhile. I’m in State College PA visiting a friend of mine. It’s pretty, relaxing, and completely, ridiculous. Besides the utterly uninspired-to-the-point-of-inane name, here you have a world class college that’s so big it might as well be a city, with a population of 20-somethings and the place rolls up the sidewalks at 8:00 PM.
There’s the makings of a comedy here.
Good to see you. I am getting ready to spend a long time in an airport after my flight got delayed. Darned weather. It’ll be okay, but I will be very tired once I do get back home.
No new midweek cafe/lounge this week – as you all pretty much guessed. I had some work-related travel going on, and at the time believed I needed to be up extra early to catch a flight back home (I was wrong, thanks to flight delays and cancellations). Look for a new one next week. Use this one in the meantime.