Miles Davis - On the Corner

A landmark recording that even several decades later is a struggle for many fans--jazz and pop--to get a grip on. Miles Davis finds a precarious balance between the vital rhythm-oriented advances of the James Brown-originated funk idiom and Stockhausen's manipulation-of-sound concepts...and still manages to bring his jazz-based perspective along for the ride.

High in the top ten all-time jazz-reactionary myopic criticisms: that ON THE CORNER is a sellout to commercialism! If anything--and there's much more to it than this--Davis took the then up-and-coming, hot-selling funk idiom, stripped it of all surface characteristics that could be easily absorbed in one sitting, then rebuilt the style via his own post-modernist approach...and somehow the intoxicating James Brown-via-Sly Stone THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON groove survived intact.

The results are marked by deep polyrhythmic grooves that are decidedly left-of-center. Over this solid bottom a variety of keyboards, guitars, sitars, and the like engage in basically free associative textures, anchored by Michael Henderson's less-is-more bass figures (who else can make a repetitive "duh-dut" bassline sound as if adding even one more note would be overkill?).

Holding this all together is what many critics seem to miss, that being significant solo passages particularly by Davis, heard on no less than three extended--and assertive--segments, with the electrified wah-wah pedal used not as a gimmick but for its vocal-like qualities. Also, various guitarists, reeds, and percussion offer compelling statements that alternatively ride over and react within the dense backdrop.

As if all this weren't enough of a challenge, the "tunes" lack identifiable melodies except for BLACK SATIN. Then again, are the bass lines the melodies? Or the percussion patterns? Or what? If you like seeing a string of "what is jazz" paradigms shattered with one stunning blow, ON THE CORNER is your heavyweight champion of the world. This album DEFINITELY has a purpose!