AGHARTA

Live in Japan ! Miles apparently was not in good physical condition during this 1975 tour. In fact after this tour he would go into a 6 year retirement. He's not his usual prominant self on this recording and the other thing that surprised me was how out front the guitars were.That's right there were two guitarists as Miles had grown close to Jimi Hendrix and wanted that guitar influence to be prominant because he felt "The guitar can take you deep into the blues". The rhythm dominates much of the time on this double album. Certainly not the famous lineups that we're used to on Miles' previous works like "Bitches Brew" and "In A Silent Way", but you know Davis only worked with the best. So we get five long jams that for me lack the dynamics of some of my favourites from him.

"Prelude (Part One)" has such a good rhythm to it. Trumpet after 2 1/2 minutes and sax 8 minutes in. The guitar makes some noise after the song settles 11 1/2 minutes in. The trumpet's back 19 1/2 minutes in, and I like Henderson's deep bass lines late. "Prelude (Part Two)" has the same rhythm as Part One but the guitar leads the way early. The rhythm stops before 4 minutes. It starts to build a minute later. "Maiysha" is light with flute early. The guitar after 2 1/2 minutes changes the mood. Back to flute and pastoral sounds 5 minutes in. Horns start to come and go. Guitar is back 10 minutes in. "Interlude" is led by this beat as other sounds come and go. Some nice bass before 4 minutes then the guitar starts to rip it up. It settles after 8 minutes as the guitar stops and the trumpet comes in. A calm 16 minutes in. Different sounds end up coming and going. Flute comes in and leads with drums. Trumpet 21 1/2 minutes in before it settles around 25 minutes.

"Theme From Jack Johnson" takes a while to get going then we get some guitar 3 1/2 minutes in as the tempo picks up. The guitar on this song is my favourite on this recording, I wasn't that impressed with the rest. Anyway a calm 6 1/2 minutes in as it sounds like the intro. Picks up after 8 minutes but it's brief. The guitar is back around 10 minutes. It settles 13 minutes in. Guitar after 21 minutes as the tempo continues to shift. Percussion follows.

A good album, but man this pales when compared to "A Tribute To Jack Johnson" or "Bitches Brew".