Quad LP/Tape Poll Davis, Miles: Bitches Brew [SQ]

[EMB]

Miles' 1970 pop crossover 2-Lp set.

Side 1:

1. Pharaoh's Dance

Side 2:

1. Bitches Brew

Side 3:

1. Spanish Key
2. John McLaughlin

Side 4:

1. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
2. Sanctuary

 

[Eggplant]

Sure wish I could review this one, but never got the chance.
Except for a scratched-up SQ in 1991, never came across it, though not from lack of looking.
Was slated for a MC SACD at one time.

Anyone know of a good conversion?

 

[BananaSlug]

Listed pretty frequently on eBay. I got overly excited when I found one locally (Amoeba in SF) and over paid on a copy that looked pretty good in the dim light there. I ripped the first side and did a quick de-click and decode. Sound was muddy and the mix uninspired - rhythm in the back, all the rest up front. I thought maybe they'd bounce some of those trumpet echoes around - they do, but only in the front, which is what is done in the stereo.

I've read that the original versions were pretty muddy and that the box set was the first reasonable sounding version out there (which is where I came in), this may turn out to be true. Since my copy is going to require some effort to clean up and I wasn't impressed with what I've heard so far, it's pretty low on my list of projects. Too bad, it could have been a great multichannel SACD with an aggressive new mix.

I've heard that Jack Johnson was remixed for surround SACD then shelved (at least for now), so hopefully someday a deserving surround mix of Miles Davis will be released.

 

[EMB]

An '8' from me, and it's very possible a future remix would sound much better, since this is a lengthy album time-wise, and some compression was used on both the stereo and quad Lp's. Wish I had the 8-track of this one to compare. Great music, though, and active mix.

ED

 

[BananaSlug]

Thanks for your review, I'll have to convert the whole thing and have a better listen. I'd love to be wrong about this one

 

[EMB]

I'll be waiting to read that review, too!

One interesting thing about the title track is that, whether original stereo mix, stereo remix from the box, or Quad, Miles' trumpet on each reverberates differently, the tones are distinct to each mix, though the remix tried(operative word)to match the original stereo, but that's the bitch of remixing, it can't be duplicated a second time to exactly match the original. Not *that* different, but the quad mix is really different in this regard. Fun mix, overall.

ED

 

[BananaSlug]

OK, I finally got back around to this one. My first impressions were wrong, this is very good. It is unfortunate that the sound quality is what it is, but the mix is good and the trumpet bounces all over the place. It's just such a great record that it has got to be a 10 - if you like jazz fusion.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

I vote a 10. Great mix, great music. Listen to this record with the volume low, late at night with the lights off.

 

[BananaSlug]

OK, so does a Q8 exist? If it does I would think there is a good chance someone here has it.

 

[zabble]

OK, so does a Q8 exist? If it does I would think there is a good chance someone here has it.

I believe this question has been asked here before, and nobody had it or knew of anybody who had it. However, I'm fairly certain there was a Columbia Q8 sampler that had an excerpt from the album.

 

[neil wilkes]

I only just got a transfer of this gem on DTS-CD yesterday, and it is truly superb (Thanks to one of the members here).
The mix is seriously spacy in places, and very aggressive too.
This is going to have to be a short recommendation/review as it's easy enough to imagine - just think of all the superlatives you can, write them all in a long list - and it still won't be enough praise for this.

Highly recommended - grab a copy at any costs.

 

[silvahalo007]

Has anyone heard the GART version/transfer of this? Any good?

 

[breakingglass]

GART's always good.

 

[BananaSlug]

There's a conversion from reel out there on DVD-A. That's the one to get.

 

[breakingglass]

right bananaslug - published by armyofquad

 

[DKA]

GART's always good.

It was a good version for its time. A well-monitored SPEC version would smoke it, though. Just better natural placement and separation in the respective method. It really is amazing how far we've come in a few years.

The transfer I've heard is superb, one of the best from that era I've ever heard. I could only imagine that a solid SPEC mix would be a nice counterpoint to it.

I've actually been playing around with two mid 70's Miles albums this week and am loving what I am hearing. I'd done one of them in the past with an older method and can't believe the difference. Very immersive.

 

[breakingglass]

right on dyna-kid. good to hear from you and thanks for all your great artistic work.

 

[zabble]

I have voted "10"s indiscriminately in the past, and have for quite a long time avoided voting anything to that extreme. This one however gets a "10" from me.

It's been so long that I can't remember officially voting on this. I would like to think the two are one in the same.

 

[Quad Linda]

A Q8 of Bitches Brew exists as GAQ-30997. Unfortunately, it is on a single tape, so it is not the complete 2-LP set. I've never heard the Q8, but have a mint SQ LP that I bought in 1973. There is a Japanese SACD, which I also own. It is a single-layer 2ch SACD.

The same is true for Live/Evil. The edited Q8 is GAQ-30954. I also have a mint SQ LP of this, but never heard the Q8. It was also released as a single-layer 2ch SACD in the US.

Linda

 

[Q-Eight]

Listed in the Quad Discography:

MILES DAVIS -
* Bitches Brew. Columbia [2 LP] GQ-30997 (SQ). CBS/Sony SOPL-24/25 (Later SOPJ-58) (SQ) [Japan]
{The quad 8-track version of this title has been moved to the "NOT RELEASED" discography as no evidence exists that it was ever made}

* Live - Evil. Columbia GQ-3092582 (SQ)
{The quad 8-track version of this title has been moved to the "NOT RELEASED" discography as no evidence exists that it was ever made}

Now, I've only been into Quad for about 12 years and have never seen either of these on Q8. I collect almost exclusively Q8's. These two tapes are up there in the same ranks as Caravan's "Girls Who Grew Plump in the Night", Canned Heat's "Future Blues" and The Ohio Players' "Contradiction" and "Skin Tight". Nobody has seen any of these tapes in the flesh (so to speak). If in the past 35 years, not a single copy has surfaced, chances are it was never released. Some catalogs may have shown their release however many times those catalogs have been proven wrong. Chances are though, many (or all) of these titles were mixed and prepared but cancelled at the 11'th Hour. A discrete Reel of Bitches Brew was recently discovered in the Mike Robin collection and converted.