Search - Miles Davis :: Pangaea

Humbling

Ned | 03/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is such an incredible musical experience, it really defies praise. I'm reminded of a time I once asked an older person I know, a classical music buff, if he liked Bach's Mass in B. "Its not really a question of liking or not liking. You may as well be asking me if I like the Rock of Gibraltar. Its THERE. Its the Rock of Gibralter!" This album is similarly a force of nature for anyone open to extended free form electric and amplified music. Funk, Rock, Jazz... if you have a weakness for them, and a tolerance for hearing the roof blown off all three at once, then... put on Disc 1 (Zimbabwae) unplug the phone, and let the imense life force of this unbelievably urgent and forceful session leave you as speechless as the Rock of Gibraltar. A furhter note, from the album notes... this album was recorded on the same day as the not nearly so mesmerizing, but equally long and intense "Agarta." What a day that must have been! A strange day when all the laws of nature were at war with themselves, and the fires of creativity grew brighter the longer they burned. This was the last recording Miles Davis released before retiring for two years to disapear into and then wrestle with a period of substance abuse. This record is the sound of a man wrestling with, and tantalized by personal demons on the eve of being engulfed by them. If that doesn't tempt you to give this one a listen.... Come to think of it... its a wonder this record hasn't taken on the more legendary status its importance in the artistic life of such a universally aclaimed and pivotal figure would seem to entitle it to. Perhaps this music was simply too direct, confessional, and personal for its day. This is the music of a man grasping after both heaven and hell with enough passion to carve out a world of his own, a new born musical continent caught someplace in between."