[.ca] Get Up W/It

From Amazon.com:
Issued just before Miles Davis entered the dark years of his retirement in 1975, Get Up with It includes tracks recorded between 1970 and 1975, and offers a roster of stars from throughout that period: Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, John McLaughlin, Dave Liebman, Steve Grossman, Sonny Fortune, Pete Cosey, Billy Cobham, and Al Foster. Though something of a mixed bag, the disc does contain two of Davis's most important compositions. "He Loved Him Madly," dedicated to Duke Ellington, is a slow, almost novelistically developed meditation on Ellington's life and work, more than 30 minutes of music. "Rated X" is a buzzing, rattling essay on studio minimalism, and one that prophetically links world music and hip-hop, even before there was a name for such repetitive, incremental musics. Among the other tracks here, "Calypso Frelimo" offers some splendid Davis trumpet, a corrective for those who thought he had lost it by that time. Now digitally remastered, with a brighter sound, Get Up with It seems something of a summing up of Davis's great electrical period of 1970-1975. But it also hints at things to come when he made his comeback in the 1980s. --John F. Szwed

wierdness:
This is 2 discs, about 2 hours of music, about 1 hour is taked up by 2 very similar tracks, that are basically just variations on a droning, monotonous theme. There's a little bit of that same repetitive, "stuck-in-the-groove"-ness throughout the other 6 tracks-one is a little Funky, one is based on very steryotypical bar-blues (but played very well), one sounds like Morse code being played on the...uh...guitar..or trumpet...or some sort of keyboard (hard to tell), and then there's the last song on disc 1, "Rated X"-Miles plays Keyboard, on this piece of noise-still a little repetive and monotonous, but in a diferent way-it's quick and rather hard-hitting. This will give most people a headache! Jazz fans, metal fans, rap fans, opera, whatever-12 tone music fans might dig it, though.

Very diverse and often overlooked:
Get Up With It was the last studio album Miles Davis recorded before his five year retirement fom music which lasted until 1980. Although Miles was suffering from ill health at this time, his music continued to be more adventurous. Even though this is a collection of tracks from 1970-74, it works well as a cohesive album. The album's changing moods resemble a look in the human psyche. "He Loved Him Madly", a tribute to Duke Ellington, is a 32-minute exercise in calm. With all the musicians present here, their restraint is remarkable. The flute solos are so soothing, it almost sounds like new age music. It just may be the best of his many extended tracks."Maiysha" is a slow repeated groove which has some wild guitar soloing near the track. "Funky Tonk" is largely carried by its repetitive bass line and the guitar playing a dirty blues riff. "Rated X" begins the very heavy use of percussion on the album with its killer jungle rhythms and its eerie organ playing. The 32-minute "Calypso Frelimo" begins Disc 2 and at first continues the intensity of "Rated X" before the tempo is brought way down around the 10-minute mark mirroring the somberness of "He Loved Him Madly" before it slowly builds back to its original theme. Although not as endearing as "He Loved Him Madly", it's still a great track. "Red China Blues" is just a straight blues. "Mtume" with its hypnotic wah-wah guitar line is the most intense track here. The funky and upbeat "Billy Preston" brings the album to a close. Everything here is top notch, certainly one of Miles' best 70's releases. The material here is so strong, it makes you wonder what would have happened if Miles didn't temporarily retire after this album.

Transcends Star ratings. Transcends Jazz or categorization.:
I read a Penguin review of this once that described it as Stockhausen meets Calypso. Ha ha, that kind of got it. The reviewer gave it florets - their highest rating. There's just nothing like it. I've got all the Dewey records from this period. Several of them are just the best. This is one of them. You can't really say which is the best because they are all different from anything... anything you've ever heard before. And in the intervening years there has been nothing like them. From "Live at the Fillmore" to "Dark Magus" they are all pretty much music from the future to come... someday. Miles really was a composer first and foremost. He consistently challenges and asks basic questions about the nature of art and music. From the ingenious use of modes early in his career to the adoption of world music, electronics, different rhythms, space and improvisation, and a deep appreciation of jazz and other musicians, he had it all. This one pretty much has it all too. The guy that didn't get the Ellington connection here just wasn't listening. This is sound, pure sound. Listen and learn. If you don't like it today, you will like it someday.

Miles Davis - Get Up With It:
Dark, dark album. I think it's one of Miles' best experimental albums. "He Loved Him Madly", a 32 minute ode to Duke Ellington, is probably one of my favorite Miles songs: dark, minimalistic, and slow-building, it definitely seems shorter than its marathon lenght. "Calypso Frelimo" stabs us repeatedly as Miles shows his nay-sayers that he can still blow that horn like nobody else, over another marathon lenght of 32 minutes. Once again, we can see the genesis of modern dance music in these dark grooves, which harken on Miles' fascination with suffocating funk music. It may not be to your liking, but if you give it a shot, it will grow on you.

Breaking the definiton....again......and again.....and again:
When a being pops Miles Davis "Get up with it" double disc into their CD player and push play, a strange and awesome thing happens, in sort of a strange deja vu, as the music hits your ears, that colorful mystical energy that pulsates through life, when that music hits your ears you are forced to once again realize that to even try to define any form of music is "silly". Just one listen to any section of these two CD's and you will SEE that this music has NO genre, NO definition, NO label of any form, except maybe to say that it has no label. What is this music? What could you possibly call this music, this music that fuses everything into ONE thing and no-thing in the same moment, which is the present(as all good little Miles fans know!). Get up with it is a collaboration of selected tracks throughout the period of 1970, 1972, 1973, and 1974. Nothing from '71 though. Tracks include: On the first disc: "He Loved him Madly", which happens to be Miles' tribute to the late Duke Ellington, a definiton breaker to say the least, a haunting and eerie trip through the great unknown. Very NICE! Clocks in at 32:13!. "Maiysha", which will blow you away(well it blew me away), such a transition, this breaks all definiton...for sure!!!! Also found on Agharta, a Live disc from Osaka(I think) Japan. "Honky Tonk", which is another spectacular track which is also found on the Live_Evil disc, a mellow in a Miles way sort of tune(Miles has his way of mellow yet super intense tunes) One could say that it sounds like Blues, if one wanted t0. Personally I think that the studio version of this tune is the BEST! You have to hear the live and the studio to see. "Rated X" which is also found on the 1972 Live at the Phillharmonic and Bill Laswells Panthalassa, great tune, I guess you could say that it is funky. One of the "tabla.sitar" tunes. Very tasty! On disc two we have "Calypso Frelimo", which is a super long track, hitting 32 minutes(YEEEEA!), involving more genre smashing goodness. Also found on Dark Magus. "Red China Blues" IS THE TRACK THAT TOTALLY BLEW ME AWAY!!!!!!!!!! Involving a harmonica(Wally Chambers), an instrument that I had never heard along side the sorcerer before this. Great tune....I guess it sounds like Blues. "Mtume", which is also the name of a percussionist that jammed with Miles a while(not sure the years), who is also playing percussion in this song, is a tune that once again blows away any definiton. And finally "Billy Preston". Once again, I can't really say much about the tunes besides that...well maybe...jazz purists would love to trash this album i'm sure...but the truth is..this album is not a jazz album!!! It's an amalagam of sounds and feelings. Intense and mellow. I think this is the most common mistake made with Miles Davis music before In a Silent way. To me, everything before that could be considered "Jazz" because it uses the same formula as "Jazz" has become known for. He still possessed what I call the "Jazz" mold, which is that typical sound of Jazz music with the constant hi-hats and occasional snare(just perfected a lot more and way cooler). True Miles helped shaped the "Jazz" mold, but the basics of that sound were around before Miles, such as with Bird and Diz. Miles' music after In a Silent way, to me is NOT Jazz. It is non-definable music made my a very powerful sorcerer, the Dark Magus. He is crafty and he creates so many different scenes and feelings. He and his ever changing visionaries craft deep and intense visuals and take the listener to vast realms, some on Earth, and other is very different dimensions. Miles' music(this music outside of the "Jazz" mold), is utterly amazing in its scope of grandoise. Songs are rich in vibrant ambient and exotic life, pulsating and ringing and sometimes wailing around you. Get up with it is a must have for all Miles lovers and true Music Lovers alike!

	Custom Search