More Miles

[mahayana]

I've been listening to "In A Silent Way" and "Best Of Miles Davis" while commuting this week.

Does anybody have the CD that "Time After Time" came from? Must have been one of his last ones. Great version, keeps playing in my head.

[kawe]

I don't have it, but it know it:
This is the "You're under arrest" album from 1985.

[ashaffer]

I've got the LP

[mahayana]

Hey, ashaffer.

So, does the smiley indicate that you didn't like the album?

Good to see you here. What material do you play, any current favorites?

[ashaffer]

No, not at all. Just jokingly embarassed that I am old enough to only have the LP and not the CD

I have the Complete In A Silent Way Sessions CDs and also all the other Miles Columbia boxed sets that have been released in the last decade. In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew are two of my favorite electric Miles recordings and had a real influence on me back in the day.

The main thing that I do now is create backing tracks on the computer in a program called Acid based on loops and samples and then import the tracks into my DAW to add my own guitar and/or bass. It is mostly world/funk/jazz, somewhat in the style of other modern players like David Torn and Steve Tibbets. I like all styles of music that reflect emotion from the heart and mind. I jam live around my area, but mostly blues based tunes.

I am a huge blues and jazz fan and own over 3000 LPs and 500+ CDs.

I have personally met Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Leo Kottke, and Jerry Garcia in my adventures.

[mahayana]

Interesting reply, Ash.

I'm alway taken aback in record stores, by the sheer number of artists who were good enough to get recording contracts. Miles was unusually prolific.

I checked out his discography at VH1
www.vh1.com/artists/az/davis_miles/albums.jhtml

The page takes awhile to load; he has 245 albums. There's a 2 CD set called "Time After Time" which looks to be an excellent 'best of' kind of collection, released in Germany, besides the "You're Under Arrest" album.

BTW, everybody, the song I was asking about is Cyndi Lauper's, not the "time after time, you'll hear me say that I'm, so lucky to be loving you" standard.

When I started buying records, they weren't even available in stereo. Now I rarely listen to vinyl, have been slowly replacing records and tapes with digital. My Bitch's Brew is on vinyl, replete with hiss and scratchy noises. But finding the time to listen is the main problem.

So, Ash, do you record along with other peoples' songs using Acid, or is it all original material?

[Professor1]

I've got a nice record collection, too. When I was in Jr. High school, my folks bought me a nice high-tech 8 track stereo for my bedroom. 8 tracks were all the rage. When I was in the Navy, I put together a huge collection of cassette tapes, because records are too largeand bulky for ships. Then CDs came out, and I'm still pretty unhappy about having to buy every album 4 times. So, now I only buy what I just can't do without, because it will certainly all start over again just any day now.

[ashaffer]

Mahayana, My name is Al if you want to use that. Come to think of it, Ash is pretty cool

I have two copies of Bitches Brew on vinyl and the boxed set on CD. I still prefer LPs to CDs given the time to warm up the tubes (Audible Illusions 2C pre-amp and McIntosh MC-30 monoblocks) and clean the records. But I do find myself putting a CD on more and more and even playing MP3s through the home system. Serious listening is still done with the turntable and a good hour or two warm up of the amps. . Come to think of it, I do most listening during the week in the car with the CD changer on my commute. That is a good 1 to 2 hours a day.

I only create my own songs on the computer, but they are based on royalty free loops and samples that are produced by various companies like Sonic Foundry who makes the Acid program. These loops and samples are sometimes produced by "name" artists like Bill Laswell and Mick Fleetwood. Most of the dance tracks that you hear on the radio (if you actually listen to that kind of station) are made in this way. I also create my own loops of "found" sounds and electronic or acoustically generated music. I just seem to do better at this kind of thing than playing other's songs. It is not like I do not respect the craft of doing that, it is just that I have found that I am not very good at it. One of my best friends is a guitar teacher, duo and small group guitarist and has been a professional since we were teenagers 30 years ago and I have seen what he has had to go through to make a living at being a professional musician and it seems harder than I can actually imagine. But I certainly admire his and other's love of the craft.
I will remain a software engineer who enjoys the "process" of creating paintings in sound. I relate mostly to people like Rothko, Pollack, and de Kooning. The NY abstract expressionist school of the 50s. Not that I compare my music to their quality of work at all, but at least in spirit.

[seansdadj]

Almost all the Miles songs are like that. I guess the heroin is in music too