Miles

This is where I robbed the name ‘Get Up With It’ – It’s the last studio album Miles Davis released before he ‘disappeared’ in the mid 70s. Released in 1975, it collects a variety of snappy little numbers recorded in the preceding five years. Well, snappy might be stretching it a bit. Only two of the tracks are under ten minutes, and two others weigh in at over 30 minutes. Self Indulgent? Maybe, but that’s not always a bad thing, especially when you have the musicians Miles had at his disposal for these sessions: Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham, to name only a few. And, of course, the mighty Teo Macero on production and edits. You can even hear him doing some mad mixing desk cuts on ‘Rated X’. Pioneering stuff.

‘Get Up With It’ is a pretty murky album, full of molasses grooves and treacly licks. It took me a couple of listens to even start getting my head round it, but now it’s clicked, I love it bad. There’s a HELL of a lot of listening on there. I’ve picked one of the more cheerful tracks – ‘Maiysha’, a latinesque, opium groove – but there’s plenty of highlights. Buy ‘Get Up With It’

Miles Davis – Maiysha