Miles Davis: On the Corner [MUSIC ON VINYL]

Why you'll love it

Music On Vinyl presses this Columbia classic on 180g audiophile vinyl. On the Corner topped the Billboard jazz chart, and Fact later ranked it No. 11 among the best albums of the 1970s.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Miles Davis said jazz had always used the rhythm of the time, whatever people danced to, and in 1972 the people were dancing to Sly Stone and James Brown. So he went after them, building On the Corner from funk, the electronic tape experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen and the free playing of Ornette Coleman. His own summary was "Stockhausen plus funk plus Ornette Coleman."

The sessions in June and July 1972 ran on hypnotic one-chord grooves anchored by Michael Henderson's bass, with John McLaughlin's percussive guitar, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea on keyboards, Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart on drums, Bennie Maupin's bass clarinet, Dave Liebman's saxophone, and tabla and sitar drifting through. Miles plays trumpet through a wah-wah pedal, and Teo Macero spliced hours of jams into the four long pieces, including the title suite and "Black Satin." Corky McCoy drew the cartoon street characters on the cover.

Writers have since heard in it the roots of hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass and post-rock, and The Wire put it among its 100 records that set the world on fire. The sleeve credited no musicians, so critics couldn't pick out who was playing what; they've been trying ever since, and so have we.

Also at Kops: more Miles Davis on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Music On Vinyl, a reissue of the 1972 album.