Miles Davis – Get Up With It

3 min de lecture
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Review

ART COVER / LABEL
9/10
RECORDING QUALITY
9/10
Production
10/10
Audience response
7/10
LOVING IT
10/10
Overall
9.0/10

Following In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, this album – which explores the complex intersections of jazz, rock, funk, and electronic music – is one of the most daring and experimental piece of Miles Davis’s career

Miles Davis had been releasing live records like mad, and a bunch of studio tracks had piled up, resulting in this double LP. Many of these tunes had already appeared on concert LPs (« Calypso Frelimo »), but there’s some fresh stuff like Red China Blues (the sole product of a March 1972 session with Bernard Purdie and Cornell Dupree) and the half-hour Ellington tribute He Loved Him Madly. The very dark, sad, minimalist track showcases Miles’ deep pain in terms of Ellington’s death. At points, the music sounds like it is going to stop, but Miles, mainly on the keyboards (an increasingly common Miles trait in this period), keeps this melancholic gem going to its completion- arguably one of the most touching tracks in the Miles Canon. Calypso Frelimo is a freak out with vamps taking aim at Debussy’s Clair de Lune.

Few words about the record

By the time Get Up With It was released, Miles Davis was fully immersed in the world of electric jazz, making use of synthesizers, electric pianos, and rock-inspired rhythms. The album is built around extended, experimental jams that defy conventional song structure, often focusing on improvisation and atmosphere rather than melody and form. The music on Get Up With It is more abstract and texturally complex than much of Davis’s earlier fusion work. It’s dense, multi-layered, and dense with influences ranging from funk and free jazz to classical music and rock.

The production, helmed by Davis himself alongside his trusted collaborators, reflects the cutting-edge sound of the era, but the arrangements are also surprisingly lo-fi in places, capturing the rawness and spontaneity of the performances. There’s a strong sense of exploration, with Davis at the center as the conductor and guiding force, but with his bandmates playing an equally pivotal role in bringing his ideas to life. Davis was always interested in crossing boundaries — both musical and cultural— and this album is a powerful example of his attempt to synthesize jazz with a vast array of influences, from African and Latin rhythms to American funk, rock, and even classical music.

Despite its lack of mainstream popularity, Get Up With It is highly regarded by jazz aficionados and is often praised for its boldness and willingness to explore new sonic terrain. The album showcases Davis’s continuing desire to evolve and innovate, always pushing his music in new directions, even as mainstream jazz audiences were moving in different directions.

Fondateur de Houz-Motik, Cyprien Rose est journaliste. Il a été coordinateur de la rédaction de Postap Mag et du Food2.0Lab. Il a également collaboré avec Radio France, Le Courrier, Tsugi, LUI... Noctambule, il a œuvré au sein de l'équipe organisatrice des soirées La Mona, et se produit en tant que DJ.

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