№ 35 of 100
Bitches Brew
Bitches Brew by Miles Davis (1970), № 35 in The Lead-In’s 100 greatest albums. The day Miles Davis killed jazz and electric music had to be invented to fill the space.
Miles Davis in 1970 with thirteen musicians, three keyboards, two drum kits, electric bass, and a producer (Teo Macero) who edited the sessions into something neither rock nor jazz. The album that started fusion.
- Released
- April 30, 1970
- Label
- Columbia Records
- Producer(s)
- Teo Macero
- Runtime
- 94:25 (6 tracks across 2 LPs)
- Chart peak (US)
- #35 (Billboard 200) · #1 (Jazz Albums)
- Chart peak (UK)
- #71 (Record Retailer)
- Certifications
- Platinum (RIAA); 1.5M units globally
- Awards & honours
- Grammy Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance (1971); Library of Congress National Recording Registry (2003); ranked #95 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums (2020)
Miles Davis's double LP recorded across three days in August 1969 with a thirteen-piece electric ensemble. The album that started jazz fusion and outsold every previous Davis recording.
Miles Davis had been moving toward electric instrumentation since the late-1968 In a Silent Way sessions. The Bitches Brew sessions in August 1969 expanded the approach: three keyboards (Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Larry Young), two drum kits (Jack DeJohnette, Lenny White), electric bass (Harvey Brooks), three percussion players, and a horn section.
Teo Macero produced the sessions and, critically, assembled the released album from the recorded improvisations using extensive tape editing. The album as released is a constructed artifact rather than a series of live performances.
The album's signature feature is Macero's editing approach. The sessions produced hours of improvisation; Macero cut and spliced the material into the six released tracks. The technique was unprecedented for a jazz album and would become foundational for subsequent fusion and electronic jazz.
The album's six tracks include the 27-minute title track 'Bitches Brew,' the 20-minute 'Pharaoh's Dance,' and four shorter pieces.
Bitches Brew belongs at number thirty-five because it is the album that started jazz fusion as a commercial form. It outsold every previous Davis album and opened the door to electric jazz for the next two decades.
Pressing guide — the one to own
Original 1970 US pressing on Columbia, catalog GP 26, a stereo gatefold double LP with the Mati Klarwein cover painting (sleeve design by John Berg, liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason). The true first press carries the red 'two-eye / 360 Sound' Columbia stereo label; later runs use the orange-ringed label. First pressings show a single-letter plant code etched in the runout, such as 'S' (Santa Maria), 'P' (Pitman) or 'T' (Terre Haute).
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