Live Evil - review

"Who is this music, that which description may never justify? Can the ocean be described? Fathomless music, body of all that is. Live everlastingly!" - Live Evil

01 Sivad-

This is muted cool. The care that doesn't. The essence that is what it is. The sound is the edgy neurotic-reality. The undeniable mess of 'Truth'. The full colours of a life being lived. The funk of music, stopped, jigged and briefly analysed. The funk of Jazz, explored. One side of a possibility. 4:20, enter the sedate. North Africans reside in coffee houses, sweating. The heat of the afternoon going unspoken as their brothers in North America endure the same sweltering temperatures in Brooklyn, New York. In Virginia, in Alabama. The universal sounds heard are Afro by nature. This is muted cool. Unspoken suffering, enjoyment and times. The need for overt pleas and self-pity has never been so less. The need for escape has never been so great. This reflects the reality whilst allowing you to escape. Abrasive insanity.

02 Little Church-

Have you ever been taken away? Have you experienced Universal-Justice? That tilt of the head, that shiver from pure water, the de ja vous that made you think of another possibility. Another world. Another existance awaiting you. I won't shy away from the truth of this piece and what it makes one envisage. The Afterlife. The Divine. God. The Little Church was only ever a stepping stone to something far greater. The little church was just flesh, just material, just earthly matter. It was inside that holy place that God spoke to us and we replied with humble meanings, as Christian, Jew or as Muslim. As belivers in something more than what we see. As this song proves, there is something more. More than what we hear. The whistle and horn are created with the softest, most gentle whisper, the two follow each other in unison, note for note, into a place that we have never been. Brave, and noble. We are in a lake, with a boat. The mist is all around us and yet there is no fear. This is the Divine.

03 Medley: Gemini/ Double Image-

We are drunken. Overdosed on this silly nonsense called 'something'. We are flirtaciously meandering around the town-center with preposterous smiles. The logic is there for us all to see, though we choose to dance around it instead of absorbing it. This is a phase we go through. We are slightly off at the moment, Miles' trumpet is artistic genius, it's a painting that comes together because it's all wrong. A lazy and obnoxious person that everyone loves. A theme for a phase of ones life.

04 What I Say-

The bass player Michael Henderson doesn't feel pain in his fingers. He plays the most ferocious, and relentless bassline you will ever hear. His fingers, like water, feel nothing as they move faster than vision over the guitar strings in the midst of the rhymical energy. This is WHAT I SAY! This is Decisive! This is 'things are happening'. This is walking down the street with purpose. This is AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA, (from the belly). Miles dances his horn over the insanity, the pure funk. His horn is set free. Experience this adrenaline. Live in this Freedom.

05 Nem Um Talvez-

Musically this is more in the mould of Little Church, this sombre something lies somewhere in between old-school Jazz and the future. A soundtrack to beauty that could have been set to a Western film 50 years ago, or to a feeling anytime in histories future. Emotionally direct and yearning, it speaks to your heart, with a noble cause and meaning, pulling it away from the sickness and into the Righteousness. It is the direct simple feeling of knowing what is good and evil. The direct simplicity of a human voice with no pretension, expressing itself with a smile coming out of the notes it hits. This is a meaningful elevator.

06 Selim-

Further ambient notions are explored on this beautifully brief affair. The bass and voices heard are more gentle than on Little Church or Nem Um Talvez, yet it retains that indescribable feeling of the Path-of-Peace being set before us. The true simplicity that only Spontaneous-Nature can teach.

07 Funky Tonk-

Echoes and reflections of the albums opening track, Selim, this was recorded at the same show as that track, 1970 in Washington D.C. Further demonstrating Miles' ferocious blends of trumpet and guitar to vicious effect. Spirals and moans of nerve and agitation rinse themselves dry over this funky track in which drummer Jack DeJohnette distinguishes himself, as he did on the earlier What I Say. 17 minutes in, you will be treated. The calming minute of keyboard complexity jangles and rolls along with the guitars merging in and out to create a truly rewarding ending.

The albums last track, Inamorata and Narration by Conrad Roberts, gives us more live evil, as well as the quote that you saw at the top of this piece of writing. Evil is one word for this music, there could have been many others. A collection like this does not come along everyday. A man like Miles Davis does not come along everyday. Not content to make 'nice', pleasing music, he pushed and pushed the musical boundaries, yet all the time managing to do so without 'forcing' anything. The fact that he was aware of the power of live, spontaneous 'jams' prove that he was not only an astute musician, but a true ARTIST in every sense of the word. Liking the sound is not essential, although it is very pleasing to anyone fond of effective experimentation. What cannot be debated is that this music is True. The best thing I could say about Live Evil, which is to date my favourite Miles Davis album, is this: It's not music. It's something else.

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi, 04 Oct 2003