Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (40th Anniversary Edition) (2010) FLAC

Recorded at the end of a tumultuous decade (August 1969), Bitches Brew reflected the chaos and beauty of a society stretched and stressed to its breaking point. This genre-bending, barrier-smashing double LP of boldly new music with dense textures and lengthy performances broke every rule of commerciality yet would become Miles Davis' first RIAA gold album.

Originally released in April of 1970, Bitches Brew was informed by and reflective of the music that Miles heard being produced in the late '60s by Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, James Brown, Santana, Marvin Gaye and others, as well as the Beatles' post-production editing pyrotechnics. This 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition is a tribute to both the man who changed the course of jazz ("four or five times", as he himself once quipped), and the album that virtually single-handedly brought jazz into the commercial rock era, earning a place of #94 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. The album's gatefold cover introducing the late Mati Klarwein's iconic art served as a gateway to music that presented a seismic breakthrough in jazz/rock/funk/R&B.

Three August 1969 recording sessions yielded Bitches Brew's six tracks - with Miles on trumpet, Wayne Shorter (soprano saxophone), Bennie Maupin (bass clarinet), Joe Zawinul (electric piano), Chick Corea (electric piano), John McLaughlin (guitar), Dave Holland (acoustic bass), Harvey Brooks (electric bass), Lenny White (drums), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Don Alias (congas) and Jumma Santos (aka Jim Riley, shaker) - undergoing post-production in the form of handmade razor and tape splice loops by Miles' long-time producer Teo Macero.