On the Corner: Difference between revisions

*[[Jazz fusion-funk]]

*[[jazz-funk fusion|fusion]]

'''''On the Corner''''' is a studio album by the American [[jazz]] trumpeter, bandleader, and composer [[Miles Davis]]. It was recorded in June and July 1972 and released on October 11 of the samethat year by [[Columbia Records]]. The album continued Davis's exploration of [[jazz fusion]], and explicitly drew on the influence of [[funk]] musicians [[Sly Stone]] and [[James Brown]], the [[experimental music]] of [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]], the [[free jazz]] of [[Ornette Coleman]], and the work of collaborator [[Paul Buckmaster]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Troupe|first=Quincy|year=1990|title=Miles: The Autobiography|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0330313827|pages=322}} "''It was actually a combination of some of the concepts of Paul Buckmaster, Sly Stone, James Brown, and Stockahusen, some of the concepts I had absorbed from Ornette's music, as well as my own''."</ref>

Recording sessions for the album featured a changing lineup of musicians including bassist [[Michael Henderson]], guitarist [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]], and keyboardists [[Chick Corea]] and [[Herbie Hancock]], with Davis playing thehis trumpet through a [[wah -wah pedal]] and doubling on organ.<ref name="Christgau"/> VariousDavis takesand fromproducer the[[Teo sessions wereMacero]] then [[Reel-to-reel audio tape recording#As a musical instrument|spliced and edited]] intovarious compositionstakes byinto Davis and producer [[Teo Macero]]compositions. The album's packaging did not credit any musicians, in an attempt to make the instruments less discernible to critics. Its artwork features [[Corky McCoy]]'s cartoon designs of urban [[African Americans|African-American]] characters.

''On the Corner'' was in part an effort by Davis to reach a younger African -American audience who had largely left jazz for funk and rock music. Instead, thanks to Columbia's lack of [[target market]]ing, it was one of Davis's worst-selling albums, and was scorned by jazz critics at the time of its release.<ref>{{cite book|last=Troupe|first=Quincy|year=1990|title=Miles: The Autobiography|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0330313827|pages=328}}</ref><ref name="Chinen">{{cite web|last1=Chinen|first1=Nate|title=CD Review: Miles Davis, The Complete On the Corner Sessions|url=http://jazztimes.com/reviews/cd_reviews/detail.cfm?article_id=18402&section=CD+Reviews&issue=200710|website=Internet Archive|publisher=Jazz Times|access-date=11 February 2011|date=11 October 2007|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011050133/http://jazztimes.com/reviews/cd_reviews/detail.cfm?article_id=18402&section=CD+Reviews&issue=200710|archive-date=October 11, 2007|df=mdy-all}}</ref> It would be Davis's last studio album of the 1970s conceived as a complete work; subsequently, he recorded haphazardly and focused instead on live performance before temporarily retiring from music in 1975.<ref>{{cite book|last=Freeman|first=Philip|year=2005|title=Running the Voodoo Down: The Electric Music of Miles Davis|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=1-61774-521-9|pages=10, 178}}</ref>

Critical and popular reception of ''On the Corner'' has improved dramatically with the passage of time.<ref name="Reynolds"/> Many outside the jazz community laterhave since called it an innovative musical statement andanticipating forerunnersubsequent todevelopments subsequentin styles including funk, jazz, [[post-punk]], [[electronica]], and [[Hip hop music|hip hop]]. In 2007, ''On the Corner'' was reissued as part of the 6six-disc box set ''[[The Complete On the Corner Sessions]]''.

Following his turn to [[jazz fusion]] in the late 1960s and the release of rock- and funk-influenced albums such as ''[[Bitches Brew]]'' (1970) and ''[[Jack Johnson (album)|Jack Johnson]]'' (1971), Miles Davis received backlash from the jazz community.<ref name="nashville"/><ref name="milestones"/> Critics accused him of abandoning his talents and pandering to commercial trends, though his recent albums had been commercially unsuccessful by his standards. Other jazz contemporaries, such as [[Herbie Hancock]], [[Cecil Taylor]], and [[Gil Evans]], defended Davis; the latter stated that "jazz has always used the rhythm of the time, whatever people danced to". In early 1972, Davis began conceiving ''On the Corner'' as an attempt to reconnect with a young [[African-American]] audience which had largely forsaken jazz for the [[funk]] of artists such as [[Sly and the Family Stone]] and [[James Brown]].<ref name="milestones"/> In an interview with ''[[Melody Maker]]'', Davis stated that:

The work of Buckmaster, who played [[electric cello]] on the album and contributed some arrangements, and the [[harmolodics|harmolodic]] theory of avant-garde jazz saxophonist [[Ornette Coleman]] (whom Davis had previously disparaged),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davis |first=Francis |date=September 1985 |title=Ornette's Permanent Revolution |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/jazz/dornette.htm |access-date=2023-09-24 |website=[[The Atlantic]]}}</ref> would also influence the album; Davis later described ''On the Corner'' as "Stockhausen plus funk plus Ornette Coleman."<ref name="wire"/> Using this conceptual framework, Davis reconciled ideas from [[contemporary classical music]], jazz, and rhythm-based [[dance music]].<ref name="Gluck107"/>

Recording sessions for ''On the Corner'' began in June 1972. Both sides of the record consisted of repetitive drum and bass grooves based around a one-chord [[Modal jazz|modal]] approach,<ref name="nashville"/><ref name="Tingen"/> with the final cut edited down from hours of jams featuring changing personnel lineups underpinned by bassist [[Michael Henderson]].<ref name="milestones"/> Other musicians involved in the recording included guitarist [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]], drummers [[Jack DeJohnette]] and [[Billy Hart]], and keyboardists Herbie Hancock and [[Chick Corea]].<ref name="strangerafs">{{cite web|last1=Segal|first1=Dave|title=A Fusion Supreme|url=http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/a-fusion-supreme/Content?oid=15148585|website=[[The Stranger (newspaper)|The Stranger]]|access-date=March 16, 2017}}</ref> ''On the Corner'' utilized three keyboardists, as on ''Bitches Brew'', while pairing Hart — whoHart—who had also played in Hancock's ''[[Mwandishi]]''-era band — withband—with DeJohnette and two percussionists. [[Bennie Maupin]], Hancock's woodwind player at the time, played [[bass clarinet]], and [[Dave Liebman]] was recruited as saxophonist.<ref name="Gluck107">{{cite book|last=Gluck|first=Bob|author-link=Robert Gluck|pages=107–8|title=The Miles Davis Lost Quintet and Other Revolutionary Ensembles|chapter=Miles Davis's Increasingly Electronic 1970|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNYpCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|year=2016|isbn=978-0226180762|access-date=March 23, 2017}}</ref> Jazz historian [[Robert Gluck]] later discussed the performances:

Compared to Davis' previous recordings, ''On the Corner'' found him playing the trumpet scarcely.<ref name="Gleason 2011">{{cite web |url= https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/on-the-corner-19721207 |title=On The Corner by Miles Davis &#124; Rolling Stone Music &#124; Music Reviews |first=Ralph |last=Gleason |work=rollingstone.com |year=2011 |access-date=June 27, 2011}}</ref><ref name="milestones"/> The album also saw his [[Record producer|producer]], [[Teo Macero]], employ tape editing procedures, which he had first used on Davis' 1969 album ''[[In a Silent Way]]'', to combine various takes into a single cohesive work.<ref name="Tingen">{{cite news|last=Tingen|first=Paul|year=2007|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/oct/26/jazz.shopping|title=The Most Hated Album in Jazz|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=May 24, 2016}}</ref><ref name="stereogum.com">Freeman, Phil. "Miles Davis Albums From Best to Worst." ''[[Stereogum]]''. November 6, 2014. [http://www.stereogum.com/1715261/miles-davis-albums-from-worst-to-best/franchises/counting-down/attachment/onthecorner/]</ref> Macero's tape editing technique was informed by his experiences with New York-based avant-garde and electronic composers such as [[Edgard Varèse]] and [[Vladimir Ussachevsky]] in the 1950s and 1960s.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fordham |first=John |date=2008-02-28 |title=Obituary: Teo Macero |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/feb/28/jazz.urbanmusic |access-date=2023-09-24 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Iara |title=Teo Macero interview |url=https://www.furious.com/perfect/teomacero.html |access-date=2023-09-24 |website=[[Perfect Sound Forever (magazine)|Perfect Sound Forever]]}}</ref> The tape editing process also allowed Macero and Davis to overdub and add effects after the sessions.<ref name="Tingen"/> Some of the musicians expressed misgivings about the unconventional musical direction of the sessions; Liebman opined that "the music appeared to be pretty chaotic and disorganized,"<ref name="nashville"/> while Buckmaster called it his "least favorite Miles album."<ref name="Tingen"/>

''On the Corner'' was panned by most critics and jazz musicians; according to Davis biographer [[Paul Tingen]], it became "the most vilified and controversial album in the history of jazz" soon after its release.<ref name="Tingen"/> Saxophonist [[Stan Getz]] proclaimed: "That music is worthless. It means nothing; there is no form, no content, and it barely [[Swing (jazz performance style)time|swings]]."<ref name="milestones"/> ''[[Jazz Journal]]'' critic Jon Brown wrote that "it sounds merely as if the band had selected a chord and decided to worry hell out of it for three-quarters of an hour,"<ref name="milestones"/> concluding that "I'd like to think that nobody could be so easily pleased as to dig this record to any extent."<ref name="nashville">{{cite web|last1=Silverman|first1=Jack|title=Jazz saxophonist Dave Liebman comes to Nashville to revisit Miles Davis' explosive and polarizing On the Corner|url=http://www.nashvillescene.com/music/article/13057913/jazz-saxophonist-dave-liebman-comes-to-nashville-to-revisit-miles-davis-explosive-and-polarizing-on-the-corner|website=[[Nashville Scene]]|date=February 5, 2015 |access-date=22 August 2016}}</ref> [[Eugene Chadbourne]], writing for jazz magazine ''[[CODA (magazine)|CODA]]'', described ''On the Corner'' as "pure arrogance."<ref name="nashville"/> In his 1974 biography of Davis, critic Bill Coleman described the album as "an insult to the intellect of the people."<ref name="milestones">{{cite book|last1=Chambers|first1=Jack|title=Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis|date=1998|publisher=Da Capo Press|pages=235–38}}</ref>

Rock journalist [[Robert Christgau]] later suggested that jazz critics were not receptive to ''On the Corner'' "because the improvisations are rhythmic rather than melodic" and Davis played the organ more than his trumpet. Regarding the appeal it held for rock critics, he praised "Black Satin" but expressed reservations about the absence of a "good" beat elsewhere on the album.<ref name="Christgau" /> Ian MacDonald of the ''[[NME]]'' declared the album was "monumentally boring".{{sfn|MacDonald|1973}} In a positive review for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', [[Ralph J. Gleason]] found the music very "lyrical and rhythmic" while praising the dynamic stereo recording and calling Davis "a magician". He concluded by saying that "the impact of the whole is greater than the sum of any part."<ref name="Gleason 2011" />

Despite remaining outside the purview of the mainstream jazz community, ''On the Corner'' has undergone a positive critical reassessment in subsequent decades; according to Tingen, many critics outside jazz have characterized it as "a visionary musical statement that was way ahead of its time".<ref name="Tingen"/> In 2014, ''[[Stereogum]]'' hailed it as "one of the greatest records of the 20th Century, and easily one of Miles Davis' most astonishing achievements," noting its mix of "funk guitars, [[IndianMusic musicof India|Indian percussion]], [[dub music|dub]] production techniques, [and] [[Loop (music)|loops]] that predict [[Hip hop music|hip hop]]."<ref name="stereogum.com"/> According to ''[[Alternative Press (magazine)|Alternative Press]]'', ''On the Corner'' is an "essential masterpiece" that envisioned much of modern popular music, "representing the high water mark of [Davis'] experiments in the fusion of rock, funk, [[electronica]] and jazz".<ref name="AP">{{cite magazine |date=November 2000 |magazine=[[Alternative Press (magazine)|Alternative Press]]|title=none|pages=104–106}}</ref> ''[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]]'' characterized the album as "a frenetic and punky record, radical in its use of studio technology," adding that "the debt that the modern dance floor owes the pounding abstractions of ''On the Corner'' has yet to be fully understood."<ref name="fact">{{cite web | last1 = Kelly | first1 = Chris | last2 = Lea | first2 = Tom | last3 = Muggs | first3 = Joe| last4 = Morpurgo |first4=Joseph|last5=Beatnik|first5=Mr|last6=Ravens|first6=Chal|last7=Twells|first7=John|title=The 100 best albums of the 1970s|url=http://www.factmag.com/2014/07/14/the-100-best-albums-of-the-1970s/91/|website=Fact|access-date=September 21, 2016|date=July 14, 2014}}</ref> Writing for ''[[The Vinyl Factory]]'', Anton Spice described it as "the great great grandfather of hip-hop, [[intelligent dance music|IDM]], [[Jungle music|jungle]], [[post-rock]] and other styles drawing meaning from repetition."<ref name="vin">{{cite web|last1=Spice|first1=Anton|title=An introduction to the electric sound of Miles Davis|url=http://thevinylfactory.com/features/the-electric-sound-of-miles-davis/|website=[[The Vinyl Factory]]|date=April 26, 2016 |access-date=20 March 2017}}</ref>

Despite the record's influence on numerous artists outside of jazz, "the mainstream jazz community still won't touch ''On the Corner'' with a barge pole", according to Tingen, "and whatever remains of jazz-rock continues to be too deeply in thrall of the pyrotechnics aspect of such 1970s bands as [[Mahavishnu Orchestra]] to take any notice of ''On the Corner''{{'}}s repetitive funk, which was the antithesis of virtuosity."<ref name="Tingen"/> For its fusion of jazz harmonies with funk rhythms and rock instrumentation, ''On the Corner'' was regarded by both Davis biographer [[Jack Chambers (linguist)|Jack Chambers]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambers|first=Jack|author-link=Jack Chambers (linguist)|chapter=4. Jazz Rock and Beyond: 1968-1991.|title=Miles Davis: Grove Music Essentials|year=2015|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0190268763}}</ref> and music essayist [[Simon Reynolds]]<ref name="Reynolds">{{cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Reynolds|publisher=[[Soft Skull Press]]|year=2011|isbn=978-1-59376-460-9|title=Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop|page=182}}</ref> as exemplary of the trumpeter's jazz-rock music, and [[Mick Wall]] viewed it as a "jazz-rock cornerstone".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Wall|first=Mick|author-link=Mick Wall|date=October 30, 2005|url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/mahavishnu-orchestra-it-s-only-jazz-rock-fusion-but-i-like-it|title=Mahavishnu Orchestra: It's Only Jazz Rock Fusion But I Like It|magazine=Louder|access-date=August 5, 2018}}</ref> According to [[NPR Music]]'s Felix Contreras, ''On the Corner'' was oneamong ofseveral 1972'salbums "jazz-rockfrom hybrids"1972 that "blurred the lines between rock and jazz, if not outright combining them", along with ''[[I Sing the Body Electric (album)|I Sing the Body Electric]]'' by [[Weather Report]] and [[Santana (band)|Santana]]'s ''[[Caravanserai (album)|Caravanserai]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Contreras|first=Felix|date=June 15, 2015|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/06/15/413985570/songs-we-love-yes-heart-of-the-sunrise-live|title=Songs We Love: Yes, 'Heart Of The Sunrise' (Live)|publisher=[[NPR Music]]|access-date=August 5, 2018}}</ref> Jazz scholar Paul Lopes cited the album as an example of [[jazz-funk]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Lopes|first=Paul|year=2002|title=The Rise of a Jazz Art World|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=0521000394|page=248}}</ref> and ethnomusicologist [[Rob Bowman (music writer)|Rob Bowman]] called it "a milestone" in the genre,<ref>{{cite book|last=Bowman|first=Rob|author-link=Rob Bowman (music writer)|editor1-last=Komara|editor1-first=Edward|editor2-last=Lee|editor2-first=Peter|chapter=Funk|title=The Blues Encyclopedia|page=353|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=1135958327}}</ref> while [[Barry Miles (musician)|Barry Miles]] believed it was a jazz-funk album that also "qualifies as [[progressive rock|prog rock]] because no one at the time knew what to call it."<ref>{{cite book|last=Miles|first=Barry|author-link=Barry Miles|chapter=1970s Prog Rock|title=The Greatest Album Covers of All Time|year=2016|publisher=[[Pavilion Books]]|isbn=978-1911163367}}</ref> [[Pat Thomas (musician)|Pat Thomas]] from ''[[Juxtapoz]]'' magazine wrote in retrospect that the record explored [[psychedelic funk]].<ref name="juxtapoz">{{cite news|title=Miles Davis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHVUAAAAMAAJ&q=%22psychedelic+funk%22|access-date=March 16, 2017|work=[[Juxtapoz]]|issue=48–53|publisher=High Speed Productions|date=2004}}</ref> ''On the Corner'' was also viewed by Dave Segal fromof ''[[The Stranger (newspaper)|The Stranger]]'' as a "landmark fusion album"<ref name="strangerafs"/> and by ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]'' journalist Jeff Andrews as one of jazz fusion's two greatest albums alongside ''Bitches Brew''.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Andrews|first=Jeff|date=August 1, 2017|url=https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/qvpgqp/the-guide-to-getting-into-miles-davis|title=The Guide to Getting into Miles Davis|magazine=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]|access-date=August 2, 2018}}</ref> While noting its inclusiveness and transcendence of a variety of musical genres, [[Jazz Journalists Association|Howard Mandel]] regarded the album as both jazz and avant-garde music,<ref>Mandel, Howard. ''Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz''. Routledge Books, 2010. p. 75.</ref> while Stubbs said "this riff beast is a hybrid of funk and rock but is more atavistic, more avant garde than anything conventionally dreamt of by either genre".<ref name="Stubbs"/>

* [[Miles Davis]] – electric [[trumpet]] with [[wah-wah pedal|wah-wah]]<ref>[https://happymag.tv/open-up-and-say-wah-7-obscure-uses-of-the-wah-pedal/ Uses of the wah pedal Miles Davis] Retrieved 23 February 2021</ref>

* [[Michael Henderson]] – bass guitar with wah-wah pedal<ref>[https://www.talkbass.com/threads/first-use-of-wah-on-bass.1255814/ Who was first use of wah on bass] Retrieved 16 February 2021</ref>

* Harold Ivory Williams – keyskeyboards, organ

* [[Khalil Balakrishna]] – electric [[sitar]]

* [[Paul Buckmaster]] – [[electric cello]]