Columbia

This is the one jazz record owned by people who don't listen to jazz, and with good reason.

The revolution was recorded: in 1969 Bitches Brew sent a shiver through a country already quaking. It was a recording whose very sound, production methods, album-cover art, and two-LP length all signaled that jazz could never be the same.

The most satisfying sort of audacity was the rule with Miles Davis's second great quintet.

The fourth studio album by the second great Miles Davis quintet, and the second comprising material recorded in the pivotal year of 1967, NEFERTITI marked yet another metamorphosis in the career of a great musician noted for welcoming change.

In 1969, the house of jazz was shaken to its foundations when Miles Davis began to dabble in elements of rock when he recorded Bitches Brew. Many of his faithful quickly fell by the wayside with what they considered this outrageous gesture.

Although Miles Davis's health was quite weak at the time of this two-CD set (recorded the same day as the album Agharta), he has a few strong trumpet solos on these two very lengthy pieces ("Zimbabwe" and "Gondwana"). Just after these concerts, Miles would go into an almost six year hiatus from music.

Recorded the same day as Pangaea, this 2-CD set features Davis just prior to his six-year retirement. Miles' health at this point was fragile, but he shines on the song "Interlude." The music here is dense, rockish, bold, but never boring (with the guitars of Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas), and is a profound snapshot of where Miles was in 1975.

This super-deluxe edition celebrates one of the most remarkable albums in Miles Davis's career and jazz history in general. Originally released in 1970, Bitches Brew became Davis's first gold album.