Dogfish Head & Miles Davis "Bitches Brew" - The Experience

Note that this is a vintage 2010 bottle, aged approximately 2 years! Cheers and prost to Sir Greg O'Leary for kindly picking up this cherished bottle for Goatsden!

Pours a pitch-black, with a thick head of fine dark tan carbonation. Lace is ornate, with a lovely, spider web/lattice design.

Nose consists mostly of dark fruit -- I get figs, raisins, and some bittersweet chocolate.

Taste is sweet at front of palate -- perhaps the honey infusion? What follows is a smooth mix of roasty malts and dark fruit, with a hint of chocolate, as inferred by the aroma.

The finish pulls up slightly sweet, again. This is a delicious brew, with a surprisingly sessionable character, despite the heavy alcohol presence. Nice!

While I sipped on this exquisite beer, I soaked in the audio experience. Miles Davis' original "Bitches Brew" double-album, released originally in 1970, is a renowned and heralded masterpiece of jazz-rock fusion. But stretching the boundaries of what was considered "jazz" was nothing new for the iconoclastic Davis, who risked all releasing this unclassifiable extended set.  

Perhaps one of Davis' best-loved recordings, this album marks a point where Davis moves well beyond his jazz background and embraces sounds as disparate as funk, rock, and out-there world musics. The 27-minute title track throws down some seriously psychedelic grooves! "Spanish Key" rolls with a metronomic Krautrock-styled tempo, referencing legendary German experimenters Can. Or did they reference Miles Davis?

"BItches Brew", the album, is a landmark piece of work from a visionary artist unafraid to experiment. "Bitches Brew", the beer, is a delicious work from a brewery equally as unafraid to experiment and fuse genres and cultures. Kudos to both for a job well-done!

Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales

Miles Davis official site

"The Roots Of Drone" 2xCD

This compilation does an admirable job collecting samples of some of what could be loosely considered "drone" music's history, dating back to 1926. Of course, it could be debated that drone-based music goes back centuries (and indeed it does), but as for modern music, Chrome Dreams (who are usually busy producing unauthorized DVD biographies of pop and rock stars) has done a fine job.

From the old-time Texas folk fiddler, Fiddlin Eck Robertson to the Irish bagpipes of Pipe Major Macintosh, this 130-minute set also touches upon classical (Wagner and Haydn), blues (John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Howlin Wolf), jazz (Miles Davis), gospel (James Shorty & Viola James Congregation), Indian, New Guinea, Tibetan, and Romanian musics, modern classical (La Monte Young and John Cage's infamous "4'33"), and tons more. It's an entertaining and lively set with a wide array of sounds, all sharing one common thread -- a predilection for sustained, monophonic harmonies and notes. 

My sole complaints with "The Roots Of Drone" are in the liner notes, which are, sadly, a tad brief, and the packaging design, which looks far too "modern", flashy and inappropriate for the subtle and historical content of the music. (Chrome Dreams)

Darshan Ambient - "Dream In Blue" CD

An ambient electronic homage to Miles Davis and John Coltrane, "Dream In Blue" cruises along with spacious jazz-based grooves, hinting at the exotic Indian and African notes of these masters. Still, this falls more on the 'ambient' side, rather than 'jazz', per se. Darshan Ambient's Michael Allison evokes similar moods to his heroes, while retaining his own identity. Lovely and recommended. (Lotuspike)

Darshan Ambient website

Red Garland - "The 1956 Trio" CD

Pianist Red Garland was a fixture on the great jazz scene of the 50's-80's, and even non-jazz aficionados may have unknowingly heard his work with Charlie Parker and the Miles Davis Quintet (among others). Here, he leads a trio (with Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums) and the resulting sounds are lovely, sweeping, and intimate. "Makin' Whoopee" swings gently and romantically, while "Blue Red" is as it suggests -- a bluesy slow jam by Red and company. "Constellation" is a frenzied bit of out-jazz, stopping on a dime and showing the synergy these guys had. They lived and breathed music, and this intense, yet accessible set is evidence of just that. These recordings were originally released as "A Garland Of Red" in 1956, and this CD reissue adds 5 bonus tracks from the same era, effectively completing Garland's studio work in the trio configuration. Essential studio work from one of the greats. (EJC)