Comments on: The Stratospheric Avant-garde on eBay – Bid or Buy

By: Adamski

Adamski — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 12:46:58 +0000

Bruce, what a facinating development!
I love joining these dots…
thanks a bunch for the contribution

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 21:27:00 +0000

I just bought a clean copy of the Chitinous for $300 – bargain! 😉

By: sidewinder

sidewinder — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 07:45:52 +0000

Just also to mention that Tony Hall, who is credited on the ‘Chitinous’ LP as manager of Buckmaster, was a personal friend of Miles – which is how they got to meet, if my memory of this story is correct.

By: Clifford Allen

Clifford Allen — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 03:33:16 +0000

Thanks for that, Bruce — fascinating! I knew Buckmaster was pretty close with Miles but wasn’t sure if the latter had heard the Chitinous record.

By: Bruce Eaton

Bruce Eaton — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 01:38:38 +0000

Regarding Miles and the Chitinous Ensemble. I produced jazz concerts for 25 years and maybe 8 years ago or so presented Dave Liebman. As part of our shows we would usually have a presentation or show a film that was connected to the artist in some way as a pre-show event. For Dave I decided to do a talk on Miles and the On The Corner > He Loved Him Madly period given Dave’s key role in that era. I was curious about the whole Buckmaster connection and got the Chitinous album. Researching the timeline I discovered that Miles was hanging out with Buckmaster (in England if I recall) at time when Miles would almost certainly have heard the album. Liebman came out to hear my talk (a bit daunting) and when I played some Chitinous tracks Dave got excited and joined me onstage for the rest of the talk. Really cool to hear him describe being in the studio when they recorded the He Loved Him Madly track. At any rate, Dave was pretty certain Miles had heard the record and had been directly influenced by it. I gave him a copy and he even called me up the next day while he was driving home to say thanks and “you learn something new every day.” So at least from Liebman’s inside perspective, the Chitinous record played a role in shaping Miles’ direction at the time.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 13:47:35 +0000

Let’s also not forget that he was quick to add John Mclaughlin to his ensemble which helped solidify the brit jazz rock association in Miles’ late 60s-early 70s band. The sound changes considerably when JM enters the scene. The guitar work on In a Silent Way is absolutely incredible.

By: sidewinder

sidewinder — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 19:02:24 +0000

He seems to have really liked the Carr bio, from what I’ve heard. As for influence – at least in terms of jazz-rock – I believe Miles heard Henry Lowther playing in this style in the 1960s before the transition from acoustic so my vote goes to Henry !

By: Adamski

Adamski — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 09:51:38 +0000

Sidewinder, surely you are not suggesting Miles Dewey Davis III took some influence from Dumfries’s own Ian Carr? 😉

By: Adamski

Adamski — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 09:42:56 +0000

The Chitinous Ensemble, is a great LP. Really Silly, but I thought this was my little secret!
(strange how we do that!)
So Glad we are talking about such interesting cuts.
Those Vocation reissues (also Vinyl on some cuts) are getting very difficult to find in the UK.
Good post Clifford.

By: Clifford Allen

Clifford Allen — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 18:43:40 +0000

@Gregory the Fish — me too, just have a CD-R of it alas.