Month: October 2015

Hey Miles! Watcha’ sellin’?: A Guest Video Vault Post by George Grella Jr. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZrbtKUZFqQ] No disrespect, Miles deserved every dollar he got, and should have been paid a lot more. As I mention in Bitches Brew, Miles was more than offended when Clive Davis started to sign young white rock bands for six figures, he felt his music was better (it was), more important (it was), and that he deserved as much, if not more (it did). But the shameful economics of the music industry is a topic for…

As part of our new series of playlist/book pairings on our 33 1/3 Spotify account, we asked David Masciotra, author of the recent 33 1/3 on Metallica’s Black Album, to make a playlist for the book. Listen HERE Here’s the tracklist, along with some explanations from David on some of the songs he chose! 1. Seek and Destroy, Metallica 2. For Whom The Bell Tolls, Metallica When Metallica decided that their music had grown too complex and progressive, and that they had traveled too far out of the garage, they…

As you know from Miles Davis Week on our blog last week, George Grella‘s 33 1/3 on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew is now officially out! George will be doing an event and book signing at BookCourt TONIGHT at 7PM. GET YOURS NOW. I mean, Elvis Costello already got his signed copy.  Also don’t forget that George Grella and Bryan Parker will be presenting Bitches Brew and Beat Happening at WORD Bookstore on November 5th! So be sure to come see the talk and hang out with us at the after party at t.b.d.…

TO CELEBRATE YESTERDAY’S RELEASE OF OUR 110TH 33/13 ON  BITCHES BREW, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FIFTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF MILES DAVIS WEEK BY AUTHOR GEORGE GRELLA JR. ! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zZXi6UGMs0] It’s not a back-handed criticism to open this review by stating that, as a Miles Davis/jazz lover, I’m fundamentally glad that Miles Ahead, the new movie about Miles Davis that stars (and was directed by) Don Cheadle, was even made. As integral as jazz as is to American culture, it’s also barely a divot on the capitalist/commercial landscape. And jazz just…

TO CELEBRATE TODAY’S RELEASE OF OUR 110TH 33/13 ON  BITCHES BREW, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF MILES DAVIS WEEK BY AUTHOR GEORGE GRELLA JR. ! “Miles did Bitches Brew and from Bitches Brew came all those other broths. Mahavishnu, all that shit, that’s broths out of Bitches Brew.” … Mtume As Mtume said, all those who are today considered the iconoclastic Godfather bands of fusion—Mahavishnu Orchetra, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Mwandishi and Headhunters—owe their existence and genre to Bitches Brew. All of the principal founders/visionaries of those bands played on…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 110TH 33/13 ON  BITCHES BREW, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE THIRD INSTALLMENT OF MILES DAVIS WEEK BY AUTHOR GEORGE GRELLA JR. ! Jazz history is the story of musicians and bands and the records they made, and it can be charted as a family tree. Jazz is an oral tradition, and even though it has now been heavily institutionalized (fundamental to the music’s economic survival, but not necessarily an aesthetic benefit), it remains so, and is pretty much the only still-living thing we have in the…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 110TH 33/13 ON  BITCHES BREW, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF MILES DAVIS WEEK BY AUTHOR GEORGE GRELLA JR. ! One of the compelling mysteries about Miles Davis’s music in the late 1960s is how got from here to there, from the formally free, but still idiomatic music of Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky, and Filles de Kilimanjaro, to In a Silent Way, then Bitches Brew. Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro are transitional in that they add soul, funk and rock…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 110TH 33/13 ON  BITCHES BREW, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE VERY FIRST INSTALLMENT OF MILES DAVIS WEEK BY AUTHOR GEORGE GRELLA JR. ! Music to read Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew by? Maybe so. 33-1/3 books, who have their own Spotify account, asked me if I wanted to put a playlist together for them as part of Bitches Brew week here at 333SOUND. Of course I said yes, I’m no fool. Then I started to put it together. Countless man hours later … https://open.spotify.com/user/gtra1n/playlist/0zXQ4QVj8NtnhrwHJFCo31 This is actually…

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING RELEASE OF OUR 109TH 33/13 ON  A LIVE ONE, WE’RE PLEASED TO BRING YOU THE FIFTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT OF PHISH WEEK BY AUTHOR WALLY HOLLAND ! Phish put on a good show, but their onstage theatrics are generally low-key; the guys stand still while playing, and the improvised light show, though extraordinary when you think about what goes into them, is still just lights. Which is to say that video isn’t really their medium. (There’s actually a proper ‘Phish video,’ which I will not share: ‘Down with Disease,’ off…