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On the Corner

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Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[4]
JazzTimes(favorable)[5]
Robert ChristgauB+[6]
Rolling Stone(favorable)[7]
Spin[8]
Stylus Magazine(favorable)[9]
Penguin Guide to Jazz [10]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[11]

On the Corner is a studio album by jazz musician Miles Davis, recorded in June and July 1972 and released later that year on Columbia Records. Drawing on funk, rock, and electronic production techniques, it was scorned by established jazz critics at the time of its release and was one of Davis's worst-selling recordings.[5][12][13] Its critical standing has improved dramatically with the passage of time;[2] In 2014, Stereogum ranked it as Davis's best album,[13] while a variety of critics have noted its influence and foreshadowing of a variety of subsequent musical genres.

Joining previous multi-disc Davis reissues, On the Corner was reissued as part of the 6-disc box set The Complete On the Corner Sessions in 2007.

Music

Davis claimed that On the Corner was an attempt at reconnecting with the young African American audience which had largely forsaken jazz for such groove-based idioms as soul, funk and rock. Much to his chagrin, the album's commercial success was as limited as that of other albums since Bitches Brew, topping the Billboard jazz chart but only peaking at #156 in the more heterogeneous Billboard 200.[14] Also cited as a musical influence on the album by Davis was the experimental composer Karlheinz Stockhausen,[15][16] who later recorded with the trumpeter in 1980,[17] and Paul Buckmaster (who played electric cello on the album and contributed some arrangements).

In addition to the discernible rock and funk influence on the album, it also represented a culmination-of-sorts of the proto-electronic editing approach that Davis and producer Teo Macero had begun to explore in the late 1960s.[13] Both sides of the record were based around repetitive drum and bass grooves, with the melodic parts snipped from hours of jams. Buckmaster and Davis also recorded the song "Ife" in a session during the same period. The song failed to make On The Corner but instead appeared on Big Fun in 1974; it is possible that it was not included on the previous record because of time constraints.

The album was originally released with no musician credits (as Miles did not want other artists to steal his personnel and musical ideas),[18] leading to ongoing confusion about which musicians appeared on the album.

Reception and legacy

When it was released in 1972, On the Corner received scorn from establishment jazz critics and became one of Davis's worst-selling records. In recent years, however, it has gained recognition as one of Davis's most influential recordings. 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 the album's mix of "funk guitars, Indian percussion, dub production techniques, loops that predict hip-hop."[13] 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."[19] Pitchfork Media described the album as " the sound of icy hot heroin coursing through the veins [...] longing, passion and rage milked from the primal source and heading into the dark beyond."[20]

AllMusic stated that "the music on the album itself influenced [...] every single thing that came after it in jazz, rock, soul, funk, hip-hop, electronic and dance music, ambient music, and even popular world music, directly or indirectly." [21] BBC Music noted the music and production techniques of On the Corner "prefigured and in some cases gave birth to nu-jazz, jazz funk, experimental jazz, ambient and even world music."[22] Critic Simon Reynolds also noted the album's influence on a variety of post-punk and industrial artists.[23]

Accolades

Fact named On the Corner the 11th best album of the 1970s,[19] while Pitchfork Media named the album the 30th best album of that decade.[20]

Track listing

All songs written by Miles Davis.

Side one
No.TitleRecording dateLength
1."On the Corner/New York Girl/Thinkin' One Thing and Doin' Another/Vote for Miles"June 1, 197220:02
2."Black Satin"July 7, 19725:20
Side two
No.Title...Length
3."One and One"June 6, 19726:09
4."Helen Butte/Mr. Freedom X"June 6, 197223:18

Personnel

References

  • Reynolds, Simon (2011). Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop. Soft Skull Press. ISBN 1-59376-460-X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  1. ^ Miles Davis.com
  2. ^ a b Reynolds 2011, p. 182.
  3. ^ Mandel, Howard. Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz. Routledge Books, 2010. p. 75.
  4. ^ Jurek, Thom (2011). "On the Corner - Miles Davis | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  5. ^ a b Chinen, Nate (October 2007). Review: The Complete On the Corner Sessions. JazzTimes. Retrieved on 2011-02-12.
  6. ^ Christgau, Robert (2011). "Robert Christgau: CG: Miles Davis". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  7. ^ Gleason, Ralph (2011). "On The Corner by Miles Davis | Rolling Stone Music | Music Reviews". rollingstone.com. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  8. ^ Hermes, Will (November 2007). "Review: The Complete On the Corner Sessions". Spin: 124.
  9. ^ Smith, Chris (2011). "Miles Davis - On The Corner - On Second Thought - Stylus Magazine". stylusmagazine.com. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  10. ^ "Acclaimed Music - On the Corner". acclaimedmusic.net. 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  11. ^ Swenson, J. (Editor) (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 58. ISBN 0-394-72643-X. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  12. ^ Tingen, Paul (October 26, 2007). The most hated album in jazz. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2011-02-12.
  13. ^ a b c d Freeman, Phil. "Miles Davis Albums From Best to Worst." Stereogum. 6 November 2014. [1]
  14. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/on-the-corner-mw0000197892/awards
  15. ^ "Miles Davis first heard Stockhausen's music in 1972, and its impact can be felt in Davis's 1972 recording On the Corner, in which cross-cultural elements are mixed with found elements." Barry Bergstein "Miles Davis and Karlheinz Stockhausen: A Reciprocal Relationship." The Musical Quarterly 76, no. 4. (Winter): p. 503.
  16. ^ In Davis' autobiography he states that "I had always written in a circular way and through Stockhausen I could see that I didn't want to ever play again from eight bars to eight bars, because I never end songs: they just keep going on. Through Stockhausen I understood music as a process of elimination and addition" (Miles, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989, p. 329)
  17. ^ "In June of 1980, Miles Davis was joined by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in the studios of Columbia Records; the recording of this collaboration is still unissued." Barry Bergstein "Miles Davis and Karlheinz Stockhausen: A Reciprocal Relationship" The Musical Quarterly Vol. 76, No. 4 (Winter, 1992), p. 502
  18. ^ Feather, Leonard (1972). From Satchmo to Miles. Da Capo Press. p. 248.
  19. ^ a b "The 100 best albums of the 1970s". Fact. Retrieved 21 March 2016. {{cite web}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ a b "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 21 March 2016. {{cite web}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help)
  21. ^ Jurek, Thom (2011). "The Complete On the Corner Sessions - | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  22. ^ Jones, Chris. "Review of Miles Davis The Complete On the Corner Sessions. BBC Music. 2007. [2]
  23. ^ Reynolds, Simon (2006). Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-21570-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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