The return of Mr.Benson!, 18 Nov 2008
I once had Bensons'Greatest Hits and listened to the album over and over again..Then I gave it to a man I loved, cause he loved him aswell.
That love is gone now, but my love for Mr.Benson is as srong as ever.
This cd holds all the songs I've once had,eccept one(Living inside your love)That's fair enough.
Beautiful,don't hesitate to buy it if you want a complete album!
Miranda

Yet another 'best of' album..., 17 Feb 2006
There have been numerous 'Best Of George Benson' compilations over recent years, none of which have been all-inclusive (that is a probable marketing ploy). This re-packaged selection continues the trend; having said that, it does serve as a pleasing introduction to the superb fusion jazz/R&B/pop that Mr Benson serves up masterfully.

Beware, edited tracks, 27 Aug 2004
"The Greatest Love Of All", one of Benson's greatest performances, has an entire verse edited out on this CD, a shameful fact which degrades an otherwise attractive collection of songs, representing the best of George Benson. A fine artist, at his best when singing songs written by Micheal Masser I feel, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You" "In Your Eyes" "You Are The Love Of My Life" "Greatest Love Of All" all of which are presented on this CD.

The Greatest Album of All, 27 Mar 2004
I am glad I bought this album. The songs are lively and lightened my spirits to hear. There are 20 songs, and the CD itself has a cover over it for protection. I love track 1) Give me the night, 5) Nothing's gonna change my love for you, and 11) You are the love of my life. My favourite since childhood is track 6) The greatest love of all, and since last year 10) In your eyes. All very lovely songs by a talented artist named George Benson, who has a good voice. Buy this cd if you like love songs or good pop and jazz music. It's an album that is definitely one of my favourites, and currently my most favourite.

Brilliant album from a brilliant artist., 28 Jul 2003
This album from start to finish is one of brilliance. Provides excellent background music for any occasion. But was there ever any doubt that this would be a great album when it's George Benson.

The return of Mr.Benson!, 18 Nov 2008
I once had Bensons'Greatest Hits and listened to the album over and over again..Then I gave it to a man I loved, cause he loved him aswell.
That love is gone now, but my love for Mr.Benson is as srong as ever.
This cd holds all the songs I've once had,eccept one(Living inside your love)That's fair enough.
Beautiful,don't hesitate to buy it if you want a complete album!
Miranda

Yet another 'best of' album..., 17 Feb 2006
There have been numerous 'Best Of George Benson' compilations over recent years, none of which have been all-inclusive (that is a probable marketing ploy). This re-packaged selection continues the trend; having said that, it does serve as a pleasing introduction to the superb fusion jazz/R&B/pop that Mr Benson serves up masterfully.

Beware, edited tracks, 27 Aug 2004
"The Greatest Love Of All", one of Benson's greatest performances, has an entire verse edited out on this CD, a shameful fact which degrades an otherwise attractive collection of songs, representing the best of George Benson. A fine artist, at his best when singing songs written by Micheal Masser I feel, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You" "In Your Eyes" "You Are The Love Of My Life" "Greatest Love Of All" all of which are presented on this CD.

The Greatest Album of All, 27 Mar 2004
I am glad I bought this album. The songs are lively and lightened my spirits to hear. There are 20 songs, and the CD itself has a cover over it for protection. I love track 1) Give me the night, 5) Nothing's gonna change my love for you, and 11) You are the love of my life. My favourite since childhood is track 6) The greatest love of all, and since last year 10) In your eyes. All very lovely songs by a talented artist named George Benson, who has a good voice. Buy this cd if you like love songs or good pop and jazz music. It's an album that is definitely one of my favourites, and currently my most favourite.

Brilliant album from a brilliant artist., 28 Jul 2003
This album from start to finish is one of brilliance. Provides excellent background music for any occasion. But was there ever any doubt that this would be a great album when it's George Benson.

Music Warrior of true Dimension, 17 Oct 2008
This is Santana of emense,cross sectional,swathe across a timeless barrier of a music making Warrior.Disc One are all vocal tracks that some have been re-mixed and Disc Two are all intrumental tracks, which some have been remixed. Santana here have offered up some of their best known to least known tracks, which makes a refreshing change to *Best of, or greatest hits*
Seaming together a timless fabulous sound which takes into the world of the love of real music.
True fans, may argue that this album was a lost oppertunity to go further and acually re-mix all the tracks into an amazing, glourious testamant of change. But what i believe fans are searching for, is more of that haunting, spine-tingling, beautiful little guitar rifts, worked into so many of Carlos tracks over the past many great albums, but we want more. It can never be enough to satisfy our dreams of inconsoulable imagination in the restless search of such life changing passages of music.

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 signalled that jazz could never be the same. Over three days anger, confusion, and exhilaration had reigned in the studio, and the sonic themes, scraps, grooves, and sheer will and emotion that resulted were percolated and edited into an astonishingly organic work. This Miles Davis wasn't merely presenting a simple hybrid like jazz-rock, but a new way of thinking about improvisation and the studio. And with this two-CD reissue (actually, this set is a reissue of the original set plus one track, perfect for the fan who's not so overwhelmed as to need the four-CD Complete Bitches Brew box), the murk of the original recording is lifted. The instruments newly defined and brightened, the dark energy of the original comes through as if it were all fresh. Joe Zawinul and Bennie Maupin's roles in the mix have been especially clarified. With a bonus track of "Feio"--a Wayne Shorter composition recorded five months later that serves both as a warm-down for Bitches Brew and a promise of Weather Report to come--this is crucial listening. --John F. Szwed

The return of Mr.Benson!, 18 Nov 2008
I once had Bensons'Greatest Hits and listened to the album over and over again..Then I gave it to a man I loved, cause he loved him aswell.
That love is gone now, but my love for Mr.Benson is as srong as ever.
This cd holds all the songs I've once had,eccept one(Living inside your love)That's fair enough.
Beautiful,don't hesitate to buy it if you want a complete album!
Miranda

Yet another 'best of' album..., 17 Feb 2006
There have been numerous 'Best Of George Benson' compilations over recent years, none of which have been all-inclusive (that is a probable marketing ploy). This re-packaged selection continues the trend; having said that, it does serve as a pleasing introduction to the superb fusion jazz/R&B/pop that Mr Benson serves up masterfully.

Beware, edited tracks, 27 Aug 2004
"The Greatest Love Of All", one of Benson's greatest performances, has an entire verse edited out on this CD, a shameful fact which degrades an otherwise attractive collection of songs, representing the best of George Benson. A fine artist, at his best when singing songs written by Micheal Masser I feel, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You" "In Your Eyes" "You Are The Love Of My Life" "Greatest Love Of All" all of which are presented on this CD.

The Greatest Album of All, 27 Mar 2004
I am glad I bought this album. The songs are lively and lightened my spirits to hear. There are 20 songs, and the CD itself has a cover over it for protection. I love track 1) Give me the night, 5) Nothing's gonna change my love for you, and 11) You are the love of my life. My favourite since childhood is track 6) The greatest love of all, and since last year 10) In your eyes. All very lovely songs by a talented artist named George Benson, who has a good voice. Buy this cd if you like love songs or good pop and jazz music. It's an album that is definitely one of my favourites, and currently my most favourite.

Brilliant album from a brilliant artist., 28 Jul 2003
This album from start to finish is one of brilliance. Provides excellent background music for any occasion. But was there ever any doubt that this would be a great album when it's George Benson.

Music Warrior of true Dimension, 17 Oct 2008
This is Santana of emense,cross sectional,swathe across a timeless barrier of a music making Warrior.Disc One are all vocal tracks that some have been re-mixed and Disc Two are all intrumental tracks, which some have been remixed. Santana here have offered up some of their best known to least known tracks, which makes a refreshing change to *Best of, or greatest hits*
Seaming together a timless fabulous sound which takes into the world of the love of real music.
True fans, may argue that this album was a lost oppertunity to go further and acually re-mix all the tracks into an amazing, glourious testamant of change. But what i believe fans are searching for, is more of that haunting, spine-tingling, beautiful little guitar rifts, worked into so many of Carlos tracks over the past many great albums, but we want more. It can never be enough to satisfy our dreams of inconsoulable imagination in the restless search of such life changing passages of music.

This is the question, 24 Sep 2008
The question isn't whether this is a weird branch that Miles Davis wandered off into in the 70's, and do only pseuds like it.

The question is whether this is the best album ever made.

Pharoah's dance knocks most modern orchestral music into a much-needed hole in the ground - its atonal genius - only Stockhausen could even get close to this match of mood and insane key combinations - is unsurpassed.

Bitches brew has a groove so deep that when you really hear it (maybe second listen, maybe third) you almost salute it - its dark, african and american - city and jungle - jesus its superb.

And if you don't like Spanish Key you are very likely dead.

Magisterial Miles, 09 Sep 2008
I'd be some kind of pretentious idiot if I tried to give any kind of in depth review of this album, so I'll keep it short. I have just come back to this particular album after a 23 year absence: it's incredible, quite incredible. The sound quality over my original vinyl copy is breathtaking and within minutes of hearing Pharoah's Dance, I am caught and off and running. Bitches Brew rewards the listener on so many levels;complexity, drive and sublime intelligence.

Columbia/Legacy are to be highly praised with the packaging; the sleeve notes are copious and very detailed

Hey, you know that Desert Island disc thing? Well, it'd be a toss up here between Bitches Brew and Trout Mask Replica.............

Finally, an open question: how come every time I listen to Miles Davis, it makes me want to cook for my friends?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.............

one of the several excellent miles davis discs., 31 Dec 2007
this is a very good album from miles davis and i think it is one of his best works besides kind of blue even though b^$tches is a bad word, every song on this disc is a masterpiece on this 2 disc set. i'm so sad that he is dead because i would love to see him in concert. anyways, this cd is highy recommended.

Not for the faint-hearted!, 24 Sep 2007
I first heard this album about 5 years ago after hearing of its legendary status from various different sources. It was too much for me to stomach back then having only heard miles' earlier cool jazz and modal jazz albums. But on hearing it again earlier this year I immediately fell in love with it and its now easily among my favourite albums of all time! For jazz purists this is often seen as a real kick in the teeth as it breaks away from all the confines of the stereotypical acoustic jazz band and offers a very different aesthetic to most of Miles' earlier work.

The album is driven by a gritty groove very influenced by rock music at the time. To understand where he was coming from here I would recommend his previous album In A Silent Way and perhaps those leading up to it.

not very good, 17 Sep 2007
This album is very pretentious. I got it as I like birth of the cool and someday my prince will come. They are albums that make you smile as they are beautiful and impressive. However, this is ridiculous. I should have guessed from the photo of miles davis looking like a poser - but I forgive him as he is very talented; this is experimentation, understandable to want to experiment. If like me you like to pick out jazz that is unpretentious and not all smoothy-smoochy, check out django reinhardt djangoloy and louis armstrong hot fives and sevens (and the aforementioned decent miles davis albums). That is real music, and music that is intelligent without falling into the trap of disappearing up your own ass in an introverted neurotic pile of vain nonsense.

Again, I'd like to remind that I like miles davis a lot when he's on form.

The return of Mr.Benson!, 18 Nov 2008
I once had Bensons'Greatest Hits and listened to the album over and over again..Then I gave it to a man I loved, cause he loved him aswell.
That love is gone now, but my love for Mr.Benson is as srong as ever.
This cd holds all the songs I've once had,eccept one(Living inside your love)That's fair enough.
Beautiful,don't hesitate to buy it if you want a complete album!
Miranda

Yet another 'best of' album..., 17 Feb 2006
There have been numerous 'Best Of George Benson' compilations over recent years, none of which have been all-inclusive (that is a probable marketing ploy). This re-packaged selection continues the trend; having said that, it does serve as a pleasing introduction to the superb fusion jazz/R&B/pop that Mr Benson serves up masterfully.

Beware, edited tracks, 27 Aug 2004
"The Greatest Love Of All", one of Benson's greatest performances, has an entire verse edited out on this CD, a shameful fact which degrades an otherwise attractive collection of songs, representing the best of George Benson. A fine artist, at his best when singing songs written by Micheal Masser I feel, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You" "In Your Eyes" "You Are The Love Of My Life" "Greatest Love Of All" all of which are presented on this CD.

The Greatest Album of All, 27 Mar 2004
I am glad I bought this album. The songs are lively and lightened my spirits to hear. There are 20 songs, and the CD itself has a cover over it for protection. I love track 1) Give me the night, 5) Nothing's gonna change my love for you, and 11) You are the love of my life. My favourite since childhood is track 6) The greatest love of all, and since last year 10) In your eyes. All very lovely songs by a talented artist named George Benson, who has a good voice. Buy this cd if you like love songs or good pop and jazz music. It's an album that is definitely one of my favourites, and currently my most favourite.

Brilliant album from a brilliant artist., 28 Jul 2003
This album from start to finish is one of brilliance. Provides excellent background music for any occasion. But was there ever any doubt that this would be a great album when it's George Benson.

Music Warrior of true Dimension, 17 Oct 2008
This is Santana of emense,cross sectional,swathe across a timeless barrier of a music making Warrior.Disc One are all vocal tracks that some have been re-mixed and Disc Two are all intrumental tracks, which some have been remixed. Santana here have offered up some of their best known to least known tracks, which makes a refreshing change to *Best of, or greatest hits*
Seaming together a timless fabulous sound which takes into the world of the love of real music.
True fans, may argue that this album was a lost oppertunity to go further and acually re-mix all the tracks into an amazing, glourious testamant of change. But what i believe fans are searching for, is more of that haunting, spine-tingling, beautiful little guitar rifts, worked into so many of Carlos tracks over the past many great albums, but we want more. It can never be enough to satisfy our dreams of inconsoulable imagination in the restless search of such life changing passages of music.

This is the question, 24 Sep 2008
The question isn't whether this is a weird branch that Miles Davis wandered off into in the 70's, and do only pseuds like it.

The question is whether this is the best album ever made.

Pharoah's dance knocks most modern orchestral music into a much-needed hole in the ground - its atonal genius - only Stockhausen could even get close to this match of mood and insane key combinations - is unsurpassed.

Bitches brew has a groove so deep that when you really hear it (maybe second listen, maybe third) you almost salute it - its dark, african and american - city and jungle - jesus its superb.

And if you don't like Spanish Key you are very likely dead.

Magisterial Miles, 09 Sep 2008
I'd be some kind of pretentious idiot if I tried to give any kind of in depth review of this album, so I'll keep it short. I have just come back to this particular album after a 23 year absence: it's incredible, quite incredible. The sound quality over my original vinyl copy is breathtaking and within minutes of hearing Pharoah's Dance, I am caught and off and running. Bitches Brew rewards the listener on so many levels;complexity, drive and sublime intelligence.

Columbia/Legacy are to be highly praised with the packaging; the sleeve notes are copious and very detailed

Hey, you know that Desert Island disc thing? Well, it'd be a toss up here between Bitches Brew and Trout Mask Replica.............

Finally, an open question: how come every time I listen to Miles Davis, it makes me want to cook for my friends?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.............

one of the several excellent miles davis discs., 31 Dec 2007
this is a very good album from miles davis and i think it is one of his best works besides kind of blue even though b^$tches is a bad word, every song on this disc is a masterpiece on this 2 disc set. i'm so sad that he is dead because i would love to see him in concert. anyways, this cd is highy recommended.

Not for the faint-hearted!, 24 Sep 2007
I first heard this album about 5 years ago after hearing of its legendary status from various different sources. It was too much for me to stomach back then having only heard miles' earlier cool jazz and modal jazz albums. But on hearing it again earlier this year I immediately fell in love with it and its now easily among my favourite albums of all time! For jazz purists this is often seen as a real kick in the teeth as it breaks away from all the confines of the stereotypical acoustic jazz band and offers a very different aesthetic to most of Miles' earlier work.

The album is driven by a gritty groove very influenced by rock music at the time. To understand where he was coming from here I would recommend his previous album In A Silent Way and perhaps those leading up to it.

not very good, 17 Sep 2007
This album is very pretentious. I got it as I like birth of the cool and someday my prince will come. They are albums that make you smile as they are beautiful and impressive. However, this is ridiculous. I should have guessed from the photo of miles davis looking like a poser - but I forgive him as he is very talented; this is experimentation, understandable to want to experiment. If like me you like to pick out jazz that is unpretentious and not all smoothy-smoochy, check out django reinhardt djangoloy and louis armstrong hot fives and sevens (and the aforementioned decent miles davis albums). That is real music, and music that is intelligent without falling into the trap of disappearing up your own ass in an introverted neurotic pile of vain nonsense.

Again, I'd like to remind that I like miles davis a lot when he's on form.

What polarised opinions?, 17 Aug 2008
This album does take some getting used to. And you do have to take some space from it and go back again with fresh ears before you are able to sort out what's new. The Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point [2008] DVD, which is awesome, helped clinch the album for me. The first thing you have to deal with is the overwhelming drums and percussion throughout. At first you can't help but think that this is some kind of mistake in the mixing, but persist and you can get used to it. It's a deliberate decision that ensures that the whole album operates at a very high energy level. John's albums have always been about joy and ecstasy and seldom on the mellow side of those values. The album is meant to be rhythmically overwhelming, from start to finish. So dig the drums and percussion first and then revisit it to get at the more melodic aspects. John takes a quite humble approach here, his midi guitar, whilst irritating to some listeners, is definitely him taking a back seat so he can showcase the awesome talents of the Indian guest musicians. In a way its like he wants to show the world what an awesome modern musical force India is gearing up to be. Almost like a legacy thing.

I won't go further into details of tracks and instrumentalists cos they are made clear in the blurb and by other reviewers. All I would say is this is not 'just another' east-west-jazz fusion album. It's a new kind of fusion that requires a new kind of listening. So be humble and put on fresh ears and have patience because every bar of this album is overwhelmingly intense. It just doesn't conform to the fusion formulae that we've got comfortable with.

No no no, 15 Jul 2008
First off I love John's music over the years, from Extrapolation, with Santana, the Mahavishnus, Shakti etc etc he has shown himself to be the most innovative, challenging, spiritual living musician. BUT this is just awful, late '70's-standard jazz-rock noodling, lift music and a couple of numbers that sound like demos off my daughter's old CasioTone. I know Mr McLaughlin can deliver so much more...

Brilliant, Musically Profound and Mindbending, 12 Jul 2008
This is an absolute masterpiece from John McLaughlin. It seems from some reviews here that some fans expect John to continue Mahavishnu Orcestra. That has been done and put to rest. John McLaughlin , like Miles Davis is always striving ahead even if some are left behind. This happened as well when he created Shakti after MO.

On this album, the compostions are fantastic and its a big challenge to accomplish what John has done in the realm of "World Fusion". The guitar Synth work is fantastic, The guest musicians are absolutely stellar. I would advise against reading any bad reviews. Judge it for yourself . This is absolutely mind bending and cohesive musical work. Do check out the brilliant DVD that comes with the CD. Contemporary musicians like myself will try all their lives to make such a musical statement John McLaughlin: Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point

Where have all the other reviews gone?, 08 Jul 2008
This all seems a tad bizarre. Several reviews have been removed..many which were less than favourable. And we're left with a rather one sided gusher ! What on earth has happened ?

Simply Brilliant, 03 Jul 2008
You have to pay attention to a man who has two Miles Davis pieces named for him, but I was paying attention to John McLaughlin well before I realised he and Miles had even met. Back in the seventies, when he was to me what Clapton could only pretend to be, McLaughlin was renowned for white overalls, twin-necked guitars and his adherence to eastern mysticism, referenced by the strong, even at times all-pervasive, influence of Indian music on his work.

It is to that influence that this set returns, bolstered by an ensemble whose names suggest they, too, originate in the sub-continent. To call them backing musicians, however, is to totally misrepresent their role here. In many ways McLaughlin takes a leaf out of his old mentor's book, giving his collaborators centre stage for much of the time but making his mark more than felt when he takes the spotlight himself.

As is his wont lately, McLaughlin makes extensive use of guitar synthesiser throughout, but - call me old fashioned - it's the plain old guitar that stands out for me, nowhere more than on the final track, Five Peace Band (nice pun).

But because of the head he gives to the other players, it's their contribution that is really notable - after all, "John McLaughlin plays virtuoso guitar" is about as surprising as "Dog bites man". At times, in fact, the lead instruments seem to be the percussion.

This is evident right from the off, when a lyrical break on Soprano Sax by George Brooks is underlaid by Ranjit Barot's insistent, staccato drumming (hope I got the name right there - the credits are light blue on dark blue in an only semi-legible, microscopic script). McLaughlin soon takes over on Guitar Synth, and then he and Brooks engage in a call and response routine during which the drums never let up in their relentless attention-seeking, cutting across the serenity of the melody but never doing anything other than complementing it.

This continues on track two, Raju, which has a lick reminiscent of Layla. The other voice notable here is Hadrien Feroud's bass, with Louiz Banks on keyboards (I feel the words adorning the cover were intended to decorate more than inform; I found this name on an online review), laying down a rich canvas for the rest to decorate.

Elsewhere we have some cool playing on flute, nice vocalisations on The Voice, and even electric mandolin on Inside Out.

I'm not going to engage in any kind of discussion as to whether this measures up to other McLaughlin recordings. This is a great record and I'll be playing it alongside The Inner Mounting Flame, Qué Alegría and Trio Of Doom.

My big gripe, if you hadn't already guessed, is with the packaging. I'm not a big fan of cardboard CD covers anyway, but the least they could have done is to have provided some legible liner notes!

The return of Mr.Benson!, 18 Nov 2008
I once had Bensons'Greatest Hits and listened to the album over and over again..Then I gave it to a man I loved, cause he loved him aswell.
That love is gone now, but my love for Mr.Benson is as srong as ever.
This cd holds all the songs I've once had,eccept one(Living inside your love)That's fair enough.
Beautiful,don't hesitate to buy it if you want a complete album!
Miranda

Yet another 'best of' album..., 17 Feb 2006
There have been numerous 'Best Of George Benson' compilations over recent years, none of which have been all-inclusive (that is a probable marketing ploy). This re-packaged selection continues the trend; having said that, it does serve as a pleasing introduction to the superb fusion jazz/R&B/pop that Mr Benson serves up masterfully.

Beware, edited tracks, 27 Aug 2004
"The Greatest Love Of All", one of Benson's greatest performances, has an entire verse edited out on this CD, a shameful fact which degrades an otherwise attractive collection of songs, representing the best of George Benson. A fine artist, at his best when singing songs written by Micheal Masser I feel, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You" "In Your Eyes" "You Are The Love Of My Life" "Greatest Love Of All" all of which are presented on this CD.

The Greatest Album of All, 27 Mar 2004
I am glad I bought this album. The songs are lively and lightened my spirits to hear. There are 20 songs, and the CD itself has a cover over it for protection. I love track 1) Give me the night, 5) Nothing's gonna change my love for you, and 11) You are the love of my life. My favourite since childhood is track 6) The greatest love of all, and since last year 10) In your eyes. All very lovely songs by a talented artist named George Benson, who has a good voice. Buy this cd if you like love songs or good pop and jazz music. It's an album that is definitely one of my favourites, and currently my most favourite.

Brilliant album from a brilliant artist., 28 Jul 2003
This album from start to finish is one of brilliance. Provides excellent background music for any occasion. But was there ever any doubt that this would be a great album when it's George Benson.

Music Warrior of true Dimension, 17 Oct 2008
This is Santana of emense,cross sectional,swathe across a timeless barrier of a music making Warrior.Disc One are all vocal tracks that some have been re-mixed and Disc Two are all intrumental tracks, which some have been remixed. Santana here have offered up some of their best known to least known tracks, which makes a refreshing change to *Best of, or greatest hits*
Seaming together a timless fabulous sound which takes into the world of the love of real music.
True fans, may argue that this album was a lost oppertunity to go further and acually re-mix all the tracks into an amazing, glourious testamant of change. But what i believe fans are searching for, is more of that haunting, spine-tingling, beautiful little guitar rifts, worked into so many of Carlos tracks over the past many great albums, but we want more. It can never be enough to satisfy our dreams of inconsoulable imagination in the restless search of such life changing passages of music.

This is the question, 24 Sep 2008
The question isn't whether this is a weird branch that Miles Davis wandered off into in the 70's, and do only pseuds like it.

The question is whether this is the best album ever made.

Pharoah's dance knocks most modern orchestral music into a much-needed hole in the ground - its atonal genius - only Stockhausen could even get close to this match of mood and insane key combinations - is unsurpassed.

Bitches brew has a groove so deep that when you really hear it (maybe second listen, maybe third) you almost salute it - its dark, african and american - city and jungle - jesus its superb.

And if you don't like Spanish Key you are very likely dead.

Magisterial Miles, 09 Sep 2008
I'd be some kind of pretentious idiot if I tried to give any kind of in depth review of this album, so I'll keep it short. I have just come back to this particular album after a 23 year absence: it's incredible, quite incredible. The sound quality over my original vinyl copy is breathtaking and within minutes of hearing Pharoah's Dance, I am caught and off and running. Bitches Brew rewards the listener on so many levels;complexity, drive and sublime intelligence.

Columbia/Legacy are to be highly praised with the packaging; the sleeve notes are copious and very detailed

Hey, you know that Desert Island disc thing? Well, it'd be a toss up here between Bitches Brew and Trout Mask Replica.............

Finally, an open question: how come every time I listen to Miles Davis, it makes me want to cook for my friends?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.............

one of the several excellent miles davis discs., 31 Dec 2007
this is a very good album from miles davis and i think it is one of his best works besides kind of blue even though b^$tches is a bad word, every song on this disc is a masterpiece on this 2 disc set. i'm so sad that he is dead because i would love to see him in concert. anyways, this cd is highy recommended.

Not for the faint-hearted!, 24 Sep 2007
I first heard this album about 5 years ago after hearing of its legendary status from various different sources. It was too much for me to stomach back then having only heard miles' earlier cool jazz and modal jazz albums. But on hearing it again earlier this year I immediately fell in love with it and its now easily among my favourite albums of all time! For jazz purists this is often seen as a real kick in the teeth as it breaks away from all the confines of the stereotypical acoustic jazz band and offers a very different aesthetic to most of Miles' earlier work.

The album is driven by a gritty groove very influenced by rock music at the time. To understand where he was coming from here I would recommend his previous album In A Silent Way and perhaps those leading up to it.

not very good, 17 Sep 2007
This album is very pretentious. I got it as I like birth of the cool and someday my prince will come. They are albums that make you smile as they are beautiful and impressive. However, this is ridiculous. I should have guessed from the photo of miles davis looking like a poser - but I forgive him as he is very talented; this is experimentation, understandable to want to experiment. If like me you like to pick out jazz that is unpretentious and not all smoothy-smoochy, check out django reinhardt djangoloy and louis armstrong hot fives and sevens (and the aforementioned decent miles davis albums). That is real music, and music that is intelligent without falling into the trap of disappearing up your own ass in an introverted neurotic pile of vain nonsense.

Again, I'd like to remind that I like miles davis a lot when he's on form.

What polarised opinions?, 17 Aug 2008
This album does take some getting used to. And you do have to take some space from it and go back again with fresh ears before you are able to sort out what's new. The Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point [2008] DVD, which is awesome, helped clinch the album for me. The first thing you have to deal with is the overwhelming drums and percussion throughout. At first you can't help but think that this is some kind of mistake in the mixing, but persist and you can get used to it. It's a deliberate decision that ensures that the whole album operates at a very high energy level. John's albums have always been about joy and ecstasy and seldom on the mellow side of those values. The album is meant to be rhythmically overwhelming, from start to finish. So dig the drums and percussion first and then revisit it to get at the more melodic aspects. John takes a quite humble approach here, his midi guitar, whilst irritating to some listeners, is definitely him taking a back seat so he can showcase the awesome talents of the Indian guest musicians. In a way its like he wants to show the world what an awesome modern musical force India is gearing up to be. Almost like a legacy thing.

I won't go further into details of tracks and instrumentalists cos they are made clear in the blurb and by other reviewers. All I would say is this is not 'just another' east-west-jazz fusion album. It's a new kind of fusion that requires a new kind of listening. So be humble and put on fresh ears and have patience because every bar of this album is overwhelmingly intense. It just doesn't conform to the fusion formulae that we've got comfortable with.

No no no, 15 Jul 2008
First off I love John's music over the years, from Extrapolation, with Santana, the Mahavishnus, Shakti etc etc he has shown himself to be the most innovative, challenging, spiritual living musician. BUT this is just awful, late '70's-standard jazz-rock noodling, lift music and a couple of numbers that sound like demos off my daughter's old CasioTone. I know Mr McLaughlin can deliver so much more...

Brilliant, Musically Profound and Mindbending, 12 Jul 2008
This is an absolute masterpiece from John McLaughlin. It seems from some reviews here that some fans expect John to continue Mahavishnu Orcestra. That has been done and put to rest. John McLaughlin , like Miles Davis is always striving ahead even if some are left behind. This happened as well when he created Shakti after MO.

On this album, the compostions are fantastic and its a big challenge to accomplish what John has done in the realm of "World Fusion". The guitar Synth work is fantastic, The guest musicians are absolutely stellar. I would advise against reading any bad reviews. Judge it for yourself . This is absolutely mind bending and cohesive musical work. Do check out the brilliant DVD that comes with the CD. Contemporary musicians like myself will try all their lives to make such a musical statement John McLaughlin: Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point

Where have all the other reviews gone?, 08 Jul 2008
This all seems a tad bizarre. Several reviews have been removed..many which were less than favourable. And we're left with a rather one sided gusher ! What on earth has happened ?

Simply Brilliant, 03 Jul 2008
You have to pay attention to a man who has two Miles Davis pieces named for him, but I was paying attention to John McLaughlin well before I realised he and Miles had even met. Back in the seventies, when he was to me what Clapton could only pretend to be, McLaughlin was renowned for white overalls, twin-necked guitars and his adherence to eastern mysticism, referenced by the strong, even at times all-pervasive, influence of Indian music on his work.

It is to that influence that this set returns, bolstered by an ensemble whose names suggest they, too, originate in the sub-continent. To call them backing musicians, however, is to totally misrepresent their role here. In many ways McLaughlin takes a leaf out of his old mentor's book, giving his collaborators centre stage for much of the time but making his mark more than felt when he takes the spotlight himself.

As is his wont lately, McLaughlin makes extensive use of guitar synthesiser throughout, but - call me old fashioned - it's the plain old guitar that stands out for me, nowhere more than on the final track, Five Peace Band (nice pun).

But because of the head he gives to the other players, it's their contribution that is really notable - after all, "John McLaughlin plays virtuoso guitar" is about as surprising as "Dog bites man". At times, in fact, the lead instruments seem to be the percussion.

This is evident right from the off, when a lyrical break on Soprano Sax by George Brooks is underlaid by Ranjit Barot's insistent, staccato drumming (hope I got the name right there - the credits are light blue on dark blue in an only semi-legible, microscopic script). McLaughlin soon takes over on Guitar Synth, and then he and Brooks engage in a call and response routine during which the drums never let up in their relentless attention-seeking, cutting across the serenity of the melody but never doing anything other than complementing it.

This continues on track two, Raju, which has a lick reminiscent of Layla. The other voice notable here is Hadrien Feroud's bass, with Louiz Banks on keyboards (I feel the words adorning the cover were intended to decorate more than inform; I found this name on an online review), laying down a rich canvas for the rest to decorate.

Elsewhere we have some cool playing on flute, nice vocalisations on The Voice, and even electric mandolin on Inside Out.

I'm not going to engage in any kind of discussion as to whether this measures up to other McLaughlin recordings. This is a great record and I'll be playing it alongside The Inner Mounting Flame, Qué Alegría and Trio Of Doom.

My big gripe, if you hadn't already guessed, is with the packaging. I'm not a big fan of cardboard CD covers anyway, but the least they could have done is to have provided some legible liner notes!


Scraps and nuggets, 28 Aug 2007
Scraps and nuggets from a doomed feast. The paucity of salvageable material (no less than four versions of one track for example) backs up the now legendary accounts of the 'difficulties' John Mclaughlin and Tony Williams had with Jaco Pastorius... but inspite of it all the music veritably roars at times; each member an absolute master of his instrument. Aaaah what might have been.

Important archive release from this short lived supergroup , 27 Jul 2007
Full marks to Columbia for releasing this important archive recording of this very short lived jazz-rock supergroup. A combination of live and studio material make up this collection, athough at just under 40 minutes of playing time, this shows how brief this band actually existed!

The dream team of guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Tony Williams didn't disappoint. Though Jaco's playing and temperament at the time is shrouded in legend, on the evidence here he was on top form. The band really gel and the soloing and group interplay is among the best that jazz-rock had to offer at the time. The first half of this release is live material culled from their only, brief performance at the 1979 Havana Jazz Festival. The highlights are the fiery McLaughlin piece "Dark Prince" and the beautiful "Continuum", penned by Pastorius. The studio takes are obviously more polished, finishing with a storming "Para Oriente" which is worth the price of the disc alone!

The sound quality on these recordings are surprisingly good, wonderfully put together with the remastering overseen by McLaughlin himself. That it has taken this long, almost 30 years, for these recordings to get a legitimate release is almost criminal.






The Cream of jazzrock, 03 Jul 2007
This release may have its detractors due to the very short playingtime, not much more than 35 mins of effective music. But what we get is absolutely fabulous, with all three supermusicians in topform. The liner notes hints at Jaco Pastorius beginning to have some psychological problems, but sure isn't audible in his playing.

One could have feared an unmusical clash of ego's, but in fact the respect between this three giants seems so great that it's a lot more like a super-fusion version of Cream, with all three instruments and all three musicians having equal weight in the furious jamming.

We get their entire set from Havana, for the first time ever, starting after a fine drumintro with what's actually the highlight of the whole release, a monstrous version of "The Dark Prince" with a very inspired McLaughlin-solo. Followed by a beautiful "Continuum" with John adding some fine chordal colours under Pastorius' beautiful soloing. The precedings ending on a bit of a bum note though, with a rather disjointed jam, only to be recognized as "Are You The One?", when McLaughlin plays the theme at the very end. A version far from the grandeur of the original on "Electric Guitarist" with Tony, John and Jack Bruce.

So far it's been a very good year for Jaco Pastorius fans, with this gem and with the wonderful DVD with Weater Report "Live At Montreux".

The whole project has been supervised and produced by John McLaughlin and as one would suspect the sound his absolutely top-class.

Another fine Legacy-release.

The return of Mr.Benson!, 18 Nov 2008
I once had Bensons'Greatest Hits and listened to the album over and over again..Then I gave it to a man I loved, cause he loved him aswell.
That love is gone now, but my love for Mr.Benson is as srong as ever.
This cd holds all the songs I've once had,eccept one(Living inside your love)That's fair enough.
Beautiful,don't hesitate to buy it if you want a complete album!
Miranda

Yet another 'best of' album..., 17 Feb 2006
There have been numerous 'Best Of George Benson' compilations over recent years, none of which have been all-inclusive (that is a probable marketing ploy). This re-packaged selection continues the trend; having said that, it does serve as a pleasing introduction to the superb fusion jazz/R&B/pop that Mr Benson serves up masterfully.

Beware, edited tracks, 27 Aug 2004
"The Greatest Love Of All", one of Benson's greatest performances, has an entire verse edited out on this CD, a shameful fact which degrades an otherwise attractive collection of songs, representing the best of George Benson. A fine artist, at his best when singing songs written by Micheal Masser I feel, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You" "In Your Eyes" "You Are The Love Of My Life" "Greatest Love Of All" all of which are presented on this CD.

The Greatest Album of All, 27 Mar 2004
I am glad I bought this album. The songs are lively and lightened my spirits to hear. There are 20 songs, and the CD itself has a cover over it for protection. I love track 1) Give me the night, 5) Nothing's gonna change my love for you, and 11) You are the love of my life. My favourite since childhood is track 6) The greatest love of all, and since last year 10) In your eyes. All very lovely songs by a talented artist named George Benson, who has a good voice. Buy this cd if you like love songs or good pop and jazz music. It's an album that is definitely one of my favourites, and currently my most favourite.

Brilliant album from a brilliant artist., 28 Jul 2003
This album from start to finish is one of brilliance. Provides excellent background music for any occasion. But was there ever any doubt that this would be a great album when it's George Benson.

Music Warrior of true Dimension, 17 Oct 2008
This is Santana of emense,cross sectional,swathe across a timeless barrier of a music making Warrior.Disc One are all vocal tracks that some have been re-mixed and Disc Two are all intrumental tracks, which some have been remixed. Santana here have offered up some of their best known to least known tracks, which makes a refreshing change to *Best of, or greatest hits*
Seaming together a timless fabulous sound which takes into the world of the love of real music.
True fans, may argue that this album was a lost oppertunity to go further and acually re-mix all the tracks into an amazing, glourious testamant of change. But what i believe fans are searching for, is more of that haunting, spine-tingling, beautiful little guitar rifts, worked into so many of Carlos tracks over the past many great albums, but we want more. It can never be enough to satisfy our dreams of inconsoulable imagination in the restless search of such life changing passages of music.

This is the question, 24 Sep 2008
The question isn't whether this is a weird branch that Miles Davis wandered off into in the 70's, and do only pseuds like it.

The question is whether this is the best album ever made.

Pharoah's dance knocks most modern orchestral music into a much-needed hole in the ground - its atonal genius - only Stockhausen could even get close to this match of mood and insane key combinations - is unsurpassed.

Bitches brew has a groove so deep that when you really hear it (maybe second listen, maybe third) you almost salute it - its dark, african and american - city and jungle - jesus its superb.

And if you don't like Spanish Key you are very likely dead.

Magisterial Miles, 09 Sep 2008
I'd be some kind of pretentious idiot if I tried to give any kind of in depth review of this album, so I'll keep it short. I have just come back to this particular album after a 23 year absence: it's incredible, quite incredible. The sound quality over my original vinyl copy is breathtaking and within minutes of hearing Pharoah's Dance, I am caught and off and running. Bitches Brew rewards the listener on so many levels;complexity, drive and sublime intelligence.

Columbia/Legacy are to be highly praised with the packaging; the sleeve notes are copious and very detailed

Hey, you know that Desert Island disc thing? Well, it'd be a toss up here between Bitches Brew and Trout Mask Replica.............

Finally, an open question: how come every time I listen to Miles Davis, it makes me want to cook for my friends?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.............

one of the several excellent miles davis discs., 31 Dec 2007
this is a very good album from miles davis and i think it is one of his best works besides kind of blue even though b^$tches is a bad word, every song on this disc is a masterpiece on this 2 disc set. i'm so sad that he is dead because i would love to see him in concert. anyways, this cd is highy recommended.

Not for the faint-hearted!, 24 Sep 2007
I first heard this album about 5 years ago after hearing of its legendary status from various different sources. It was too much for me to stomach back then having only heard miles' earlier cool jazz and modal jazz albums. But on hearing it again earlier this year I immediately fell in love with it and its now easily among my favourite albums of all time! For jazz purists this is often seen as a real kick in the teeth as it breaks away from all the confines of the stereotypical acoustic jazz band and offers a very different aesthetic to most of Miles' earlier work.

The album is driven by a gritty groove very influenced by rock music at the time. To understand where he was coming from here I would recommend his previous album In A Silent Way and perhaps those leading up to it.

not very good, 17 Sep 2007
This album is very pretentious. I got it as I like birth of the cool and someday my prince will come. They are albums that make you smile as they are beautiful and impressive. However, this is ridiculous. I should have guessed from the photo of miles davis looking like a poser - but I forgive him as he is very talented; this is experimentation, understandable to want to experiment. If like me you like to pick out jazz that is unpretentious and not all smoothy-smoochy, check out django reinhardt djangoloy and louis armstrong hot fives and sevens (and the aforementioned decent miles davis albums). That is real music, and music that is intelligent without falling into the trap of disappearing up your own ass in an introverted neurotic pile of vain nonsense.

Again, I'd like to remind that I like miles davis a lot when he's on form.

What polarised opinions?, 17 Aug 2008
This album does take some getting used to. And you do have to take some space from it and go back again with fresh ears before you are able to sort out what's new. The Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point [2008] DVD, which is awesome, helped clinch the album for me. The first thing you have to deal with is the overwhelming drums and percussion throughout. At first you can't help but think that this is some kind of mistake in the mixing, but persist and you can get used to it. It's a deliberate decision that ensures that the whole album operates at a very high energy level. John's albums have always been about joy and ecstasy and seldom on the mellow side of those values. The album is meant to be rhythmically overwhelming, from start to finish. So dig the drums and percussion first and then revisit it to get at the more melodic aspects. John takes a quite humble approach here, his midi guitar, whilst irritating to some listeners, is definitely him taking a back seat so he can showcase the awesome talents of the Indian guest musicians. In a way its like he wants to show the world what an awesome modern musical force India is gearing up to be. Almost like a legacy thing.

I won't go further into details of tracks and instrumentalists cos they are made clear in the blurb and by other reviewers. All I would say is this is not 'just another' east-west-jazz fusion album. It's a new kind of fusion that requires a new kind of listening. So be humble and put on fresh ears and have patience because every bar of this album is overwhelmingly intense. It just doesn't conform to the fusion formulae that we've got comfortable with.

No no no, 15 Jul 2008
First off I love John's music over the years, from Extrapolation, with Santana, the Mahavishnus, Shakti etc etc he has shown himself to be the most innovative, challenging, spiritual living musician. BUT this is just awful, late '70's-standard jazz-rock noodling, lift music and a couple of numbers that sound like demos off my daughter's old CasioTone. I know Mr McLaughlin can deliver so much more...

Brilliant, Musically Profound and Mindbending, 12 Jul 2008
This is an absolute masterpiece from John McLaughlin. It seems from some reviews here that some fans expect John to continue Mahavishnu Orcestra. That has been done and put to rest. John McLaughlin , like Miles Davis is always striving ahead even if some are left behind. This happened as well when he created Shakti after MO.

On this album, the compostions are fantastic and its a big challenge to accomplish what John has done in the realm of "World Fusion". The guitar Synth work is fantastic, The guest musicians are absolutely stellar. I would advise against reading any bad reviews. Judge it for yourself . This is absolutely mind bending and cohesive musical work. Do check out the brilliant DVD that comes with the CD. Contemporary musicians like myself will try all their lives to make such a musical statement John McLaughlin: Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point

Where have all the other reviews gone?, 08 Jul 2008
This all seems a tad bizarre. Several reviews have been removed..many which were less than favourable. And we're left with a rather one sided gusher ! What on earth has happened ?

Simply Brilliant, 03 Jul 2008
You have to pay attention to a man who has two Miles Davis pieces named for him, but I was paying attention to John McLaughlin well before I realised he and Miles had even met. Back in the seventies, when he was to me what Clapton could only pretend to be, McLaughlin was renowned for white overalls, twin-necked guitars and his adherence to eastern mysticism, referenced by the strong, even at times all-pervasive, influence of Indian music on his work.

It is to that influence that this set returns, bolstered by an ensemble whose names suggest they, too, originate in the sub-continent. To call them backing musicians, however, is to totally misrepresent their role here. In many ways McLaughlin takes a leaf out of his old mentor's book, giving his collaborators centre stage for much of the time but making his mark more than felt when he takes the spotlight himself.

As is his wont lately, McLaughlin makes extensive use of guitar synthesiser throughout, but - call me old fashioned - it's the plain old guitar that stands out for me, nowhere more than on the final track, Five Peace Band (nice pun).

But because of the head he gives to the other players, it's their contribution that is really notable - after all, "John McLaughlin plays virtuoso guitar" is about as surprising as "Dog bites man". At times, in fact, the lead instruments seem to be the percussion.

This is evident right from the off, when a lyrical break on Soprano Sax by George Brooks is underlaid by Ranjit Barot's insistent, staccato drumming (hope I got the name right there - the credits are light blue on dark blue in an only semi-legible, microscopic script). McLaughlin soon takes over on Guitar Synth, and then he and Brooks engage in a call and response routine during which the drums never let up in their relentless attention-seeking, cutting across the serenity of the melody but never doing anything other than complementing it.

This continues on track two, Raju, which has a lick reminiscent of Layla. The other voice notable here is Hadrien Feroud's bass, with Louiz Banks on keyboards (I feel the words adorning the cover were intended to decorate more than inform; I found this name on an online review), laying down a rich canvas for the rest to decorate.

Elsewhere we have some cool playing on flute, nice vocalisations on The Voice, and even electric mandolin on Inside Out.

I'm not going to engage in any kind of discussion as to whether this measures up to other McLaughlin recordings. This is a great record and I'll be playing it alongside The Inner Mounting Flame, Qué Alegría and Trio Of Doom.

My big gripe, if you hadn't already guessed, is with the packaging. I'm not a big fan of cardboard CD covers anyway, but the least they could have done is to have provided some legible liner notes!


Scraps and nuggets, 28 Aug 2007
Scraps and nuggets from a doomed feast. The paucity of salvageable material (no less than four versions of one track for example) backs up the now legendary accounts of the 'difficulties' John Mclaughlin and Tony Williams had with Jaco Pastorius... but inspite of it all the music veritably roars at times; each member an absolute master of his instrument. Aaaah what might have been.

Important archive release from this short lived supergroup , 27 Jul 2007
Full marks to Columbia for releasing this important archive recording of this very short lived jazz-rock supergroup. A combination of live and studio material make up this collection, athough at just under 40 minutes of playing time, this shows how brief this band actually existed!

The dream team of guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Tony Williams didn't disappoint. Though Jaco's playing and temperament at the time is shrouded in legend, on the evidence here he was on top form. The band really gel and the soloing and group interplay is among the best that jazz-rock had to offer at the time. The first half of this release is live material culled from their only, brief performance at the 1979 Havana Jazz Festival. The highlights are the fiery McLaughlin piece "Dark Prince" and the beautiful "Continuum", penned by Pastorius. The studio takes are obviously more polished, finishing with a storming "Para Oriente" which is worth the price of the disc alone!

The sound quality on these recordings are surprisingly good, wonderfully put together with the remastering overseen by McLaughlin himself. That it has taken this long, almost 30 years, for these recordings to get a legitimate release is almost criminal.






The Cream of jazzrock, 03 Jul 2007
This release may have its detractors due to the very short playingtime, not much more than 35 mins of effective music. But what we get is absolutely fabulous, with all three supermusicians in topform. The liner notes hints at Jaco Pastorius beginning to have some psychological problems, but sure isn't audible in his playing.

One could have feared an unmusical clash of ego's, but in fact the respect between this three giants seems so great that it's a lot more like a super-fusion version of Cream, with all three instruments and all three musicians having equal weight in the furious jamming.

We get their entire set from Havana, for the first time ever, starting after a fine drumintro with what's actually the highlight of the whole release, a monstrous version of "The Dark Prince" with a very inspired McLaughlin-solo. Followed by a beautiful "Continuum" with John adding some fine chordal colours under Pastorius' beautiful soloing. The precedings ending on a bit of a bum note though, with a rather disjointed jam, only to be recognized as "Are You The One?", when McLaughlin plays the theme at the very end. A version far from the grandeur of the original on "Electric Guitarist" with Tony, John and Jack Bruce.

So far it's been a very good year for Jaco Pastorius fans, with this gem and with the wonderful DVD with Weater Report "Live At Montreux".

The whole project has been supervised and produced by John McLaughlin and as one would suspect the sound his absolutely top-class.

Another fine Legacy-release.

Fantastically Evocative of the Times, 20 Feb 2007
When I was young I found this a difficult brace of albums to get into but although it didn't all turn me on immediately I always knew that there was enough in there to make it worth my while sticking at it. Once the penny dropped it all became very clear and I do still love this music. The wonderful thing about this CD version is that there is enough room to cram on both albums so that I can listen to it as a whole. There are clearly songs and pieces of music in there that I am very fond of but picking them out seems to miss the poit. The separate pieces are all part of a whole so that although I always await with anticipation of hearing "You may laugh at me, Say I don't deserve..." I would never consider isolating any of these tracks from the whole album(s)

Although Soft machine went on to seemingly more serious jazz orientated music on Third Fourth and Fifth particularly. However I would argue, and indeed have argued quite pasionately, that you don't need to be overtlt serious and poe faced about your art to be deadly serious in your intent just as there is nothing quite so frightening than a television or radio presenter being constantlt "happy"

I love this band and accept the various splits and changes that happened along the way but this will alway be may favourite

Brilliant English Eccentricity, 22 Mar 2005
Marvellous albums, excellent value - they could have been very rich & famous a la Pink Floyd but in the words of Major Willard in Apocalpyse Now 'they went for themselves'

I often wonder what happened on their USA Tour supporting Jimi Hendrix - the audience must have been totally bemused by this bunch.

Oh well - It all went t*ts up after Robert Wyatt flew the coop but we have these 2 albums which still sound utterly radical (& wouldnt get anywhere near any 'chart' even today)

Well done those men!

Vol.2 - my favourite album of all time, 09 May 2002
These 2 albums were released originally independently, and you can see a true progression in the way that pop/psychedelia was being explored in the UK/60's. Vol.1 was "feeling" the way, but still had a basis rooted in their contemporaries (floyd, beatles etc.). But when Vol.2 came out -WOW!!! Even the first few chords of the 1st track (from "Pataphysical Intro") showed that this album would be like nothing like anything else that preceded (and arguably followed) it. It is so difficult to categorize it - but why bother? Just enjoy it. It's got everything in it (including "knickers and panties - nude, bare, naked" - and with no scrimping on the rich and sometimes complex arrangements. Tracks flow into and recede from each other to make this a listening experience where you have to hear the whole record from start to finish. In vol.1 this linkage, again is experimented with, but lacks the polish and completeness of vol.2. I heard that on the strength of Vol.2, Soft Machine were invited to do the proms (1st pop/rock group to do so). As to the richness of the sound, compare vol.2 with its live "Paradiso" session (also on cd). Same tracks, yet the trio amazingly still manage to convey the sound of a small orchestra! This along with Can's "Tago Mago" must rate as one of my all time favourites! Both smashed the underground frontiers of the music scene in that magic period that straddled the 60's & 70's. This is the sort of cd you by 2 of ...and hand down to your kids and their kids!

Grabs attention straight away and won't let you off the hook, 12 Jun 2001
Soft Machine 1 is like Quicksilver's Happy Trails - raw, extravagant and virtuoso. Right from the start you know you are in for a white knuckle ride. Hope for Happiness has the most stunning organ solo I've ever heard, and Wyatt's drumming is thrilling. Why did they get so "studied" later?

Out Freaks the Floyd, 14 Feb 2001
These two albums really show what the Soft Machine was capable of in the late sixties, while Psychedelic rivals and contemporaies Pink Floyd were still suffering from Syd Barrett's departure, The Soft Machine had used a gruelling tour supporting Hendrix across America to hone their own skills to ragged perfection. The first volume is basically the live set recorded in a studio, it sounds like Jazz played by punk rockers, all distorted organ and plunky bass flying off in random directions held together by Ayres pop sensability and Wyatts wonderful drumming and very English sounding vocals. The second album was recorded after a Ayres had left exhausted by the US tour, and was originally meant to be the last album, The first side is a suite of newly drafted in Bassists jazzily wonderful pop songs re-arranged by Wyatt. however one of the finest moments on the first side is Organist Mike Ratledge's Hibou, Anmone and Bear. The second side features two indepent songs the first a homage to former bassist Kevin Ayres, the second a strange - but oddly beautiful- song of Hugh Hopper's. The album ends with Mike Ratledge's powerhouse suite Esther's Nose Job - featuring some comical lyrics in the first section. Together these two albums add up to a brilliant hour and a bit of Pure jazzy Psychedelic fusion that really rocks hard!

Keyboardist Herbie Hancock's remarkable career took a surprising turn with this funk album. Hancock's already-storied career had included an extended tenure with Miles Davis as a member of both the classic quintet of the 1960s and the trumpeter's groundbreaking electric dates. As a leader, the pianist had followed a similar course, cutting both outstanding acoustic dates (Maiden Voyage, Empyrean Isles) and experimental electric sessions (Sextant, Crossings). Head Hunters, however, was something different: a stripped-down date featuring reedman Bennie Maupin as the only horn player, and a funk-oriented rhythm section made up of Paul Jackson, Harvey Mason, and Bill Summers. Hancock traded in his sophisticated piano performances and complex compositions for simple melodies, slow-burn funk grooves, and light electric keyboard splashes. The results, particularly on the tracks "Chameleon" and "Watermelon Man", had a profound impact on other musicians, although critics charged Hancock with playing to the galleries. But the album has stood the test of time--something neither the wealth of Hancock's imitators nor his own subsequent albums in this vein have been able to do. --Fred Goodman

The return of Mr.Benson!, 18 Nov 2008
I once had Bensons'Greatest Hits and listened to the album over and over again..Then I gave it to a man I loved, cause he loved him aswell.
That love is gone now, but my love for Mr.Benson is as srong as ever.
This cd holds all the songs I've once had,eccept one(Living inside your love)That's fair enough.
Beautiful,don't hesitate to buy it if you want a complete album!
Miranda

Yet another 'best of' album..., 17 Feb 2006
There have been numerous 'Best Of George Benson' compilations over recent years, none of which have been all-inclusive (that is a probable marketing ploy). This re-packaged selection continues the trend; having said that, it does serve as a pleasing introduction to the superb fusion jazz/R&B/pop that Mr Benson serves up masterfully.

Beware, edited tracks, 27 Aug 2004
"The Greatest Love Of All", one of Benson's greatest performances, has an entire verse edited out on this CD, a shameful fact which degrades an otherwise attractive collection of songs, representing the best of George Benson. A fine artist, at his best when singing songs written by Micheal Masser I feel, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You" "In Your Eyes" "You Are The Love Of My Life" "Greatest Love Of All" all of which are presented on this CD.

The Greatest Album of All, 27 Mar 2004
I am glad I bought this album. The songs are lively and lightened my spirits to hear. There are 20 songs, and the CD itself has a cover over it for protection. I love track 1) Give me the night, 5) Nothing's gonna change my love for you, and 11) You are the love of my life. My favourite since childhood is track 6) The greatest love of all, and since last year 10) In your eyes. All very lovely songs by a talented artist named George Benson, who has a good voice. Buy this cd if you like love songs or good pop and jazz music. It's an album that is definitely one of my favourites, and currently my most favourite.

Brilliant album from a brilliant artist., 28 Jul 2003
This album from start to finish is one of brilliance. Provides excellent background music for any occasion. But was there ever any doubt that this would be a great album when it's George Benson.

Music Warrior of true Dimension, 17 Oct 2008
This is Santana of emense,cross sectional,swathe across a timeless barrier of a music making Warrior.Disc One are all vocal tracks that some have been re-mixed and Disc Two are all intrumental tracks, which some have been remixed. Santana here have offered up some of their best known to least known tracks, which makes a refreshing change to *Best of, or greatest hits*
Seaming together a timless fabulous sound which takes into the world of the love of real music.
True fans, may argue that this album was a lost oppertunity to go further and acually re-mix all the tracks into an amazing, glourious testamant of change. But what i believe fans are searching for, is more of that haunting, spine-tingling, beautiful little guitar rifts, worked into so many of Carlos tracks over the past many great albums, but we want more. It can never be enough to satisfy our dreams of inconsoulable imagination in the restless search of such life changing passages of music.

This is the question, 24 Sep 2008
The question isn't whether this is a weird branch that Miles Davis wandered off into in the 70's, and do only pseuds like it.

The question is whether this is the best album ever made.

Pharoah's dance knocks most modern orchestral music into a much-needed hole in the ground - its atonal genius - only Stockhausen could even get close to this match of mood and insane key combinations - is unsurpassed.

Bitches brew has a groove so deep that when you really hear it (maybe second listen, maybe third) you almost salute it - its dark, african and american - city and jungle - jesus its superb.

And if you don't like Spanish Key you are very likely dead.

Magisterial Miles, 09 Sep 2008
I'd be some kind of pretentious idiot if I tried to give any kind of in depth review of this album, so I'll keep it short. I have just come back to this particular album after a 23 year absence: it's incredible, quite incredible. The sound quality over my original vinyl copy is breathtaking and within minutes of hearing Pharoah's Dance, I am caught and off and running. Bitches Brew rewards the listener on so many levels;complexity, drive and sublime intelligence.

Columbia/Legacy are to be highly praised with the packaging; the sleeve notes are copious and very detailed

Hey, you know that Desert Island disc thing? Well, it'd be a toss up here between Bitches Brew and Trout Mask Replica.............

Finally, an open question: how come every time I listen to Miles Davis, it makes me want to cook for my friends?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.............

one of the several excellent miles davis discs., 31 Dec 2007
this is a very good album from miles davis and i think it is one of his best works besides kind of blue even though b^$tches is a bad word, every song on this disc is a masterpiece on this 2 disc set. i'm so sad that he is dead because i would love to see him in concert. anyways, this cd is highy recommended.

Not for the faint-hearted!, 24 Sep 2007
I first heard this album about 5 years ago after hearing of its legendary status from various different sources. It was too much for me to stomach back then having only heard miles' earlier cool jazz and modal jazz albums. But on hearing it again earlier this year I immediately fell in love with it and its now easily among my favourite albums of all time! For jazz purists this is often seen as a real kick in the teeth as it breaks away from all the confines of the stereotypical acoustic jazz band and offers a very different aesthetic to most of Miles' earlier work.

The album is driven by a gritty groove very influenced by rock music at the time. To understand where he was coming from here I would recommend his previous album In A Silent Way and perhaps those leading up to it.

not very good, 17 Sep 2007
This album is very pretentious. I got it as I like birth of the cool and someday my prince will come. They are albums that make you smile as they are beautiful and impressive. However, this is ridiculous. I should have guessed from the photo of miles davis looking like a poser - but I forgive him as he is very talented; this is experimentation, understandable to want to experiment. If like me you like to pick out jazz that is unpretentious and not all smoothy-smoochy, check out django reinhardt djangoloy and louis armstrong hot fives and sevens (and the aforementioned decent miles davis albums). That is real music, and music that is intelligent without falling into the trap of disappearing up your own ass in an introverted neurotic pile of vain nonsense.

Again, I'd like to remind that I like miles davis a lot when he's on form.

What polarised opinions?, 17 Aug 2008
This album does take some getting used to. And you do have to take some space from it and go back again with fresh ears before you are able to sort out what's new. The Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point [2008] DVD, which is awesome, helped clinch the album for me. The first thing you have to deal with is the overwhelming drums and percussion throughout. At first you can't help but think that this is some kind of mistake in the mixing, but persist and you can get used to it. It's a deliberate decision that ensures that the whole album operates at a very high energy level. John's albums have always been about joy and ecstasy and seldom on the mellow side of those values. The album is meant to be rhythmically overwhelming, from start to finish. So dig the drums and percussion first and then revisit it to get at the more melodic aspects. John takes a quite humble approach here, his midi guitar, whilst irritating to some listeners, is definitely him taking a back seat so he can showcase the awesome talents of the Indian guest musicians. In a way its like he wants to show the world what an awesome modern musical force India is gearing up to be. Almost like a legacy thing.

I won't go further into details of tracks and instrumentalists cos they are made clear in the blurb and by other reviewers. All I would say is this is not 'just another' east-west-jazz fusion album. It's a new kind of fusion that requires a new kind of listening. So be humble and put on fresh ears and have patience because every bar of this album is overwhelmingly intense. It just doesn't conform to the fusion formulae that we've got comfortable with.

No no no, 15 Jul 2008
First off I love John's music over the years, from Extrapolation, with Santana, the Mahavishnus, Shakti etc etc he has shown himself to be the most innovative, challenging, spiritual living musician. BUT this is just awful, late '70's-standard jazz-rock noodling, lift music and a couple of numbers that sound like demos off my daughter's old CasioTone. I know Mr McLaughlin can deliver so much more...

Brilliant, Musically Profound and Mindbending, 12 Jul 2008
This is an absolute masterpiece from John McLaughlin. It seems from some reviews here that some fans expect John to continue Mahavishnu Orcestra. That has been done and put to rest. John McLaughlin , like Miles Davis is always striving ahead even if some are left behind. This happened as well when he created Shakti after MO.

On this album, the compostions are fantastic and its a big challenge to accomplish what John has done in the realm of "World Fusion". The guitar Synth work is fantastic, The guest musicians are absolutely stellar. I would advise against reading any bad reviews. Judge it for yourself . This is absolutely mind bending and cohesive musical work. Do check out the brilliant DVD that comes with the CD. Contemporary musicians like myself will try all their lives to make such a musical statement John McLaughlin: Meeting of the Minds - The Making of Floating Point

Where have all the other reviews gone?, 08 Jul 2008
This all seems a tad bizarre. Several reviews have been removed..many which were less than favourable. And we're left with a rather one sided gusher ! What on earth has happened ?

Simply Brilliant, 03 Jul 2008
You have to pay attention to a man who has two Miles Davis pieces named for him, but I was paying attention to John McLaughlin well before I realised he and Miles had even met. Back in the seventies, when he was to me what Clapton could only pretend to be, McLaughlin was renowned for white overalls, twin-necked guitars and his adherence to eastern mysticism, referenced by the strong, even at times all-pervasive, influence of Indian music on his work.

It is to that influence that this set returns, bolstered by an ensemble whose names suggest they, too, originate in the sub-continent. To call them backing musicians, however, is to totally misrepresent their role here. In many ways McLaughlin takes a leaf out of his old mentor's book, giving his collaborators centre stage for much of the time but making his mark more than felt when he takes the spotlight himself.

As is his wont lately, McLaughlin makes extensive use of guitar synthesiser throughout, but - call me old fashioned - it's the plain old guitar that stands out for me, nowhere more than on the final track, Five Peace Band (nice pun).

But because of the head he gives to the other players, it's their contribution that is really notable - after all, "John McLaughlin plays virtuoso guitar" is about as surprising as "Dog bites man". At times, in fact, the lead instruments seem to be the percussion.

This is evident right from the off, when a lyrical break on Soprano Sax by George Brooks is underlaid by Ranjit Barot's insistent, staccato drumming (hope I got the name right there - the credits are light blue on dark blue in an only semi-legible, microscopic script). McLaughlin soon takes over on Guitar Synth, and then he and Brooks engage in a call and response routine during which the drums never let up in their relentless attention-seeking, cutting across the serenity of the melody but never doing anything other than complementing it.

This continues on track two, Raju, which has a lick reminiscent of Layla. The other voice notable here is Hadrien Feroud's bass, with Louiz Banks on keyboards (I feel the words adorning the cover were intended to decorate more than inform; I found this name on an online review), laying down a rich canvas for the rest to decorate.

Elsewhere we have some cool playing on flute, nice vocalisations on The Voice, and even electric mandolin on Inside Out.

I'm not going to engage in any kind of discussion as to whether this measures up to other McLaughlin recordings. This is a great record and I'll be playing it alongside The Inner Mounting Flame, Qué Alegría and Trio Of Doom.

My big gripe, if you hadn't already guessed, is with the packaging. I'm not a big fan of cardboard CD covers anyway, but the least they could have done is to have provided some legible liner notes!


Scraps and nuggets, 28 Aug 2007
Scraps and nuggets from a doomed feast. The paucity of salvageable material (no less than four versions of one track for example) backs up the now legendary accounts of the 'difficulties' John Mclaughlin and Tony Williams had with Jaco Pastorius... but inspite of it all the music veritably roars at times; each member an absolute master of his instrument. Aaaah what might have been.

Important archive release from this short lived supergroup , 27 Jul 2007
Full marks to Columbia for releasing this important archive recording of this very short lived jazz-rock supergroup. A combination of live and studio material make up this collection, athough at just under 40 minutes of playing time, this shows how brief this band actually existed!

The dream team of guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Tony Williams didn't disappoint. Though Jaco's playing and temperament at the time is shrouded in legend, on the evidence here he was on top form. The band really gel and the soloing and group interplay is among the best that jazz-rock had to offer at the time. The first half of this release is live material culled from their only, brief performance at the 1979 Havana Jazz Festival. The highlights are the fiery McLaughlin piece "Dark Prince" and the beautiful "Continuum", penned by Pastorius. The studio takes are obviously more polished, finishing with a storming "Para Oriente" which is worth the price of the disc alone!

The sound quality on these recordings are surprisingly good, wonderfully put together with the remastering overseen by McLaughlin himself. That it has taken this long, almost 30 years, for these recordings to get a legitimate release is almost criminal.






The Cream of jazzrock, 03 Jul 2007
This release may have its detractors due to the very short playingtime, not much more than 35 mins of effective music. But what we get is absolutely fabulous, with all three supermusicians in topform. The liner notes hints at Jaco Pastorius beginning to have some psychological problems, but sure isn't audible in his playing.

One could have feared an unmusical clash of ego's, but in fact the respect between this three giants seems so great that it's a lot more like a super-fusion version of Cream, with all three instruments and all three musicians having equal weight in the furious jamming.

We get their entire set from Havana, for the first time ever, starting after a fine drumintro with what's actually the highlight of the whole release, a monstrous version of "The Dark Prince" with a very inspired McLaughlin-solo. Followed by a beautiful "Continuum" with John adding some fine chordal colours under Pastorius' beautiful soloing. The precedings ending on a bit of a bum note though, with a rather disjointed jam, only to be recognized as "Are You The One?", when McLaughlin plays the theme at the very end. A version far from the grandeur of the original on "Electric Guitarist" with Tony, John and Jack Bruce.

So far it's been a very good year for Jaco Pastorius fans, with this gem and with the wonderful DVD with Weater Report "Live At Montreux".

The whole project has been supervised and produced by John McLaughlin and as one would suspect the sound his absolutely top-class.

Another fine Legacy-release.

Fantastically Evocative of the Times, 20 Feb 2007
When I was young I found this a difficult brace of albums to get into but although it didn't all turn me on immediately I always knew that there was enough in there to make it worth my while sticking at it. Once the penny dropped it all became very clear and I do still love this music. The wonderful thing about this CD version is that there is enough room to cram on both albums so that I can listen to it as a whole. There are clearly songs and pieces of music in there that I am very fond of but picking them out seems to miss the poit. The separate pieces are all part of a whole so that although I always await with anticipation of hearing "You may laugh at me, Say I don't deserve..." I would never consider isolating any of these tracks from the whole album(s)

Although Soft machine went on to seemingly more serious jazz orientated music on Third Fourth and Fifth particularly. However I would argue, and indeed have argued quite pasionately, that you don't need to be overtlt serious and poe faced about your art to be deadly serious in your intent just as there is nothing quite so frightening than a television or radio presenter being constantlt "happy"

I love this band and accept the various splits and changes that happened along the way but this will alway be may favourite

Brilliant English Eccentricity, 22 Mar 2005
Marvellous albums, excellent value - they could have been very rich & famous a la Pink Floyd but in the words of Major Willard in Apocalpyse Now 'they went for themselves'

I often wonder what happened on their USA Tour supporting Jimi Hendrix - the audience must have been totally bemused by this bunch.

Oh well - It all went t*ts up after Robert Wyatt flew the coop but we have these 2 albums which still sound utterly radical (& wouldnt get anywhere near any 'chart' even today)

Well done those men!

Vol.2 - my favourite album of all time, 09 May 2002
These 2 albums were released originally independently, and you can see a true progression in the way that pop/psychedelia was being explored in the UK/60's. Vol.1 was "feeling" the way, but still had a basis rooted in their contemporaries (floyd, beatles etc.). But when Vol.2 came out -WOW!!! Even the first few chords of the 1st track (from "Pataphysical Intro") showed that this album would be like nothing like anything else that preceded (and arguably followed) it. It is so difficult to categorize it - but why bother? Just enjoy it. It's got everything in it (including "knickers and panties - nude, bare, naked" - and with no scrimping on the rich and sometimes complex arrangements. Tracks flow into and recede from each other to make this a listening experience where you have to hear the whole record from start to finish. In vol.1 this linkage, again is experimented with, but lacks the polish and completeness of vol.2. I heard that on the strength of Vol.2, Soft Machine were invited to do the proms (1st pop/rock group to do so). As to the richness of the sound, compare vol.2 with its live "Paradiso" session (also on cd). Same tracks, yet the trio amazingly still manage to convey the sound of a small orchestra! This along with Can's "Tago Mago" must rate as one of my all time favourites! Both smashed the underground frontiers of the music scene in that magic period that straddled the 60's & 70's. This is the sort of cd you by 2 of ...and hand down to your kids and their kids!

Grabs attention straight away and won't let you off the hook, 12 Jun 2001
Soft Machine 1 is like Quicksilver's Happy Trails - raw, extravagant and virtuoso. Right from the start you know you are in for a white knuckle ride. Hope for Happiness has the most stunning organ solo I've ever heard, and Wyatt's drumming is thrilling. Why did they get so "studied" later?

Out Freaks the Floyd, 14 Feb 2001
These two albums really show what the Soft Machine was capable of in the late sixties, while Psychedelic rivals and contemporaies Pink Floyd were still suffering from Syd Barrett's departure, The Soft Machine had used a gruelling tour supporting Hendrix across America to hone their own skills to ragged perfection. The first volume is basically the live set recorded in a studio, it sounds like Jazz played by punk rockers, all distorted organ and plunky bass flying off in random directions held together by Ayres pop sensability and Wyatts wonderful drumming and very English sounding vocals. The second album was recorded after a Ayres had left exhausted by the US tour, and was originally meant to be the last album, The first side is a suite of newly drafted in Bassists jazzily wonderful pop songs re-arranged by Wyatt. however one of the finest moments on the first side is Organist Mike Ratledge's Hibou, Anmone and Bear. The second side features two indepent songs the first a homage to former bassist Kevin Ayres, the second a strange - but oddly beautiful- song of Hugh Hopper's. The album ends with Mike Ratledge's powerhouse suite Esther's Nose Job - featuring some comical lyrics in the first section. Together these two albums add up to a brilliant hour and a bit of Pure jazzy Psychedelic fusion that really rocks hard!

Caution required, 18 Jan 2008
If you are not much into jazz, art, inovation, genius or music
AVOID this album.
Saw this album reviewed in a mag, bought it! BIG BIG mistake

I am now a smooth jazz Funk junky, I know nothing of jazz, smooth sounds but lovein it.
It will change your take on music. So if your safe in your bubble stay there, if you want to start a musical journey, start here.

It melts my veins, 29 Nov 2006
Anyone who has heard this album and doesn't give it 5 stars needs the doctor. This is the biggest selling jazz album of all time, and rightly so. Its only other near rival is Kind Of Blue (Miles Davis). But this album cannot be compared to any standard jazz output - it is a masterpiece of innovation, a fantastic combination of Sly Stone-inspired US black funk and straight-ahead trio jazz.

It's sensational. Heavy funk riffs, floating electric piano, an unbelievable rhythm section and superb saxophone playing from bennie maupin. This album encapsulates all that was great about 70s fusion, the desire to find new routes through soul, disco, funk, jazz etc. Hancock has proved an absolute master at this - totally at ease in any genre, here he presents the pinnacle of two of the most important american genres: jazz and funk.

There's no point trying to describe the album. Just buy it. If you don't like it, see a doctor.





The coolest album....ever., 12 Oct 2006
If there was ever an introduction that embodied the complete essence of its album, it must be the famous bass line that begins Chameleon. From the opening note, a sense of cool is established that never lets up but for the furious solos on Sly.

Where do you start with Chameleon? It is a staple of funk music, a tune that is known to people who have never listened to jazz in their life, arguably the most famous genre crossover piece in history. BUT, bizarrely, it's perhaps the weakest track on Head Hunters, simply because of the quality of the tunes that follow.

Watermelon Man, funked up from Hancock's Takin' Off (Blue Note, 1963) standard, is given a lazy, half time feel, and easily eclipses the original. Sly, is where the cool feel of the album is briefly broken for insanely energetic solos by Bennie Maupin and then Herbie. The album is finished off with Vein Melter- a deeply chilled out effort that recalls Crossings' (Warner Bros, 1971) Water Torture, and returns the album's tone back into the blue.

Head Hunters is not a perfect album(witness the drums and the bass disagreeing over tempo after the electric piano solo on Chameleon, or Vein Melter's dodgy synth strings), but I like to think that no other jazz-funk album, Hancock's or anyone elses, has ever surpassed it. It remains one of my favourite albums, and a great introduction to Herbie Hancock's funk music.

er..yes it is, 07 Aug 2006
Just checked on my iPod, and my version of Chameleon definatly is Bbm to Eb7.

Oh by the way, great album!

Seminal, 07 Dec 2004
This is indeed a seminal jazz album... may I correct "Top 500 reviewer" going by the name of "ian17577" - 'Chameleon' is not Bb minor to Eb 7 it is A minor to D7. A mistake that no doubt has annoyed more than a few passing musicians. Thanks.