(May 2018) I have completed episode 166 of my “opus project,” in which I listen to an artist’s full discography. This edition: MILES DAVIS. I’ve had a complicated relationship with jazz, but Miles Davis has always been my favorite jazz artist — he was a trumpeter (as were my father and I), he was a constant innovator, and he was cool as hell. While it may be considered heresy, my favorite is his “electric period” of experimental, funk and fusion (1969-75). This was a long one — I covered the studio and live albums released under his name, but not bootlegs or his recordings as sideman.
Favorite album: Bitches Brew
Favorite song: Pharaoh’s Dance
Coolest album (in the history of the world): Kind of Blue
Favorite live album: Live at the Fillmore East, March 7, 1970
Favorite period: 1969-75
Worst song: Human Nature (Michael Jackson cover)
Best space jam that sounds like a Pink Floyd song that actually inspired Brian Eno: He Loved Him Madly (from Get Up With It)
Compared to expectations: same
Opus Project 