While jazz purists scoffed at the electro based release, the album is his second best selling of all time (only behind Kind of Blue), and opened the doors for jazz fusion (and more rock in general) to enter the jazz world.
It is also one of RtBE's favorite albums of all time.
That starts right at the album artwork which is enchanting and doesn't end at the cover as the gatefold is fantastic:
While RtBE obviously writes about music, Bitches Brew is the one album where words don't really work. It can be cyclical, ominous, pulsing, angular, smooth, messy, blindingly gorgeous, sloppy, cosmically psychedelic and earthy. It sounds like a work in progress, as well as a gateway to new worlds.
This what we said when we ranked it as Davis' best, when we focused on Miles' studio albums for our Master series:
Starting with the enchanting artwork, Bitches Brew is one of my favorite records of all time, any genre. It is bewitching on so many levels, the tape loops, the playing, the alchemy. There is something more than even the sum of its parts. It is not easy listening, it is not comfortable, it is challenging and dark, illuminating and inspiring. It proved the studio could be used as another instrument for Davis and his producer Teo Macero who edited and rearranged the playing. Macero and Davis took these great artists recorded sounds and gave them unique meaning in new setups. It was a mental breakthrough the first time I heard it and still delivers unexpected insights whenever I return to it.
There is deep magic on this record.
All of that still holds true.
One other side note, I was listening to this record on September 10th in NYC and the next morning the world changed. It took me a long time to go back to it as there was a sense of dread that accompanied those opening notes for quite a few years after. Now, that just seeps into the lore of the album for me.
On this 55th anniversary, slap on one of the most legendary jazz albums of all-time.
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