You’re Under Arrest - Miles Davis

Jan

28

You’re Under Arrest - Miles Davis

≡ Category: 1980s, Don't Bother, Fusion, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

DON’T BOTHER

Rating:

Listening to You’re Under Arrest (on Columbia Records) is an enervating, depressing experience. The grooves are robotic and lame. On covers like Human Nature and Time After Time, Miles is reduced to doing soft core R&B covers of pop tunes. I mean, we’re talking about Miles Davis, who was consistently in the center of whatever musical innovation was happening in jazz for over 30 years! It’s so beneath him.

Not that the covers of Human Nature and Time After Time are out and out bad, they’re just uninteresting and inconsequential.

It gets even worse when you consider some of the names of his sidemen: John McLaughlin (guitar), who drove the groundbreaking Jack Johnson sessions, John Scofield (guitar) and bassist Darryl Jones, who appeared on Miles’ strongest post 70s work.

I dunno. Was Miles just exhausted after decades of tirelessly pushing forward the art form of jazz? Did he want to cash in while it was still possible?

I suppose You’re Under Arrest isn’t a total loss. John Scofield’s displays his usual tart intelligence during his guitar solo on Something’s On Your Mind, but it’s like a diamond in a bowl of apple sauce. Likewise, on Katia, John McLaughlin demonstrates his guitar mastery, but the song itself is a big nothing.

Miles himself plays passably well, with taste if not a whole lot of fire, but to no purpose because almost all of the compositions are basically crap and the arrangements boilerplate garbage.

The one exception is the John Scofield penned tune You’re Under Arrest, which has a very cool groove and the usual snaky Scofield melody from the period. Finally, Miles sounds awake on this track, as do the other musicians. If you enjoy Miles’ work with Scofield on Decoy, by all means pick up the mp3 of this tune.

Otherwise, You’re Under Arrest is a total waste of Miles Davis’ gifts, to the point of being offensive. Avoid.