Pete Cosey, RIP
The great guitarist for Miles Davis’ mid-70s bands has passed. Very sad.
[SL]: A backhanded tribute to a great innovator: “Howlin’ Wolf looked at me and he said ‘Why don’t you take them wah-wahs and all that other shit and go throw it off in the lake — on your way to the barber shop?’.” Has anyone heard The Howlin’ Wolf Album? Sounds kind of fascinating, actually. I’m certainly always open to listening to Cosey; he was a marvel.
hiring him was one of miles’ most interesting and provocative moves in a career full of them, but cosey would have had a fascinating career even without his time with miles: he was a living embodiment of a variety of streams of the african-american musical heritage.
i haven’t heard much about him in recent years (indeed, i wasn’t sure if he was still alive or not) but another sad note of a fine musician passing.
Howard — where’s the best place to hear him with Miles? Do I need Dark Magus? I’ve always liked Get Up With It but haven’t heard Agartha in a while…
BTW, need to do this in an official post, but thanks for the Murray and Motian, both awesome.
Dark Magus is pretty damn good.
if we’re talking cosey in particular, i guess i give the nod to agharta in particular.
if we’re looking for the most accessible, if you will (this is not a dis, mind you!), of that period, i lean to dark magus.
and for the highest peaks, it’s get up with it.
but you know, all 3 are examples of recordings i admired a lot but didn’t play a lot (as albums; nowadays, 98% of what i listen to of my own volition is random choice within large genre-based playlists): they were albums for full-on listening, all brilliant at the right moment.
as for the murray and motian, your welcome; you do realize, though, that if you post something you’ll just end up encouraging me to carry on in comments….
p.s. you can count me among the original fans of electric mud, btw, which i still own on vinyl….
Dark Magus for sure. Al Foster is equally unbelievable on that record.
Man, I thought I knew the Miles Davis discography, but somehow this one is new to me. Time to rectify that.
Stop dying already.
A track from The Howlin’ Wolf Album.
And another.
Fun, but probably not essential.
Call me a traditionalist but I hated and still hate The Howlin Wolf album and Electric Mud. And, of course, Wolf agreed
People at the time hated all those records funk/jazz, jazz/rock what ever you want to call it albums. I remember a Miles concert in ’75 where people got up and left because they were expecting “Kind of Blue” I guess. They probably hadn’t listen to Miles in 10 years but knew his name. Whatever. Me, as I child of the sixties (but raised on the blues and jazz), I was down for anything electric and rhythmic.
I guess we all have to go sometime. Cosey made his mark indelible.