Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Is Miles Davis really dead?: "McLaughlin's power-guitar solo that opens the track should be used to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the air guitar Olympics. Around bar 50 he begins to get ready to pass the lead to Davis and begins a climatic buildup from bar 60, a masterpiece of impromptu construction that climaxes with Davis's entry at bar 75. Davis makes the most of what he's been given. Just as Scarpia's entrance in Act 1 of Puccini's Tosca is one of the great, dramatic moments in opera, so Davis's commanding entry here is one of the great moments in jazz. "