2 posts tagged “miles”

Sometime in the 90s Brian Eno was on Desert Island Discs: I didn't hear it, but I've heard him a few other times on the radio and each time he's come across as quiet, astute, amusing and interesting. And he points in all kinds of musical directions. So over the next 8 or so days (Womad intervening) I'll post the eight tracks he chose for his island.

First off, here's the long slowburning elegy Miles made on the death of Duke Ellington; almost nothing happens for the first five or ten minutes. God knows what Sue Lawley made of it: she probably back-credited it in her I'm a radio professional even if I don't know what's going on voice. I'm not sure, but I think this was the one Eno finally chose out of the eight.

Miles at Carnegie Hall, 1964. Great music, great sleeve. No-one ever looked sharper.

The grubby scan of this one doesn't do justice to the lush deep greenness of the original LP; this was the first classical record I can remember seeing (it was long before Kronos) where the artists weren't dressed up in daft white ties and tuxedos; the Fitzwilliams were from Cambridge: I'd worn those flares in those same fields - not the facial hair though.

Lastly, not an album but a 12-inch: old-skool deep phat beats and gnarly loops, super sw33t.