Fabulous and classic Miles, O-10; those are two of my favorite jazz records.
Strateahed, the Downbeat Blindfold Test has always been an interesting peek into the mindset of the musician being "tested". No question, Miles sure was one supremely opinionated dude; and uncompromising. It's also tempting to point out that, by today's political correctness standards, he was also more than a little bit racist. However, tempering that and the key fact here is that this was 1967 and if one considers what was going on in this country as concerns race during that time it is not surprising and even understandable. This leads back to the subject of Miles' genius.
It has often been pointed out that great art always reflects the time of its creation. Wether a listener likes what it is reflecting or not is besides the point and not what makes it good art or not; how well it reflects the time is the standard. It's hard to understand how a musician can produce the beautiful music in the clips that O-10 posted and then six years after that Downbeat Bildfold Test produce this record. Panned by just about every critic at the time, "On The Corner" is now considered one of the most influential records of all time in all of music. This was 1973 (!) and the problem was that it was so ahead of its time. When listened to today, in the context of ALL the music around us, it sounds like it was recorded yesterday. The mistake that "critics" made was thinking that it was a jazz record. It was not; it was a record of "street" music recorded by a jazz musician trying to reflect what was going on during that time. The music, the sounds and the recording techniques were a precursor to the funk, hip-hop (I know, I know) and "world-music" that would follow over the next few decades. It shouldn't be listened to as a jazz record. Like it or not (I like it .....sometimes) it is without a doubt a great example of Miles' genius; or, at least, of his always-evolving attitude:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps0ka1tY5yg
