Re: Loopers-Delight-d Digest V99 #49

[KRosser414@aol.com]

As I understand it from several folks I've spoken to that know Teo as well 
as
other people involved in a pretty exhaustive cataloging of Miles' music, 
Teo
hates the Laswell remixes, is pissed that his remix of the previously
unreleased music from the play "Time of the Barracudas" was turned down for
inclusion on the Columbia Miles/Gil Evans box, and is a little sour that 
he's
not being given more credit for being the creative force behind Miles' late
60's-early 70's studio pastiche-based works. (Supposedly Miles was 
virtually
never even in the studio for those mixing sessions, although he claimed
otherwise - most of the witnesses support Teo's side from what I 
understand).
I think you definitely have to give credit where credit is due - samplers
today owe a huge debt to his legacy.  Do you have to share his opinions of 
the
current state of sampling?  Of course not.  If you're serious about it, I
wouild listen to them though, because somewhere in there are more than a 
few
nuggets of wisdom to learn from.

>2.  I don't put Teo in genius category, but he did do a good job of
>implementing Miles' ideas.  No Miles, no Teo, IMHO.

If Miles had started his career with "Silent Way"  I'd say there was some
basis for this argument, but short of ignoring the 20 year revolutionary
legacy of recordings he made before that, especially those with Rudy Van
Gelder producing, I'd say it's way off the mark.  Although Teo did some 
great
work on those 67-74 Miles recordings, his tape edits on Mingus' "Mingus Ah 
Um"
and "Tijuana Moods" are laughably obtrusive.  Ever see the movie "Straight 
No
Chaser" where Monk chews him out in the studio?  But, those are easy 
things to
say in retrospect.  Bottom line, for me: he was there in the trenches when 
the
techniques were being developed, some of it was a mess and some was dead 
on,
but his work and battle stories are worth checking out if you're 
interested in
that kind of thing.  Anyone who had to hang out with Monk, Mingus and 
Miles in
the capacity he did certainly had to have balls of cast iron, I can imagine
how guys like Puff Daddy must look to him.

That period of Miles ('67-'74) is some of my favorite music ever made, and 
I
vastly prefer Teo's original mixes to the Laswell remixes, mostly because
Laswell tries to smooth over too many of the rough edges and reinvent it as
sort of a quasi-ambient trip, although I dig that he brought the bass out 
more
front-and-center.

Ken R