Running the Voodoo Down: The Electric Music of Miles Davis Paperback – November 1, 2005

Miles Davis' electric period was not loved by the majority. But if you share a passion for what Miles came out with at that time, then there are two things you need to do. Firstly, listen to the complete sessions recordings, which are available on services such as Spotify, or you could buy them, and get to hear the wealth of excellence that eventually found its way onto the record releases after much editing, and secondly read as much as you can about what was going on.This well-written book helps the fan and/or historian acquire a good understanding of this amazing period in music that pioneered so many sounds and "feels' that persist to this day.

Excellent companion to Miles Beyond by Paul Tingen - get 'em both!

"Running the Voodoo Down" is an interesting exploration into Miles' electric period, its formative years in the late 60's, full blossoming in the 70's and its ultimate wash out in his return from retirement in the 80's. However, it is not as effective as "Miles Beyond" by Paul Tingen which was obviously researched with great detail. For example, "Running the Voodoo Down" states that there were no studio sessions from 1973 while "Miles Beyond" mentions them (even though they have never been released to the general public officially or otherwise) and discusses briefly from an interview with a Miles alumnist what they might have sounded like as well as the interview with Chick Corea that discusses the very first electric concert in 1968. These are minor details but details such as this are what makes a work of musical history. By now, everyone is giving long overdue praise to Miles' electric period but its the detailed facts and unknown stories and descriptions of what was going on beyond the scenes that wets people's appetite for the next Miles archival reissue and lets bands give due for their influences. Also "Miles Beyond" was written like a work of archaeology whereas "Running the Voodoo Down" is filled with overly hyperbolistic rock critic cliches. For the casual listener or the phillistine who puts aside anything from "In a Silent Way" and beyond as derivative of rock and not really jazz, it is essential. For the true jazz fanatic, it is mostly a familiar story.

I enjoyed this... I liked it and I would recommend this others .Good seller . would buy from again .

This is an excellent work. The author deals with Miles' contentious electric period with intelligence and respect.He also places Miles' work in the context of what else was going on in music at the time.However, for any reprints, can I suggest a correction to the passage where the author mentions Rolling Stone's 20th anniversary, when the magazine listed the 100 best albums of the previous 20 years...'Bitches' made the cut, but I'm pretty positive 'Kind Of Blue' didn't. While the latter would certainly made a Top 100 albums of ALL TIME (possibly even number one) it was, after all, released in the 1950s.

In his very first sentence, Philip Freeman establishes that, "Everyone has their own Miles." For many of Davis's most ardent admirers, the only Miles that matters is the earlier, acoustic era that produced such landmark recordings as Kind Of Blue and 'Round About Midnight. Freeman is here to dispute that sentiment and make a convincing case in favor of the latter, more electrically-informed half of Davis's oeuvre, coming to the fore with 1969's massively influential Bitches Brew and lasting until Davis's 1991 death. Running The Voodoo Down wisely avoids posturing itself as yet another Davis bio: Freeman has instead constructed an extended critical essay that dissects the key recordings, the influences on and of the musicians involved and the cultural/societal/artistic spirit in which the work was created. Running The Voodoo Down isn't about the mysterious, mercurial Miles personality, but rather the ever-hungry musical Miles. And although some will never be convinced that even the best of the electric Davis is on a par with Sketches Of Spain or Birth Of The Cool, the book succeeds in provoking the reader to want to revisit and reconsider the value of the often overlooked later period.

I don't review a lot of items, but this book -- which I've now read a couple of times -- impresses me as one of the few books about music that I've ever enjoyed. (It certainly helps that I've liked Miles's 70's music for some time.) The book doesn't seem to proceed in any noticeable progression (e.g., not chronological), but it is very well written, very readable, and chock full of knowledge about a subject the author knows very well, and about an artist whom he reveres but nonetheless is willing to critique when appropriate. If you like Miles Davis or like 70's era jam music (Santana, Allman Bros.) you should read this book.

I'm a gigantic fan of Miles, especially his acoustic jazz works -- but I'm increasingly fascinated by his electric period. This book was an interesting journey through it, but I have some quibbles. Mainly, I find some of the subjective opinions simply silly -- especially when he talks about pieces he doesn't like; for example, the author's opinion that "Miles Ahead" and "Porgy And Bess" were "overrated" albums. Please. Why doesn't he take a swing at "Kind of Blue" and "My Funny Valentine" while he's trashing masterpieces? Otherwise, I enjoyed the blow-by-blow descriptions of the various works, and the in-depth discussion of the editing techniques used by Miles and Teo Macero in constructing the electric albums. Furthermore, the author's subjective opinions about the pieces he likes are much more interesting than of those he doesn't like. I agree that "He Loved Him Madly" is a great work, though I appreciate that the opinion is not universal. On the whole, I'd recommend this book for those interested in the electric period of Miles, but would warn that it is often a highly subjective analysis.

One of the best discussions of Davis’s later works

For aficionados only - but if you are a serious electric Miles fan, then this an enthusiastic and wide-ranging run through of the great man’s most beautiful fusion years (1968 until his death in 1991), telling all you might want to know about his musical development and influences, track by track, and who was playing when and where. Davis made not jazz but music without limitations, music which still sounds edgy and contemporary, even now in 2018, 40-50 years later.His producer, Tony Macero, was critical, but so were the great stream of top jazz-men (no women) who passed through his band and often went on to top flight careers – but none (except John Coltrane and Keith Jarrett, in my view) reached the same heights sans Miles as they made when playing with him. He added that raw, highly distinctive, provocative and intensely self-disciplined lace of genius which even the best of them lacked. It was all one song to Miles, over the entirety of his career, and each album was a cut from a live, torrential river, guided by an uncompromising instinct which rarely failed him (though sometimes it did, especially in his final years).Freeman is good at setting the wider musical context, and he is opinionated, which is what makes the book interesting. Inevitably there will be things to disagree with. The detail can get excessive too – but just go back and listen to In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew or On the Corner. This book is only one man’s commentary on the planetary phenomenon known as Miles Davis.

Philip Freeman has an engaging style -his metaphors for the innovative sounds he describes are both inventive and illuminating- and the contextual information he provides is interesting. However, there is virtually no discussion of Agharta -just a few passing references- and not much on Pangaea either, surely two works central to the purported theme of the book. I've read that Paul Tingen's book is more detailed, but I was more attracted to Freeman's style, having read a few pages online. Good general read, then, but not a focused examination of some of MD's most fascinating music.