Good old Japan. We bomb them, so they horde this Miles Davis gem, available in the US for the first time. It's the best $27 spent outside of the massage parlor in eons. Yeah, I buy CDs sometimes, too. Why? Friggin' label won't send 'em to us. I'm willing to look the other way this time, because this 2 CD set, to put it simply, rules.

Recorded at Carnegie Hall in '74, Miles leads a spacey Bitches Brew-esque jam session, always loose in the middle but tight at the ends. The band of two guitarists, a bassist, drummer, percussionist, sitar player, and a couple of sax honkers launches Dark Magus upwards. Just when you think the shit can't get much higher, Miles comes in and hits the wah-wah down hard on the horn and the next thing you know, you're slappin' five to the man upstairs. Four jams, each divided into two parts, no rules except to keep it real. You think I know what I'm talking about? Damn right I don't. I couldn't be this cool if I smoked menthol PCP and changed my name to Charlie Fucking Parker. I probably don't have enough street cred to give it up for the late Satchmo (yeah, I know, Louis Armstrong was Satchmo, but it's a pretty cool name, don't you think? I think I'll change my name to Satchmo. Oh, and my last name to Bronson. Satchmo Bronson. I could kick ass and have a five octave range on the trumpet. That'd be awesome. Whoops, left the sentence hanging... but that's none of yo bidness. By the rite of Dark Magus, I can fake the cool in no time flat.

-Jason Josephes