Dark Magus cover

Dark Magus

Released

The cover art, which looks like a still from a fifth-generation bootleg videotape, says it all. This double disc documents a night when Miles Davis and his road-hardened septet brought way too many amplifiers into Carnegie Hall, and auditioned two potential new bandmembers (saxophonist Azar Lawrence and guitarist Dominique Gaumont) mid-set. Subtle it ain’t, but this is as close to Westbound-era Funkadelic as Davis ever got, and virtually demands to be heard at punishing volume.

Phil Freeman

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