Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab A Tribute To Jack Johnson [VINYL]

The ''Greatest Rock and Roll Band You Have Ever Heard'': Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, and Co. Merge Electric Fusion and Defiant Rock on the Funky, Freeing A Tribute to Jack Johnson Sourced from the Original Analog Master Tapes: Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition 180g SuperVinyl LP Presents 1971 Landmark in Exuberant, Full-Range Sound Miles Davis' A Tribute to Jack Johnson is the best jazz-rock record ever made. Equally inspired by the leader's desire to assemble the ''greatest rock and roll band you have ever heard,'' his adoration of Johnson, and Black Power politics, Davis created a hard-hitting set that surges with excitement, intensity, majesty, and power. Bridging the electric fusion he'd pursued on earlier efforts with a funkier, dirtier rhythmic approach, Davis zeroes in on concepts of spontaneity, freedom, and identity seldom achieved in the studio - and just as infrequently accepted by the mainstream. Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and housed in a Stoughton jacket, Mobile Fidelity's 180g LP reissue brings it all to fore with startling realism. Benefitting from SuperVinyl's nearly inaudible noise floor, superb groove definition, and clean, ultra-quiet surfaces, this 180g LP showcases everything - from the bold tonality of the headliner's white-hot trumpet solos to the decay of crashing cymbals, carry of wiry guitar notes, and echoes of the studio - in reference fashion. Bristling with exuberance, Davis' high-register passages explode with authority and commanding presence. Around him, a barrage of urgent backbeats, knifing riffs, and supple bass lines emerge amidst black backgrounds. One of the most prominent differences longtime fans will notice is how much more aggressive, immediate, and vibrant the music sounds, with those aspects central to the composer's original desires. Talking with jazz scholar Bill Milkowski - who himself noted how McLaughlin's unrestrained style, decibel-forward volumes, and rapid-fire power chords engendered himself to the rock crowd at the same time that his harmonics and syncopation still definitely made him a jazz player - guitarist Henry Kaiser summed up part of the appeal of A Tribute to Jack Johnson as well as anyone, saying: ''It's a jazz record that way way more open than other jazz records at the time, but still not free jazz. [McLaughlin's] rhythm guitar playing on 'Right Off' - the use of different chords in a rock shuffle than what anybody had used before - was revolutionary.'' And to think that's just one aspect of a record that contains multitudes. ''Never let them forget it.'' Indeed.