Anything similar to Bitches Brew?

Perhaps a track from Ornette Coleman's project Virgin Beauty, titled "Chanting". 

Keep in mind the entire project isn't exactly like that particular track, except a portion of a larger theme in the album. Otherwise, I too know very little on albums that are close to comparison. 

Here are a few things you MIGHT like:

Big Fun - Miles

Hallucination Engine - Material

Seven Souls - Material

"Weather Report" - Weather Report (there are two albums by this name, i'm recommending their first album which has Zawinul, Shorter, Vitous, Airto, and Alphonse Mouzon)

keith

If no one else has already brought it up, the first Weather Report album is in the style of Bitches Brew.

And I can really relate as I've been looking for albums similar to Bitches Brew for 50 years! In fact this was the first jazz album I ever purchased. 

Have have collected close to 100 albums from that era that were influenced by Bitches Brew, and I like many of them, but no, nothing really comes close. 

My next favorite to Bitches Brew (also form 50 years ago) is Live at Fillmore (the original, not the reissue - edits and all). Still Kills me. And again, like all Miles, albums, nothing else quite like it. 

Ultimately it's like searching for the holy grail. And the search is futile. Instead, I broadened my scope and now my jazz collection is 5,000+ with some real masterpieces, but comparing them with Bitches Brew is futile. They are what they are. If you're always comparing, you'll never hear the brilliance of the other albums. 

John McLaughlin - Devotion (another one from way back when which still does it for me)

Donald Byrd - Electric Byrd and Kofi. Really wonderful spacey jams. 

John Surman - Way Back When (recorded in 1969 but lost and then finally issued in 2005. 

Frank Zappa Hot Rats. - Bitches Brew is jazz meets rock. Hot Rats is rock meets jazz. Love it. 

Nucleus - This English Band Headed by trumpeter Ian Carr (a biographer of Miles) recorded a number of fusion albums in the 70s. The live ones are best.

Joe Farrell - Joe Farrell Quintet. - Features McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. Mellow but really nice. 

Joe Zawinul - Zawinul. Beautiful album released shortly after In a Silent Way, I believe. 

Soft Machine - Both Third and Fourth float my boat. 

Elton Dean (Soft Herd) - Rogue Element - Soft Machine-ish but really good. Just got this today!

Miroslav Vitous - Infinite Search (by one of the founders of Weather Report)

Randy Weston - Blue Moses (on CTI) 

Bobby Hutcherson - Cirrus.  Contains one of my favorite songs ever, Zuri Dance. 

Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow. Jeff's fusion album. 

Elephant9 - These guys stir up some Bitches Brew flavor fusion on several of their albums. Heavy stuff that really grooves. 

Again, none of the these are really like Bitches Brew, but they are offspring, with their own charms. 

Cheers, Robert

 

Having said that, if you're still searching, you should check out what's called "Kozmikgroov" -- jazz/rock music from the late 60's to about 1972-3 or so, and later stuff that's influenced by that stuff.  People have mentioned some of this stuff already--Hancock's Mwandishi-to-Sextant period, before the funk hardened up a bit and the space abated, early Weather Report--first two or three albums, and the Live in Tokyo set, Donald Byrd's albums "Electric Byrd" and "Ethiopianm Knights," and all the Miles stuff you've been talking about.

 

Here are some other suggestions, though they're not going to be exactly like BB, you may find them worth checking out:

Roy Ayers-Ubiquity, Live at Montreaux

Eddie Henderson-Realization, Inside Out, Sunburst, Heritage

Joe Henderson-Black is the Color, Elements

Larry Young-Lawrence of Newark

Maybe some Les McCann--Invitation to Openness, or Layers.....maybe a bit too smooth, not "dark" enough for ya...

 

There are a bunch of other Kozmikgroov albums I can recommend, but they're more "jazz" instrumentation (Black Renaissance, Love Cry Want, Leroy Vinnegar, Bustar Williams, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah)  or "funk based" (Lonnie Liston Smith, Michael Urbaniak, early george Duke)......

 

 

 

 

But get back to the original topic, neither album has that epic feel I find in Bitches Brew. I guess BB is a unique album and I'll always have to turn to that specific album to get my fix, like Ornette Coleman's OF HUMAN FEELINGS and Milton Babbitt\s ALL SET