On the Corner / New York Girl / Thinkin' of One Thing and Doin' Another / Vote for Miles

Although we have long appreciated "Black Satin" from this period in the music of Miles Davis, listening to all of On the Corner was a pure delight. This is Miles masterfully embracing new sound possibilities and creating some ethereal funk. Somehow, all the funk elements, Indian ornamentation, and unstoppable rhythm to combine to create a cosmic stew. 

Black Satin

One of the more interesting pieces from Miles Davis's On the Corner is a rather short funky number, "Black Satin." Combining Indian percussion and sitar with soul claps and funk, Davis and company produced the most rhythmically interesting song of Davis's jazz-funk period, and all with tabla, Miles clapping his hands, and a tabla. Sometimes it was the jazz artists who produced the most arresting funk of the 1970s, such as Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" with the African-inspired bottle blowing that opens the song.