Bass (Fender) – Michael Henderson Drums – Billy Cobham Guitar – John McLaughlin Keyboards – Herbie Hancock Saxophone – Steve Grossman Trumpet – Miles Davis.

Miles Davis (tp) John McLaughlin (g) Herbie Hancock (key) Steve Grossman (ss) Bennie Maupin (bcl ) Sonny Sharrock (g ) Michael Henderson (elb) Dave.

Jack Johnson (also known as A Tribute to Jack Johnson on reissues) is a studio album and soundtrack by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was released on February 24, 1971, by Columbia Records. The album was conceived by Davis for Bill Cayton's documentary of the same name, on the life of boxer Jack Johnson. Its two 25-minute-plus tracks were produced from recordings made on February 18 and April 7, 1970, at 30th Street Studio in New York City

A Tribute to Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson is the purest electric jazz record ever made because of the feeling of spontaneity and freedom it evokes in the listener, for the stellar and inspiring solos by McLaughlin and Davis that blur all edges between the two musics, and for the tireless perfection of the studio assemblage by Miles and producer Macero.

A Tribute To Jack Johnson February 24, 1971. Miles immediately leaves the control room to join in with them. He achieved exactly what he wanted for the soundtrack of the documentary devoted to the black boxer Jack Johnson by creating the effect of a train going at full speed (which he compared to the force of a boxer). That’s how side A of the LP Jack Johnson begins. By chance, Herbie Hancock had arrived unexpectedly and started playing on a cheap keyboard that a sound engineer quickly connected. Later, Teo Macero taped John McLaughlin’s riff on Sing A Simple Song by Sly Stone

But A Tribute to Jack Johnson, made five years or more after the Seven Steps material, is clearly a radical new departure for Miles, from the first shattered-glass guitar chord. The second of the two tracks (Yesternow) contains some fragments that will be familiar to many, being grafted in from the Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way sessions. There are also pretty explicit splicings from one line-up to another - one with John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham and an unscheduled Herbie Hancock, another with Chick Corea and guitarist Sonny Sharrock - and from the trumpeter's whispering electric sound.

If Bitches Brew is the revolutionary jazz fusion album and On the Corner is dirty street-funk masterpiece, then 1971’s A Tribute to Jack Johnson is Miles Davis’ exemplary answer to rock. The two tracks here (assembled from two sessions in 1970) were the soundtrack for a film about controversial African-American boxer Jack Johnson, whose taste for the high life resonated with Davis. For rock you need electric guitar, and both John McLaughlin (whose slashing rhythm playing on Right Off and general riffage are some his finest moments set to tape) and Sonny Sharrock can be heard.

A Tribute to Jack Johnson is a good soundtrack and is comprised of two lengthy pieces of varying degrees of success. The first piece "Right Off" starts as an entertaining jazz-rock groove. There's some great firery soloing by Miles and then the tune gets a little spacey towards the middle during the sax solo. Not much happens for a LONG time. But the piece very gradually builds momentum until "Shh Peaceful" (what the ?!?!) from in a Silent Way comes in. Wow, what a "great" way to expand a composition, insert previously recorded material from another album in the middle. Then its back to more repetitious bass playing with horn and guitar accents. This remains in the same mode until at last, thank god, a groove is formed and Miles solos some.

Listen to A Tribute To Jack Johnson in full in the this site app. Play on this site. Originally Released 1971.