Voodoo Child (Slight Return)

One of the great musical fantasies is to wonder what kind of music Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis would have produced if those legendary sessions had ever come to pass. But for many Davis fans (and probably a lot of Hendrix fans) those sessions did happen - when Pete Cosey played lead guitar with Miles.

Their greatest triumph, of course, is the released-only-in-Japan live set, "Agharta," in 1975. Miles is at his Bitches Brew-best, and Cosey is incendiary. The opening track, "Prelude," has the most out of control guitar solo I have ever heard in my life, and I mean that in the most positive way. It's the kind of playing that immortalizes you forever. Like Page's break on "Stairway to Heaven" or Hendrix on Side Three of "Electric Ladyland."

Then, for sheer elegance, check Cosey on "He Loved Him Madly," Miles' 30-minute-plus tribute to Duke Ellington from 1974. A real electric Satin Doll. Insistent, gorgeous, Cosey's got it under control - but just barely.

Some surely think that Miles' greatest electric work was with John McLaughlin, but for my money Pete Cosey is the man. He's one of the great unsung heroes of rock 'n' roll. Like one of those guys who really did it, but other guys got credit for it.