Miles was an original Cool Cat, for sure... I can never forget the morning of my first full day in Japan, late summer of '88, coming down from the sky to the Lobby in the elevator of The Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, having just slept off the jet-lag of the previous tedious, endless day spent getting there from the U.S., and everything is swaying; it's just another of a swarm of earthquakes that made the whole experience even more surreal... Even as the elevator carriage bangs against the wall, the blue-suited Japanese businessmen are whistling as they scan their morning newspapers; all chatting away, acting like it's normal, and when the doors open, wow, there is Mr. Davis strolling along to breakfast, looking dapper as can be in a white tuxedo, with full entourage, and gawkers, too! One of my fellow J.E.T. Program participants nudges me and says, "He's in town for the Fuji Jazz Festival -- too bad we can't escape this Orientation thing..." A day or so later, at a famous coffee shop in Roppongi, we saw Art Blakey! A week after, once I was installed in my plum teaching job and new life in Shizuoka, I went to the Jazz section of the local music store and bought CDs of Kind of Blue and A Night In Tunisia --  and a stack of Coltrane. too... Came in handy for the 40 days and nights of rain that followed! To this day, for me, there is nothing that beats the buzz of fine sake and the finest jazz when the weather is just no fun... Thanks, Miles D & RP!

That was awful 
Miles is special and does not need some hip hop drum beat.

Either you get Miles or you don't. Those who don't, well I feel sorry for ya!

 mdnlsn wrote:

As a Miles Davis 'purist' I would suggest that his experimental stuff was exemplary of his broad and eclectic body of work. His willingness to test his chops outside of bebop was what made him a genius!

 sqqqrly wrote:
I would love that. I am completely stupid when it comes to jazz. RP introduced me to so much great music in genres I thought I knew. How amazing would this be for a genre I know barely anything about?

His final album released. If you like this you should also check out "In a Silent Way," "Bitches Brew," and "Tribute to Jack Johnson" in that order to see his progression to electric and Rock stylings - and the birth of Fusion.

REALLY need more Miles in the Mix. And completely agree on needing an RP jazz channel too.

 Montreal_Mort wrote:


Yes!! Combine it with eclectic country, such as Patsy  Cline, Chet Atkins & country swing!  NO  pop country like Achey Breaky heart etc.  Broadcast radio covers that B.S.!

7.6? Ha ha ha. 10, 100, 1000 what does it matter!

MILES!!! 10 for the master.

MDD111...the best by miles!

Jazz channel- yes!!

Am I hearing an Unkle sample for Be There (feat Ian Brown)?

 eileenomurphy wrote:

Definitely!

 sqqqrly wrote:


I AGREE!!!

 Michael_Dean wrote:

How do you know it's not a bong?

 Michael_Dean wrote:


I'll bet Miles held his bong the same way.

Miles is a genius, he created new forms and broke boundaries, he taught me to like and explore jazz. Hooked me with In a Silent way and has kept me hooked since then

How very different from the early Miles (eg Kind of Blue)! I really like the idea of a RP jazz channel. I suspect listeners would have all kinds of great recommendations! Thanks for the terrific music, Bill & Rebecca.

Most excellent!!

Still waiting for the singing.  

Great deep cut BillG! Thanks Love the idea of a RP jazz channel

I hadn't heard this before.  It's so obviously MD, but at first I didn't get that because of the hypnolectric beat.  Very nice.

 stephen.king12101 wrote:
 

Need an RP Jazz channel.   

Davis is instantly recognizable. So many other jazz artists seem to compete over how many hemi-demi-semi-quavers they can cram into a single measure. His is a pure line throughout.

More jazz please

Great stuff. Its produced to make it sound like Nils Petter Molvaer.

I'll bet there's some Miles Davis purists that hate this, but as a non-partisan, it sounds fantastic. 

MILES!  The birth of freeform?

Reminds me of that Billie Holiday mix. I don't like it.

so cool! love this!

I think I had heard it as a young man, but have forgotten that I could call myself a humble fellow Illinoisan.  

Cover Art:  Of course, it's a trumpet, but at first I thought it was a bong.

....In need of an 11......

ABOUT AS TRIPPY AS IT GETS! Outrageous, his range of expression! He seems to have always gathered like-minded souls to accompany him, too...

Could definitely stand to hear some more Miles on RP and jazz in general.....

 bitmobruce wrote: 
read the Wiki on how this song was put together.

 bitbanger wrote: 
According to the Wiki it was constructed using performances from the Rubber Band sessions, after he died.

Beautiful Miles trumpet 
The rest ... Just awful 

This is a great tune, I really love it. Heard it here for the first time a while back.
So, I went online to see if I could hear more from what, according to this tune, would be an awesome album.
Not to be. Oh , the music was there, but just some more of the same, not as good, and some other stuff just sounding trashy and forced.

sweet

Thanks, Bill.  I vote for more Miles :)

 agd3 wrote: 
This was a posthumous release. Great run indeed. One of the best musicians of all time IMHO.

 Sunman wrote: 
Yes! Don't think I've heard them here. Got turned on to them in a dark hip hotel lounge in Bangkok where the bartender knew the band when he lived back in England.

Well that was an excellent treat! Never heard that on RP

Thought this was St. Germain...trippy

That constant wavy note in the background actually hurt my ears. 

Sufficiently atonal for me, a little like rollmops, either they work for you, or they don't.

Very cool.  Sounds like a sound track for a Dirty Harry movie!

This is Miles in 1992...what a run.

 Poacher wrote: 
Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo?

 Zep wrote: 
Ha ha! Yes, that's it! Acid jazz proto-house. 

How about Acid jazz proto-house chillout? 

Any more? 

Nice to hear some Miles this morning.

 debobasu wrote: 
Seriously - I totally agree! Can't anyone else hear this??

This is so out of tune, I can't listen to it. Was it Miles or post "production"?

 Zep wrote: 
Again!

 ........ "Most Excellant"

Acid jazz proto-house. And to follow it up with Thievery Corporation is brilliance, Bill. 
 

Definitely "Touristy". Or I should say the Tourist is "Mysterious".

I am starting to "get" jazz.  Oh yeah, baby!    

.Rotterdam wrote: 
Well, it was '92. Maybe just of it's time, which was pretty much Mile's thing. Bloody good.

Incredible. And it seems before its time, to me, although I am not an expert.
I never much notice cover art, but this is also brilliant.  

Not normally a big jazz fan, but like this - can see where Ludovic Navarre of St Germain gets his ideas! Do SG get a play on RP - 'Tourist' is just so good!

wow thanks for the easter sunday morning jazz
it's great 

Bon pantalon.

Yes...a previous post indicated they thought this was intentionally "out of tune". Yes it's an intentional move for MD to be atonal in these certain runs. There are passages he does that ARE "in tune"...which indicates that he is intentionally doing this. I don't prefer it for there is a reason for scales that work and don't work in various keys. I appreciate the affect Miles is going for here...I just don't like it. My two cents.

I can see how one could like this, but this is really too strange for my taste...

 
5   

This would be a nice song if the electronic stuff matched Miles' scale. So out of tune! Seriously?!

Any old timers remember what it sounded like when you put an LP on a turntable that has gotten warped in the sun?  That's what this turd sounds like.  I like some MD stuff, but this thing sounds like everyone assured that they were out of tune with one another before starting to play.  Sucks IMHO.

Hip Hop killed Miles Davis before he could make a complete ass of himself! The good die young, legends die just in time!

 jools wrote: 
Only 7 from me, because I don't like his trousers...

 ejmusik wrote: 
I"m surprized you didn't say "Miles was always Miles ahead of the curve".

my first time listen - wow, what an amazing set of sounds!

Miles was always ahead of the curve.  This CD is a homage to classic jazz, be bop and hip hop! Thanks to my parents I can appreciate all of his catalog. RIP Miles!

Actually:

On_The_Beach wrote: 
Stranglersfan wrote: 

 On_The_Beach wrote: 

What's interesting is that this is probably the least challenging stuff Miles put out.  It anticipated a lot of later very cool things, but the technical difficulty is pretty low, at least for him.

 jools wrote: 
Sadly, due to illness (and vanity) Miles was sporting a fairly bad rug late in life.

10 for the track, but a minus 5 for that awful hair....

 mamerjamer wrote: 
It's called dissonance.  It gives it that edgy feel that makes you a little uncomfortable.  But go with it- it's cool.

Perhaps it doesn´t span 50 years exactly, but his body of work was cutting edge or thereabouts in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and with this sole work, I think 90s.

 oldman wrote: 

 mamerjamer wrote: 
Even if you are right (it's too late to go checking with software, let's just say it could or could not be true), the fact that the music is just sexy is enough to consider trying to play a bit detuned. Personally I like this album way more than the rest of Davis' work (some of which I do enjoy).

I found this album the other night in my collection, where did it come from?
I hate getting old.

 CamLwalk wrote: 

has to bump this

Oh great segue..loving the trumpet again..

 posworld wrote: 
Live at the Plugged Nickel currently in CD player . . . for quite a few weeks now ;)

This album he was way ahead of most of us. 

Went out for a motorcycle ride yesterday and was listening to this album!  Great tune for working the twisties.

This is a perfect example of Miles Davis playing out of tune.  I do not get it.  I would be willing to bet that, if you put each instrument in this tune on a chromatic tuner, that you would find that there were at least three instruments that were a 1/2 key off from each other (at least three different keys).  Miles Davis was typically out of key with his band, but in this tune, some of the other instruments are out of key with each other (and Miles) as well.  Incredible!  It's like they don't tune up with each other before playing!  I've never heard any other professional music like it.  Some singers can't sing on key, but this seems like it is an intentional style choice here.  Some people probably love everything Miles did, and I like some of it, but I have to say I prefer listening to musicians that are all playing in the same key.  Let the bashing begin . . I can take it.

Hoping to get Davis's "Porgy and Bess" for christmas, with a bunch of other CD's that was on my list, I'm really looking forward to it. The CD's, not christmas, that is.

Is that organ sampled from Stevie Wonder's "Too High"?  Sure sounds like it.

Miles never looked back. Love every one of his phases.

You know...in Canada he's known as Kilometers Davis.

 On_The_Beach wrote: 

When I hear Miles, I always remember the story R.A.Wilson told about him. RAW was working for Playboy in the 60s and went up to Millbrook, where Timothy Leary was dropping out at the time. It was a big mansion loaned to Leary and his friends. It had become a kind of impromptu commune with most folks in a near constant state of LSD nirvana. Well, RAW drives up the entrance way to the house and noticed that there was a black man standing on the roof, ecstatically blowing a trumpet. Miles Davis.

This a great album.  Another to check out is Tutu.  The song Tutu is unapologetic and genius.

 shutter wrote: 
I agree.  Miles experimented right up to the end.  I admire that.

Such a cool tune.  There are a few other winners on this album.

bouncing blues

 thewiseking wrote: 
My feeling is any Miles is good Miles, it's just a matter of degree. I'll agree that his later (80s) work was his weakest (do we really need Cindi Lauper covers?) but it was/is still better than most anything else out there. Personally I loved In a Silent Way / Bitches Brew and that whole era, but I can understand why the Jazz purists didn't like it. As Miles put it "I'm not a Jazz musician". He played what was considered Jazz for a long time, reinvented it a few times, and then moved on. In any event, you can't go wrong with the Hancock, Shorter, Carter & Williams years!

wow. mind-boggling. genius.

For me is just Easy Listening   nothing special

 Leslie wrote: 

Different yes, but totally congruent with his career long habit of blending jazz with different styles and influences to expand jazz boundaries.

I'm a classically trained musician, who played jazz in high school and college.  I never got Miles.  Dunno why.  I'm obviously in the minority....

Rock on, Miles.

 Kokoloco53 wrote: 
Koko, this was the last album he recorded before he died. It's really different and really great. 

Have lots of Miles Davis in my LP/CD collection, but was unaware of this album. Cool song. Thanks RP for expanding my realm once again. And again, and again, and again.

 lophrequa wrote: 
me too! actually it was a cassette.. can't believe im hearing this on RP!!!
an absolute 10, great music

had this cd since i was a kitten ... rowr

nice song, ouchy pants.

sunybuny wrote:

This is what came to mind at the first look at the album art

I had the privilege of seeing Miles Davis in 1990 at a small theater in Northampton, MA. He spent most of the time to the side of the stage conducting the band, who were friggin' LOUD. Every now and again he'd step up and bleat the horn, but he seemed much happier to let his hired guns rock the house. It was a great show, and his charisma, mellow and unshowy as it was, broadcast out of the theater and into the street.

I'm liking this a whole lot.

Never heard this from Miles. Thanks Bill, again.