Robert Miles

Robert Glasper is a jazz pianist with a knack for mellow, harmonically complex compositions that also reveal a subtle hip-hop influence. Since debuting as a leader during the mid-2000s, the Houston native has been crucial to the enduring relevance of Blue Note Records, blurring genre distinctions and regularly topping Billboard's Jazz Albums chart with highly collaborative recordings such as the Grammy-winning Black Radio (2011) and Black Radio 2 (2013), as well as ArtScience (2016), all credited to the Robert Glasper Experiment. In addition to guiding projects such as the soundtrack for Miles Ahead (another Grammy winner) and R+R=Now's Collagically Speaking, Glasper has contributed to dozens of other albums, most notably Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. The mixtape Fuck Yo Feelings (2019) best exemplifies Glasper's obstinate resistance to expectations and devotion to spontaneous interplay.

Miles Davis - Decoy (1983) {Reissue 1996}
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© 1983 Sony Music / Columbia | 468702 2
Jazz / Fusion / Jazz-Funk

DECOY is a vivid example of Miles Davis' unerring ear for identifying, casting and nurturing talent. Among those helping out Miles flesh out this modern vision of electric jazz: John Scofield, who ranks among the most progressive of jazz guitarists and composers; reedman Branford Marsalis, who fronted the Tonight Show Band; Darryl Jones, who held down the bass chair for Sting and subbed for Bill Wyman in the Rolling Stones; and drummer Al Foster, who went on to work with Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and Ron Carter.

DECOY marks a milestone in Miles' thinking since returning to the jazz wars, and the trumpeter's keyboard abstractions over Jones' Kraftwerk-like bass groove on "Freaky Deaky" offers clues as to the style of spontaneous orchestration and interplay he wanted. Co-producer/keyboardist Robert Irving's title track depicts an opulent canvas of inter-connected modes, all doing a wheeling dance around Jones' spacious, behind-the-beat bass pulse; "Robot 415" is an Afro-Techno miniature; and "Code M.D." offers slick big band synth flourishes and contrasting rhythmic accents over a swampy, post-modern brand of southern funk.

This single CD gives one a definitive look at Miles Davis' live show from his last three years. Using funky but unpredictable rhythm sections and leaving space for plenty of solos, Davis created a unique brand of fusion that has yet to be satisfactorily duplicated. Among his more notable sidemen during this era are altoist Kenny Garrett, Foley on lead bass (which he used as a lower-toned guitar), one or two keyboardists chosen from Joey DeFrancesco, Adam Holzman, Robert Irving III, Kei Akagi, and John Beasley, various bassists, drummers, and percussionists, and on "Amandla," the tenor of Rick Margitza. Davis is in consistently strong form throughout the numbers, which include "In a Silent Way," "New Blues," "Human Nature," "Tutu," and "Time After Time." Quite often the live versions of these songs are more creative and exciting than the ones previously issued.

Lisa Macklin, an Italian woman, has a fight with her American husband Robert in a Paris night club. He leaves the next day for a business trip and Lisa says she does not want to see him again. She is with newspaperman Alan Stewart that evening when she learns Robert's plane has crashed with no survivors. Waking from sedation after the funeral, Lisa finds Robert in their flat, injured but alive. He was thrown clear of the crash by a lucky twist of fate.

Miles Davis - Live in Montreal (2002) [DVD5]
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© 2002 DVD Call | FDVD888
Jazz / Fusion / Trumpet

Jazz legend Miles Davis is captured performing in Montreal on this video. The man performs a half dozen songs including "One Phone Call", "Human Nature", "Something's on Your Mind", "Time After Time", "Code M.D.", and "Jean Pierre". The DVD release of the concert includes a biographical timeline of the artist's life.

Miles Davis - The Complete Miles Davis At Montreux (2002) {20 CD LongBox Warner 0927-41836-2 rec 1973-1991}
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© 1973-91, 2002 Warner Music Switzerland | 0927-41836-2
Jazz / Jazz Rock / Fusion / Experimental Big Band / Trumpet

Produced with loving care by Claude Nobs, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival, with no edits or overdubs, this document of Miles Davis's Montreux performances shows through never-before-released material how Miles and company transformed his music live, with their fire, invention, and interplay. The list of sidemen on these dates is a who's who of today's superstars, including saxophonist Dave Liebman, guitarists John Scofield and Robben Ford, keyboardists Adam Holzman and Kei Akagi, bassist Michael Henderson, and percussionist Mtume. Most of the music on these discs features versions of Davis's fusion "hits." The funky and R&B-ish ditty "Ife" and the bouncy "Calypso Frelimo" are rendered with more gusto than their studio versions, as are the in-the-pocket, mid-'80s tunes "Star People" and "New Blues." A package this big has more than a few surprises, however. Chaka Khan lends her powerful pipes to Davis's unique cover of the Michael Jackson sleeper, "Human Nature," and "Al Jarreau" is an upbeat (though too short) tribute to the great vocalise master.

Miles Davis - The Man With The Horn (1981) {1996 Japan Master Sound, SRCS 9132}
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© 1996 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | SRCS 9132
Jazz / Post Bop / Fusion / Trumpet

If I rate Get Up With It a five, or maybe Live/Evil, or Big Fun, or On the Corner, fives, or maybe even Sketches of Spain, a five, or Kind of Blue, then I guess this is a three and a half, or a four, so I give it a four, as if this were American Bandstand. But it's a Miles Davis record. If it's Miles or Coltrane, or, oh I don't know, Poulenc, perhaps people could "check themselves" just a bit. Man With the Horn is a fine record, a bridge in some ways, if you will, between some of the pre-electric Miles, as "jazz," and the psychedelic fusion, and then the later fusion funk. Man With the Horn is precious to me, and not enough people appreciate it, in my opinion.