Fusion For Miles

Based in Luleå, Sweden, a town roughly 160 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle, the Norrbotten Big Band (NBB) is living proof that jazz is truly a universal music with a remarkable ability to transcend geographical boundaries and cultural differences in its diffusion and appeal.
In this unlikely setting, a vast Nordic region where the nomadic Sami people have been tending their reindeer herds for centuries, the NBB - which since 1996 has been under the artistic direction of the imaginative American trumpeter and composer Tim Hagans - has established itself as Sweden’s representative within the ranks of European ensembles like Germany’s WDR Big Band that have adapted the classic American jazz big band tradition of the Swing and Post-War eras…

Miles Davis - Tutu (1986) {2011 Deluxe Edition} {Warner Jazz 8122797687}
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© 1986, 2011 Warner Jazz | 8122797687
Jazz / Fusion / Trumpet

This package contains the original, studio-concocted Miles Davis set that Miller mostly composed. There's also a previously unreleased gig from that year's Nice Jazz festival, delivered by a powerful octet including the late Bob Berg on tenor sax. As liner-note writer Ashley Kahn points out, I made an about-turn over this music in the 80s, from first doubting it as bland funk to reconsidering it as late-flowering Miles, creativity galvanised by Miller's input. But more importantly, Kahn's fine essay offers insights into Miller's assessment that producing finished studio tracks for Miles to blow on didn't work: you had to leave them as rougher sonic sketches and let his improvising bring them to life.

Miles Davis - Big Fun (1974) {2CD Columbia C2K 63973 rel 2000}
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© 1969-72, 2000 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | C2K 63973
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Fusion / Trumpet

Despite the presence of classic tracks like Joe Zawinul's "Great Expectations," Big Fun feels like the compendium of sources it is. These tracks are all outtakes from other sessions, most notably Bitches Brew, On the Corner, and others. The other element is that many of these tracks appeared in different versions elsewhere. These were second takes, or the unedited takes before producer Teo Macero and Miles were able to edit them, cut and paste their parts into other things, or whatever. That is not to say the album should be dismissed.

Miles Davis - Live At The Fillmore East (March 7, 1970) - It's About That Time (2001) [2CD]
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© 2001 Sony Music / Columbia / Legacy | C2K 85191
Jazz / Fusion / Jazz-Funk

The creative vision of Miles Davis was at its most mercurial in the late '60s and early '70s. He advanced the language of jazz (and pop) not just … Full Descriptionwith each album, but practically with each gig. A perfect case in point is this live two-disc set. LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST is like manna from heaven for Miles fans, its nine cuts all previously unreleased performances from a formation of Miles's band that didn't stabilize long enough for a studio release. A considerably different version of this band had recorded the groundbreaking BITCHES BREW not much more than six months before this Fillmore appearance, but the record released as AT THE FILLMORE in 1971, featured yet another incarnation, sans Wayne Shorter, whose last gig with Miles is captured here.

Accordingly, this release finds Davis and cohorts in transition between the abstract jazz-rock of BITCHES BREW and the funkified, modal jams of subsequent recordings. The two sets documented here draw largely from BITCHES BREW, but the variations just a few months down the line are startling. Chick Corea's ring-modulated electric piano creates a Stockhausen-like maelstrom of sound, while Shorter plays some of the most daring, freewheeling solos of his career. Dave Holland splits the difference between funk, rock, and jazz, joining with Jack DeJohnette's roiling drums to forge a tumbling sonic carnival ride. The entire band blazes through every tune working on all cylinders, making a monstrously joyful noise by which the rest of us are still edified, even decades after the fact.

Miles Davis - On The Corner (1972) {2006 DSD Japan Mini LP Edition, SICP-1227}
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© 2006 Sony Music Japan / Columbia | SICP 1227
Jazz / Fusion / Jazz Rock / Trumpet

ON THE CORNER enjoys a special cult status among musicians, anticipating as it does the punk funk/acid jazz movements. For Miles Davis, ON THE CORNER was another seismic shift. Miles was particularly fond of the lyric sweep of Hendrixian electric guitar, the James Brown-like rhythmic thump of Fender bass, and the bell-like timbre and chordal possibilities of the Fender/Rhodes electric piano. Now the trumpeter sought to incorporate the feel of street rhythms from around the world and to reflect the influence of modern electronic composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen.

GRAMMY Award-winning keyboardist/composer/producer Jeff Lorber recalls seeing guitarist Mike Stern during his much-ballyhooed tenure with Miles Davis in the early ‘80s. “I’ve been a fan of his for a long time,” said the keyboardist, who was touring hard in support of his hit records Wizard Island and It’s a Fact in those analog days. “Jeff Lorber Fusion and Miles Davis were playing some of the same festivals back then, so I got to hear him play.” For his part, Stern offered, “To be honest, I was aware of him, and had heard a bunch of good things, but I had never really checked him out. We were just in different orbits, me and Jeff.”