Miles Ahead on Indiegogo

[wkhanna]

....And I absolutely don't agree that Herbie's best work was done while he was with Miles. What's instructive about the whole Miles/Herbie thing is that Miles was so great at discovering young talent and putting it in front of a larger audience. This is something a lot of the most influential jazz musicians have in common and speaks to the collaborative nature of the form.....

--David

 

Years ago I herd an interview HH gave. When the topic of his time Miles came up, he referred to it as the most frustrating and difficult time in his career. Miles, it seems, would with relentless passion, constantly push HH & the other band members to exceed the preconceived limits of their abilities, demanding they continually produce at level beyond what they felt possible. HH credits his cumulative skill today with great fondness towards Miles's ability to extract every last bit of latent creativity from those he collaborated with.

[Jud]

Years ago I herd an interview HH gave. When the topic of his time Miles came up, he referred to it as the most frustrating and difficult time in his career. Miles, it seems, would with relentless passion, constantly push HH & the other band members to exceed the preconceived limits of their abilities, demanding they continually produce at level beyond what they felt possible. HH credits his cumulative skill today with great fondness towards Miles's ability to extract every last bit of latent creativity from those he collaborated with.

 

I'm not even going to be able to make a decent start, but just off the top of my head, some of Miles' sidemen:

 

- Coltrane

 

- Cannonball Adderly

 

- Wayne Shorter

 

- Sonny Rollins

 

- Bennie Maupin

 

- Tony Williams

 

- Philly Joe Jones

 

- Jack DeJohnette

 

- Billy Cobham

 

- Airto Moreira

 

- Lenny White

 

- Al Foster

 

- Thelonious Monk

 

- Red Garland

 

- Bill Evans

 

- Herbie Hancock

 

- Keith Jarrett

 

- Chick Corea

 

- Joe Zawinul

 

- George Duke

 

- Ron Carter

 

- Paul Chambers

 

- Dave Holland

 

- Michael Henderson

 

- Marcus Miller

 

- Darryl Jones

 

- John McLaughlin

 

- John Scofield

 

I mean, damn​.

[REShaman]

I'm not even going to be able to make a decent start, but just off the top of my head, some of Miles' sidemen:

 

- Coltrane

 

- Cannonball Adderly

 

- Wayne Shorter

 

- Sonny Rollins

 

- Bennie Maupin

 

- Tony Williams

 

- Philly Joe Jones

 

- Jack DeJohnette

 

- Billy Cobham

 

- Airto Moreira

 

- Lenny White

 

- Al Foster

 

- Thelonious Monk

 

- Red Garland

 

- Bill Evans

 

- Herbie Hancock

 

- Keith Jarrett

 

- Chick Corea

 

- Joe Zawinul

 

- George Duke

 

- Ron Carter

 

- Paul Chambers

 

- Dave Holland

 

- Michael Henderson

 

- Marcus Miller

 

- Darryl Jones

 

- John McLaughlin

 

- John Scofield

 

I mean, damn​.

 

Kenny Clarke

McCoy Tyner

Bill Evans (piano)

Kenny Kirkland

Wynton Kelly

Billy Cobham

JJ Johnson

Gerry Mulligan

Bill Evans (saxophonist)

Coleman Hawkins

Elvin Jones

Thelonious Monk

 

And more.

 

Enjoying the music and the tribute we're paying to Miles Davis and his brilliant cast of sidemen, solo artists in their own right.

 

Richard

[Superdad]

(OT) Thanks, BTW, for causing me to think about Shakti. I always really loved those albums (which I had on vinyl, long since departed), so I believe I shall avail myself of those CD's, which I see are available on Amazon at reasonable prices.

--David

 

I was (am) a big McLaughlin and Shakti fan (plus I have all McLaughlin's first sole albums post-Davis, pre-Mahavishnu--though I have all that stuff too but don't listen to them much anymore). I saw Shakti play twice: at the Santa Monica Civic (8th row), and at an even smaller venue in Santa Barbara. Life-changing concerts for 15-year old spinning Hendrix, The Beatles, King Crimson, and Jethro Tull. Even got introduced to him back-stage, as my step-father was West Coast Editor of Downbeat at the time (Lee Underwood, my step-dad, interviewed a huge portion of the great players on the Davis-related list above; I could name-drop having met about a dozen of them, but I was just a punk kid--though Chick Corea came into my bedroom to hear my hifi! An early Hovland amp driving JBLs that I had doped up and customized--the speakers not being the only things doped up then...)

 

Anyway, meeting McLaughlin mad a really big impact on me. He was a very clear and tuned in person during Shakti. He said some thIngs to me which I won't recount here as they would sound too cheesy.

 

Sorry to ramble. I'm in bed with a slight fever this afternoon (iPad breaking the boredom).

Time for some Miles! "In a Silent Way" would be nice and restful right now...

 

--Alex C.

 

P.S. The CD release of "A Handful of Beauty" (my favorite Shakti studio record) is a sonic spectacular. I was very pleased that they did such a good job transferring the tapes. I'll have to check and see which mastering I am referring to.

[realhifi]

Saw the same tour as you did Jud. Miles opened for Herbie and the Headhunters and this night he was not on his A game but he still shone bright and had moments of sheer brilliance. This was in Ann Arbor, MI at Hill Auditorium. Herbie and the band were timely, hip, grooving and smoked through a long set that had people dancing in their seats and in the aisles. Saw Miles once more in Ottawa and the band was TIGHT and he was clearly in charge and blew the roof off. This was around the time of the release of Tutu which was hypnotic and intense.

 

In the film I hope they portray all sides of this amazing and multi dimensional artist. He was a badass and I don't mean bad in the traditional sense. Fricking HUGE artist.