Wessell Anderson Gerry Hemingway Dave Stryker John ... - Downbeat

The
Inside �
14 I riffs
16 I Vinyl freak
18 I caught
20 I Players
Months Of Miles
Chicago celebration honors Miles
Davis, reworks classic recordings
Chicago’s oldest concert hall, the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt
University, has hosted everyone from Theodore Roosevelt to Mikhail
Baryshnikov and Jimi Hendrix, as well as a celebrated trumpet player
born in Alton, Ill., 85 years ago, Miles Davis. A tribute to the jazz icon ran
throughout the city during the first four months of the year.
The Miles Davis Festival included more than 16 Chicago club shows
and three Auditorium performances running from January through April,
culminating in the April 16 premiere of choreographer Frank Chaves’
Simply Miles, Simply Us, a graceful and hip suite of dances from River
North Dance company set to “So What,” “Bitches Brew,” “Blue In Green”
and “Half Nelson.”
Another festival highlight was the March 31 summit at the club
Martyrs’ that Davis’ nephew, Vince Wilburn Jr., assembled to honor
Bitches Brew. With Davis’ son Erin and daughter Cheryl Davis in attendance,
the phenomenal Bitches Brew Remix 40th Anniversary Band included
drummer Wilburn alongside a dream team of percussionists—
Mino Cinelu, tabla master Badal Roy and Munyungo Jackson on congas.
The concentration of Miles Davis’ ’80s cohorts included bassist Darryl
Jones, tenorist/flutist Gary Thomas, guitarist Blackbyrd McKnight and
keyboardists Baabe Irving and John Beasley, with DJ Logic added on turntables
for a contemporary edge. “The event was inspired by Miles Davis
touching each member’s life,” Wilburn said. “We wanted to say, ‘Thanks,
Chief, we miss you!’”
Despite boasting a host of bandleaders in the ranks, the group played
with restraint and vibe-over-histrionics, keeping the brew on simmer rather
than boil. Trumpeter Nicholas Payton picked choice moments for singular
emphatic statements, a trait that separated Davis from the pack. Along
with “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down,” Joe Zawinul’s “Pharoah’s Dance”
and Wayne Shorter’s “Sanctuary,” other interpretations included “Jack
Johnson,” “Nefertiti” and the popular live jam “Jean Pierre.”
Jones noted backstage that Davis encapsulated the Spanish term duende—that
he was original in many aspects of his style. “If he handed you
the salt one way, he’d find a different way to hand you the pepper,” he said.
Jones first heard Davis at the Auditorium in the early ’80s, and waited
in the backstage alley after the show. “He passed six feet in front of me,”
Jones said. “I remember feeling nearly lifted off of my feet just being that
close to him.” A couple years later Jones would be in the band and performing
alongside Davis at the Auditorium.
Trumpeter Orbert Davis has performed the Miles Davis/Gil Evans’
News & Views From Around The Music World
nicholas Payton
suite Sketches Of Spain numerous times with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble.
For the first half of his presentation “Sketches Of Blue” at the Auditorium
on April 14, Davis revisited Kind Of Blue alongside tenor saxophonist Ari
Brown and alto saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, bassist Stewart Miller, drummer
Ernie Adams and pianist Ryan Cohan. Though the sextet hued closely
to the track order of the 1959 album, Dawkins’ edgy articulation differed
markedly from Cannonball Adderley, and his frequent upper-register rasps
pushed the dynamic in a more emotionally charged direction. Brown conjured
something of the searing impact of his playing without aping John
Coltrane, expertly editing breath gaps in his solo on “Flamenco Sketches”
to grapple with a sticking pad on his horn. The second half of the concert,
which featured the 19-member Chicago Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble,
revealed a different level of involvement with the source material.
“I replaced his second, third and fourth movements with an adaptation
of the second movement, having the entire ensemble improvise spontaneously,”
Davis said. “And I added a new composition, ‘El Moreno,’ which
celebrates the North African and Moorish influence on Spanish culture.”
“El Moreno” made use of Latin music specialist Steve Eisen’s dramatic
tenor saxophone solo, Nicole Mitchell’s snake-charming flute, and percussion
effects from Sarah Allen on martial snare drum and Suzanne Osman
on doumbek, djembe and oud. —Michael Jackson
michael JacKson
JULY 2011 DOWNBEAT 13