Four unreleased hours of recordings are released that the jazz myth left Miles Davis in the 1980s, as he continued his fusions with rock-pop
In his youth, Miles Davis was one of the few who could follow the spirit of his two teachers, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Parker, with whom he played in various formations that shaped bebop with its dizzying bloom. In the 1950s, the virtuoso trumpeter formed a dream quintet, from which John Coltrane would emerge, with whom he recorded his most popular album. ‘Kin of Blue’ broke the barrier of a million copies and made him one of the most influential on the world jazz scene.
Time has only magnified his legend. Four hours of previously unreleased recordings, recorded between 1982 and 1985, are now being released on three new albums in ‘The Bootleg. That’s What Happened,” in which Sony publishes sessions that were previously rumored.
Those were the years of Davis’s “triumphal return,” according to the chroniclers of those years. His silence has reigned since the mid-1970s, although the albums of the previous years ventured into a fusion that has not stood the test of time. Not only because the composer’s ideas seemed to owe more to his technical skill with enormous self-confidence than to the inspiration of the years when he revolutionized contemporary jazz, that with double bass. In their ‘long-play’ as ‘Bitches Way’ the scrambler dominated.
Something that characterized Davis was his continued musical evolution. He defended the main currents of the genre, such as ‘cool’ and ‘modal’. A documentary, ‘Birth of the Cool’, tells that when sales started to decline, along with the jazz scene, the trumpeter decided to swap the austere suit for colorful shirts. Their music had more metallic sound than any of the young groups that started to emerge.
On his return, in those eighties saved in this release, you can hear that that avant-garde vein was still intact. On listening to these tapes – which were not lost but hidden in the vaults of the record labels Columbia and Warner – it is clear that he still possessed a unique virtuosity, even as he repeated learned phrases. But more than the years and retirement, his own shadow weighed on him. Your myth.
He always knew how to surround himself with the best. Just as he recruited Bill Evans or Chick Corea back then, these songs contain phrases from John McLaughlin, Scofield and Marcus Miller, all proper names of the current scene. This collection also includes a 1983 concert in Montreal in which, like the others from that era – he ended up in Spain in 1984 – the trumpet had power and charm. As a grace, it also brings some versions of pop songs by Cindy Lauper and Tina Turner. Miles Davis was still very Davis, though.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
