Tonight is a sold out performance here at the Walt Disney Concert hall, I don’t think I have witnessed every seat filled up to the rafters in my many experiences here. Miles Dewey Davis, can you believe some 5 decades later still remains to be a top seller in jazz. There is definitely theory behind this notion that will open up a plethora of Pandora’s musical boxes. Perhaps we will take a good look inside this phenomenon and marvel at the multiple prospectives that lie inside, but for this moment, the evening is a shining star!
We are in for a celebration not only for the life and legacy that Miles left behind, but also for what the life, the creativity, the pride, the respect and the music represents to Generations X and Y alike.
Marcus Miller, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Vinnie Colaiuta and Sean Jones representin’. It was initially Marcus’ s idea to do this tribute since this year represents 20 years since Miles took the seven steps. Miles may be in the sky but his music continues to stimulate extra sensory perception. Marcus realizes that there is no tribute without the presence of two specific cats! When asked, Cat number one said yes and shortly there after, cat number two concurred.
Of course we are talking about Wayne and Herbie who Marcus introduces like they were the new guys on the scene and describes their transitions from Art Blakey and Donald Byrd to the illustrious nebula of Miles. Of course you may never know it at the time but, Miles’ band was not just a bunch of available guys but an intentional idea of cognitive created sound formulated way before they were graciously snatched from entities that were already foraging new dimensions in the music. Many have started, made and prolonged their careers by simply dropping the frequent flyer “I played with Miles” card. But I am sure Miles knew even back then that these two are young blossoms that would continue to germinate the future of sound. He did not want to control the growth, just wanted to add a little of his own extra water, sunshine and rich soil to reap the fruits of many great years of abundance.
Herbie took charge of the house and turned it into his own living room with a few brief words. As the initial sonics began to fill the room, we were saturated in the Marcus groove, Miles 2013 style! Groove and back beat to get you body and spirits movin’ in the right direction, straight ahead towards the future. Miles believed in that and if he had still inhabited the earth, I know for a fact that the way people categorize and approach music would be different for sure, “Miles Ahead”!
We listen as the band slings the colors of different Miles compositions so beautifully, exploring the caverns and crevices finding new gems of sound to bring forth. Many of these tunes actually belong to Wayne and Miles loved them, used them and made the book around them.
Just to take a look at the stage and see Herbie and Wayne continuing to bloom since Miles took them in as prodigal genius babies. Together they reminisce and continue to step on uncharted stones. There is space for each to seek and speak their own musical language in the name of Miles.
No need to call tunes, it is a menagerie of melody and harmonic implications on tap. We know this music and we only need to hear a few notes for our muscle memory to mix the joys of yesterday with the beauty of today. The best music has always been a mix of classic old school experience with the blood and thirst of the youth. You can run as fast as you can but you can’t catch up to experience. The music is mixed and blended in a multitude if dimensions. It reaches backward and forward at the same time creating a balancing effect on the apex of subconscious time. Hearing the past while experiencing the now automatically brings you up to new level of buoyant appreciation. The music is really alive, enriched with all of the energy and nutritional supplements to feed your body in the present, not leaving you with the feeling and notions of yesterday, Miles would have certainly not wanted that.
Tonight is a stream of consciousness. Watching Marcus pick up the bass clarinet and Wayne switch between horns is a small sample of how many directions the music can go and still leave the nebulas aura of Miles music in tact. Tonight everyone’s computer gets a fresh upgrade to the new version of Windows, which promises more vision.
Marcus, Herbie and Wayne sat down and contemplated, how do you look back and represent a cat who did not look back? Before they even started to have a conversation about music, they sat and told each other their own personal Miles stories. They all realized that Miles was a visionary and that this concert should be about creating the sound track to Miles’s dreams.
Sean Jones is holding the trumpet chair and representing properly. It is such a pleasure to hear Sean sound like Sean in the midst of Miles. There is no bag, only shear fluidity of new experience while reminiscing on past vibrations, now that’s respect. They continue dreaming, riding on the waves of a conscious imagined through a life of pursistant forward momentum.
Marcus is no doubt undisputed reining champ of the electric bass. There is an acoustic bass resting on stage but he may not even get to it. Not to diminish its importance to the sound but the celestial breeze is not calling for its fragrance at this particular moment. All good things happen in time and when it is right, I know he will light it up! It is a Miles road trip an the tour bus is traveling straight ahead in direction and conscious elevation and the Sorcerer has much more in store!
Wayne my man! Only playing part of the phrase, not telling the whole story and being gracious enough to let you get some enjoyment in being a part of the music by letting you determine your own destiny. Now that is the way to dream! Sounds that dance around the time capsule, relishing is treasures without disturbing its contents. The cats are mashing the music as a DJ interjecting notes as implications for the next dance. The Miles Davis dance spans at least 70 earthly years and light years into the future. Recognize that this will never be over. The pools of sound will exist for an eternity.
Eventually Marcus does get around to picking up the acoustic and it is so right. 4/4 swing on a roller coaster of lush melodies and Vinnie kick ass rhythms. The space ship is visiting all heavens and all galaxies on a journey not a search. The performance gets a standing ovation.
“Miles Smiles” as I am sure he would love to know, “In a Silent Way”, that his contribution to music, to evolution, to thought, to righteousness, to culture has to a degree progressed. The past and the future, two menacing forces are the “Circle in the Round”.
LeRoy Downs
Held every year on 30th April, International Jazz Day brings together communities, schools and groups from across the world to celebrate jazz, learn about its roots and highlight its important role as a form of communication that transcends differences.
Taken forward in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, International Jazz Day was adopted by UNESCO Member States on the initiative of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock, in order to encourage and highlight jazz’s unique power for advancing intercultural dialogue and understanding across the world. International Jazz Day is recognized on the official calendars of UNESCO and the United Nations. Its programs and events will be coordinated with all 195 Member States of UNESCO.
“International Jazz Day is a means to highlight, support, and leverage the unifying attributes of music through worldwide celebratory events and activities on 30th April each year,” said Herbie Hancock. “On International Jazz Day, jazz is celebrated, studied, and performed around the world for 24 hours straight. Collaborations abound among jazz icons, scholars, composers, musicians, dancers, writers, and thinkers who embrace the beauty, spirit, and principles of jazz, freely sharing experiences and performances in our big cities and in our small towns, all across our seven continents.”
Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoglu and its Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ömer Çelik, stated: “Turkey welcomes the opportunity to host UNESCO’s International Jazz Day on 29-30 April, 2013, in Istanbul. On this occasion we shall celebrate jazz music not only as a global language of the human soul, but also as that of more inclusive societies, mutually enhancing civilizations and UNESCO ideals.”
A Guggenheim fellow and recent DownBeat International Critics Poll winner, Rudresh Mahanthappa’s ability to synthesize South Indian concepts with a seemingly boundless range of influences characterizes him as one of the most important artists in jazz today. 
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Their debut album “Apti” (Innova, 2008) received excellent reviews from a variety of publications including the New York Times and Rolling Stone.
Combined with Mahanthappa’s frequent band mates, the ever-inventive Francois Moutin on bass and the expressive Dan Weiss on drums, Gamak is destined to reach great heights in presenting a contemporary American music that synthesizes Western and non-Western musical forms and concepts.
A kaleidoscopic, spiritually charged collection of compositions inspired by the struggle for African-American freedom, Ten Freedom Summers was released on CD on the Cuneiform label in May 2012. It has been heralded as “his masterpiece,” (Barry Witherden, BBC Music Magazine), “the veteran trumpeter’s defining statement,” (Mike Hobart, Financial Times), “the most challenging (and emotionally rewarding) release of 2012,” (
