CD 1
1. Tutu
2. Splatch
3. Don't Lose Your Mind
4. Perfect Way
5. Rubber Band
6. Digg That
7. Catembe
8. Mr Pastorius
9. Hannibal
10. Amandla
11. Murder
12. You Won't Forget Me - Shirley Horn featuring Miles Davis
CD 2
1. Concert On The Runway - With Michel Legrand
2. Trumpet Cleaning - With Michel Legrand
3. The Doo-Bop Song
4. Mystery
5. The Pan Piper - With Quincy Jones
6. Summertime - With Quincy Jones
7. Solea - With Quincy Jones
8. In A Silent Way
9. Time After Time
10. Portia
11. Carnival
12. Human Nature
In 1985, Miles Davis changed labels from Columbia to Warner Brothers, which was his last label before his death in 1991. This anthology selects 24 tracks from that period - five of them previously unreleased.
As far as his trumpet-playing was concerned, Miles had long ago discovered that his best path was minimalism: playing short, simple fragments rather than long complex solos, depending upon the arrangers or backing musicians to fill in the gaps. This is clear from the first four tracks on this compilation, which all come from Miles's 1985 CD Tutu. The first three were written and arranged by Marcus Miller and they all use heavy bass (Miller's first instrument), multiple synthesisers, drum machines and lots of other sounds which virtually swamp Miles's interpolations. Sure, Tutu itself is a catchy tune, but these tracks basically comprise a rocky funk workout rather than serious jazz. The pop element is underlined by the fourth track - Perfect Way - which originated from the group Scritti Politti. In fact Marcus Miller is a prominent presence on many of the tracks in the first CD.
Rubber Band and Digg That are the first two of the five newly-released tracks. Rubber Band is the title track from an album that never got released. It contains the same heavy beats and synthesised sounds as the previous tracks and, again, Miles's contribution is fragmentary. In fact Mike Stern's guitar seems to get most of the spotlight. Digg That at least has a gentler rhythm, although the juddering beat can become annoyingly repetitive. We hear more of Miles on this track, yet it still comes at us in bits.
The next four tracks come from Amandla, the 1989 album which marked Miles's last collaboration with Marcus Miller. The title is an African word for "power" and was used as a slogan by the African National Congress. There are certainly some African influences in the backings. Kenny Garrett supplies some worthwhile alto sax work on Catemb‚. Mr Pastorius is a tribute to bassist Jaco Pastorius and it allows Davis to play a touching melody and improvise on it with conviction. A guitarist called Foley (alias Joseph McCreary) takes the front seat in Hannibal, and Miles plays in a more joined-up manner. The title-track of Amandla lets Miles play contemplatively, and Kenny Garrett's keening alto makes another useful contribution. There is also a nice but short keyboard solo from Joe Sample.
In retrospect, it seems as though the tracks masterminded by Marcus Miller were Miles's belated attempts to follow a funk-rock trend which was already past its sell-by date.
Murder is from the 1990 soundtrack album The Hot Spot, with its composer John lee Hooker on guitar and vocals, while Miles adds comments along the way. The first CD ends with You Won't Forget Me, which has Shirley Horn singing and playing piano (although the sleeve only credits her smoky vocals). The trio backing leaves Miles space to improvise at length.
The first two tracks on the second CD were written and arranged by Michel Legrand for the film Dingo. Concert on the Runway sounds very like Davis's earlier success So What but at least it gets away from the heaviness of the preceding items and takes us nearer to jazz. Miles's playing has much of his erstwhile fire, with that unique muted tone which could be so engaging. Some of the same assets are present in Trumpet Cleaning, which is more in jazz-rock style.
The next two tracks are from the album Doo-Bop, which transported Miles to the world of hip-hop, rap and sampling. As with many such pieces, the monotonous rhythm and meaningless words make the music tiresome. Things pick up again with three cuts from the album in which Quincy Jones lured Miles to the Montreux Jazz Festival to rerun some of his successes.
The Pan Piper and Summertime are comparatively short, and not up to the standard that Miles achieved on the original recordings with Gil Evans. The latter has more of Kenny Garrett's sax than Miles Davis's trumpet. Even in the longer Solea, it is hard to tell whether Miles is playing or his trumpeting colleague Wallace Roney. One may also question why the great Quincy Jones thought it was a good idea to emulate the classic Gil Evans recordings.
Two tracks follow from the collection Live Around the World. They were recorded during the last years of Miles's life and his playing is frail and largely ineffectual. The album closes with three previously unreleased tracks, recorded at a 1986 concert in Nice by Miles's Octet. They show Davis in better form than on some later recordings but his tendency to doodle was already well established and he left much of the soloing to other band members.
This collection, although useful, reinforces my view that people should stop talking about Miles Davis as an untouchable genius. Like most musicians, he had his good and bad days, and his technique was not always up to the challenges he faced.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Warner Jazz 5249823812
