Show runs Miles deep
By John Stewart
November 6, 2011
In an interview with The News a
couple of weeks before his crack
young quintet took the stage Friday
night at the Living Arts Centre to
honor Miles Davis, Ambrose
Akinmusire was asked about how to
handle the delicate question of
revisiting Kind of Blue.
It's the best-selling jazz album of all
time and one of the best-selling
records of all time — period.
And while it was avant-garde in its
time because of its unique tonal
approach to the music, it is clearly
an albatross around the neck to the
modern musician who must deal
with the inevitable sky-high
expectations of legions of fans of
the record.
Centre stage. Justin Brown's drum solo was one of the highlights at the
Miles Davis Experience show at the Living Arts Centre Friday night. Brown
played a version of Davis' So What from the best-selling jazz album of all
time, Kind of Blue. Staff photo by John Stewart
People don't like it when you mess with the masterpieces they have been listening to forever — or at least
52 years in the case of Kind of Blue. When the record was mentioned Friday in the narrative that
accompanied the show, called The Miles Davis Experience 1949-1959, a cheer went up from the small
but enthusiastic crowd at LAC. But if anyone was expecting a faithful re-creation of what they'd listened
to for decades in the comfort of their recreation rooms, they'd come to the wrong show.
What they got was a famous cut from the record, but this So What was executed as a frenetic, all-out
energy blast by drummer Justin Brown. The tones in this So What were crash, bang and boom.
All of which worked wonderfully and provided a creative cacophony that would have suited
lifelong rebel Miles Davis just fine. It was yet another reminder that jazz is that most fluid of genres.
There's no classic that wasn't meant to be stood on its ear by the next generation of musicians making
their own mark in the sonic sands.
Akinmusire, who is already a candidate to become the Miles of his generation on the trumpet, led a
quintet that is half-way through a North American tour and was making its only Canadian stop. The show
highlights a turbulent decade in Davis' career, where he produced some of its best work, from West Coast
"Birth of the Cool" jazz at the beginning through the first great quintet recorded on Prestige in the middle
50s, to Kind of Blue at the end.
The Miles Davis Experience was part nostalgia, part photo exhibit, part historical drama and part poetry
— plus a lot of great jazz. The narration by Donald E. Lacy did more than provide bridges between
albums, it added whole levels of experience, including a wonderful poem called The Trumpet Player by
Langston Hughes.
But the greatest revelations came from old sound clips of Miles himself, speaking in his trademark rasp
about everything from being beaten by a policeman outside the Birdland jazz club in New York City, to
his love for the fashion sense of Fred Astaire and his confession that he may have stolen the idea for So
What from another musician he loved — soul singer James Brown.
The Akinmusire quintet, with Justin Brown on drums, Harish Raghavan on bass, Sam Harris on piano and
Walter Smith on tenor sax, gave us a provocative ride through a decade of Davis excellence, tipping their
hat to the master while always putting their own stamp on each interpretation.
They drew a well-earned standing ovation from the small, but appreciative house.