HAPPY BIRTHDAY MILES DAVIS

Miles Davis (trumpet)
May 26, 1926 - September 28, 1991

May 26th is Miles Davis' birthday. Now I'm not going to go into a big long story about how great he is and the history. I believe you can get that from any site today.

I thought it would be good to give a short list of past pieces we've done on Miles Davis over the last few years.


It's not an all encompassing list but I think it covers some essential albums and collections that would be great for the uninitiated or even the collector in this age of digital music storage.

So as you spend the next couple of days reading articles about Miles here's what you might want to consider the next time you go to the record store.


L'Ascenseur pour l'echafaud
Kind Of Blue
Live In Stockholm
Bitches Brew Live
The Columbia Years
Decoy
Doo Bop


And check out the videos we found as a bit of prove on why Miles Davis is so important.

Soul Jazz Week: Marcus Belgrave

This week JazzWrap looks at a few rare and new soul jazz albums which helped shape the genre and moved them it forward.

Marcus Belgrave (trumpet; b. 1936)
Gemini (reissue on Universal Sound, originally release Tribe Records 1974)

Phil Ranelin (trombone) Wendel Harrison (sax)
Billy Turner (drums) Roy Brooks (drums)
Lorenzo Brown (bongos) Ed Pickens (bass)
Harold McKinney (electric piano) Daryl Dybka (moog)

Emerging from a Detroit psychedelic funk movement of Detroit in the '70s, Marcus Belgrave has turned into one of the elder statesman of jazz in Detroit. His talents have been instrumental to recordings by a myriad of artists including; Kenny Garrett, Charles Mingus, Gerri Allen and most significantly Ray Charles and pop/alternative funkmiesters Was Not Was. Marcus Belgrave also studied under one the great trumpeters ever, Clifford Brown. Belgrave's ability to move up and down the scales does have many to remark the similarity to his famous mentor. His more recent recordings still contain some groovy elements but nothing like his 1974 album, Gemini.

Gemini is an amazing and weird blend of swing and funky beats. The opening track "Space Odyssey" starts out with some great atmospherics from Daryl Dybka (moog) before diving into the slow funk groove of Harlod McKinney (electric piano) and lead by Belgrave and the rest of the horn section. This is heady stuff by worthy of a couple of glass of wine. The unison that Belgrave, Harrison and Ranelin have throughout "Space Odyssey" and the rest of the recording is superb.

Gemini shows Belgrave's versatility on the swinging "Marcia's Opal" which mixing the big band aspects with the some great noodling from McKinney. It's crazy to say this but its like a big band doing a swing version of Miles Davis fusion material. Weird, trippy but definitely cool. This ensemble while not a big band sure performs like one at times and it gives Gemini a great deal of depth.

The standout track for me is "Glue Fingers I & II" which is a fierce little number with interchanges across the band. This is definitely the highlight for Belgrave and Ranelin. It's a big, full bodied sound with great accompaniment from the percussion and drum section and again McKinney's electric piano.

Gemini is funky, head twisting stuff that not only demonstrates the expert skills of Marcus Belgrave, it signifies the marvelous talents of the band he surrounded himself with. They were mostly Detroiter's whom are still active today. Gemini is a stellar document of the Detroit jazz scene in the '70s (a scene which gets overshadow by the history of Motown) and an album which many may not know about you should definitely pick it up. Gemini has been distributed under two different covers but if you see "Space Odyssey" and "Glue Fingers" listed than you found yourself a little piece of history. Enjoy.

Mulgrew Miller: The New And The Old Guard

Mulgrew Miller (piano; b. 1955)
Solo (Space Time Records)

A frequent session member with Woody Shaw, Betty Carter, Art Blakey, Tony Williams and more recent times with saxophonist, Kenny Garrett, Mulgrew Miller is one of the few masters of the piano of the last three decades. With Art Tatum, Pud Powell, McCoy Tyner and the great Oscar Peterson as his guide, Miller has created a body of work that is insurmountable in regards to musicianship and composition.

Mulgrew Miller has over 15 albums to his credit, many of them in and out of print. It is beyond difficult to find Miller's works at your local record (or used record store) but I assure you if you find one pick it up, you wont be disappointed. His most recent Solo (Space Time Records) is live album and a prime example of Mulgrew Miller's mastery. I have seen him over a dozen times and it is always an magically event to watch the "Big Man" come on stage and gently let loose a cavalcade of notes in astonishing fashion. Solo is evening that runs smoothly through a host of standards which Miller delivers with quite beauty and a harmonic sense of realism.

This is definitely an intimate evening and everyone listening knows it. Lovely, absolutely lovely precision work from Miller from the opening "Jordu," and the audience definitely enjoy the ballads "Carousel" and "My Old Flame". There's some heavyweight playing on the closing number, John Coltrane's "Giant Steps"--fantastic stuff and shows exactly why he is considered one of the best pianist of his generation.

I have only been only been able to find Solo as a digital download so if anyone knows where I could get a physical copy I would love to know. Mulgrew Miller is one those completely under appreciated pianist that deserves wider recognition. I believe Solo is one of those records that can prove it to anyone.