Number 55 November 11, 2010

Last Friday I saw Bitches Brew Revisited at the Palace of Fine Arts, as part of SF Jazz.  There has been a renewed interest in electric period Miles Davis in recent years.  Yo Miles  , which dates from 1999, was probably the first revival.  Miles From India  and Marcus Miller and Christian Scott's Tutu Revisited both have musicians who actually played with Miles, to better effect.  After the successful  marginalization by Wynton Marsalis and Ken Burns of late 60's and 70's Afro-American music, including electric Miles, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Butch Morris, among many others, I knew it would take a generation for a new appreciation for this music to arise.  Bitches Brew Revisited has two musicians that Miles would have used, Cindy Blackman and the great Blood Ulmer (whose compatriot, Sonny Sharrock did play with Miles).  The rest of the band, I'm afraid, would not have been up to Miles' high standards.  In truth, none of the revival bands have the emotion or taste of the original music, because they lack the genius himself, Miles Davis.  Better to try and make some new music, as Christian Scott has set out to do.  Asked why he wasn't interested in re-creating earlier periods of his music (Kind of Blue in particular) Miles deadpanned "Ain't that why there's records?"