Miles From India Hits All The Right Notes
Jazz Greats Meets Indian Classical Musicians to honor Miles
Nov 22, 2008
Miles Davis, one of the greatest innovators in Jazz, died nearly twenty years ago. During the years since his passing, there have been many releases and re-releasing of his classic albums. Complete compilations of his studio work has filled many record shelves.
All of this is possible because Miles was a very hard working, forward thinking, musician. Studio bosses gave him the time he needed to experiment until he perfected or came close to perfecting the sounds he heard in his head while tapes whirred, documenting every nano-second of his work.
He was also a great talent scout, with a keen eye for fellow innovators in jazz. Indeed many of his sidemen went on to become legends themselves; cases in point including John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Julian Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans just to name a few.
Miles Music
But it was the music that kept Miles on people's minds. Jazz lovers who were lucky enough to follow his career when he was alive saw a musician who was fearless. He kept fans on edge, they never knew where he was going next, and even though many were disappointed with his latter period work there were still more who loved it.
Today new audiences are discovering and loving every facet of his work and this past summer a new recording bearing the name Miles hits stores, it was a pleasant surprise.
Filled with his spirit, his music and many of the sidemen he led during his reign, the new project is called Miles from India.
Project Miles
Miles from India the brain child of producer Bob Belden and Yusuf Ghandi, head of independent label Times Square, was released in June 2008, distributed by Fusion 3 Canada.
According to Bob Belden, while working on the 'Miles On The Corner' box set and during one of his many conversations with Yusef that he suggested they revisit Miles’ Indian influenced music. He thought they could use some of the musicians that worked with Miles on the 'ON The Corner' session, put them together with some Indian Classical musician and call theproject Miles from India.
Yusef’s reply was “Perfect” and the session was on.
Video Conferencing Technology
Utilizing the latest technology, sessions were recorded during Skype phone sessions with one musician playing somewhere on the West coast and another in Chicago being produced by Bob who was in his apartment in New York.
There was file sharing, video conferencing and great camaraderie between musicians even though they were never all in the same place.
The project took about six months to complete, included about two dozens musicians and was recorded in various places: Mumbai and Madras, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The Musicians
Some of the musicians used came from Miles earliest band like drummer Jimmy Cobb who played with Miles for over five years and is the drummer on what many critics call the greatest Jazz album ‘Kind Of Blue’. Ron Carter from Miles great sixties quintet was there. John McLaughlin whose fiery guitar works lit up the 'Cellar Door Session', 'Bitches Brew' and many other, Marcus Miller who was the chief architect of Miles’ comeback in the eighties is there so too is Chick Corea.
The Indian musicians included a couple of members of McLaughlin’ group Shakti and Remember Shakti.
Together with the other members of the cast they re-interpret classics like: 'So What', 'All Blues', 'In A Silent Way', and 'Blue In Green'. At the end the session delivered a two CD set that Miles would undoubtably have been proud of.
The Cultural Mix
The mix of East West music has been around for years, indeed the Beatles experimented. British jazz musicians like Joe Harriott recorded it in the late sixties and Miles himself worked with tabla player Badal Roy in the early seventies.
Miles from India is a joy from start to finish; even the one commissioned piece written by John McLaughlin captures the spirit of Miles.
Miles lives on.
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