MUSIC 4 Generations of Miles at Yoshi’s!
by Travis Cruse
travis_cruse@yahoo.com
iles Davis had an illustrious career as a trumpeter, band- leader and composer spanning over 40 years. He was a jazz pioneer and has been credited for creating at least three new sub-genres of jazz. He helped create the cool jazz movement of the late 1940s early 1950s and then continued to develop hard bop and later the electric sound of fusion. His contributions have been crucial to the development of jazz but above all his greatest contribution could have been his innate ability to find the best musicians in the world. Miles provided a platform for his players to rise to prominence. These included the likes of John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Marcus Miller, John McLaughlin, Elvin Jones and Paul Chambers. This is but a fraction of the list, but it gives you an idea of the good company that he was always in.
M YOSHI'S OAKLAND
JACK LONDON SQUARE 510 EMBARCADERO WEST
BETWEEN WASHINGTON & CLAY STS TICKETS 510-238-9200
WWW.YOSHIS.COM/OAKLAND
Since Miles passed away in 1991 he has been honored time and time again, and now his old bandmates are honor- ing his legacy. Four musicians, all of whom were in Miles’ band but never at the same time, are currently touring the country playing the repertoire of the jazz great.
Sonny Fortune is a saxophonist who joined Miles’ band in 1974 when he started his venture into fusion. Mike Stern has become quite a legend in both the guitar world and fusion world. He started with Miles in the early ‘80s when Miles had his comeback. Buster Williams had a successful career as a bassist before he joined Miles’ group. He was especially known for accompa- nying vocalists like Betty Carter, Sarah
Vaughan and Nancy Wilson, but has played with a long list of jazz giants. Finally on drums is the legendary Jimmy Cobb, who played on the most famous album in jazz history Kind of Blue as well as many other masterpiece albums. Together this group represents four generations of music, four generations of Miles. Seeing all of these commanding players on one stage together was need- less to say, exciting. There included such classics as All Blues, There is No Greater Love, My Funny Valentine and Oleo. All of which were watermarks of the Miles Davis band. The group played beautifully together, effortlessly meshing together despite their genera- tional gaps. Throughout the show I kept nuances that reminded me of things I heard on Miles’ albums. Every so often Jimmy would add a
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fill that was right off of Sketches of Spain or Kind of Blue and it would bring me right back to listening to those albums. Buster and Jimmy all easily slipped into that era of jazz from 1958 to 1964 but Mike Stern and Sonny Fortune added a nice touch of mod- ernism to the group. That’s what is great about jazz; no matter how old the tune is or how many times it’s been played, you can always breathe life into it. That is what Four Generations of Miles has accomplished. People want to go hear the music of Miles Davis but they don’t want to hear something different, but they also want to hear Miles in the music. This group has succeeded in channeling Miles. Yoshi’s in Oakland is a wonderful venue. Not only is it an intimate venue but the show sounds good no matter where you sit. The combination of architect Mori Moto’s beauti- ful building, Chef Shotaro ‘Sho’ Kamio's deli- cious menu and the all star acts that come from around the world, makes Yoshi’s one of the world’sfinest venues to see jazz. ~Travis Cruse teachers guitar and is currently pursuing a bachelors degree in music. Email him at
travis_cruse@yahoo.com.
(408) 206-9933 Out & About • June 2011 39
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