With this, his fifth album since his re-emergence, Miles Davis is heard to be holding steady on a firm course, though there are a few differences between this and Decoy, his last LP. The music is more consonant and more mid tempo, there is less original material, and, not untypically, there have been personnel changes.
There is an enduring tendency among jazz men to use pop tunes of the day as vehicles for reinterpretation and improvisation, and three tracks here serve that end. These are Human Nature, Something’s On Your Mind and Time After Time. All have arrangements and voicings which are close to the originals, and the excellent rhythm section shows its mastery of the soul and funk vernacular. Outstanding in terms of improvisation is Something’s, which has strong, billowing trumpet work from Miles, perhaps the best since his renascence, and several startlingly perverse incursions by John Scofield.
Two important additions have been made to the personnel for this album: John McLaughlin is an old-time Miles cohort, and he performs here on Ms Morrisine, Katia Prelude and Katia. All three pieces were composed by Miles, all bear considerable similarity and in effect form a suite. Rock and reggae influences inform the rhythm section, and Darryl Jones repeats a simple five-note bass figure for over 7½ minutes on Katia. McLaughlin plays rock riffs and chords and solos in idiomatic rock style on Morrisine, but moves into familiar rapid sixteenth-note phrases during Katia Prelude. Bob Berg is the other notable new sideman: he is listed as appearing on three tracks, and presumably plays ensemble parts very low in the mix, because his only obvious solo appearance is on You’re Under Arrest and lasts around 25 seconds.
Arrest is the only Scofield-penned piece on the album and not surprisingly it is the most convoluted and complex theme. It has both bebop and funk elements and is executed at rapid speed.
Inevitably, there are those first-generation Miles fans who are not going to find this record at all cool. Yet here is Miles at 58, improvising and syncopating in a modern idiom like very few of his contemporaries. Can this be the Miles Davis who met a friend of mine a few weeks ago in a New York dentist’s office and told him ‘jazz is dead’?
Discography
One Phone Call/Street Scenes; Human Nature; MD1/Something’s On Your Mind/MD2; Ms Morrisine; Katia Prelude (21.58) – Katia; Time After Time; You’re Under Arrest; Medley: Jean Pierre/You’re Under Arrest/Then There Were None (20.51)
Miles Davis (t/syn/v); Bob Berg (ss/ts); Al Foster, Vince Wilburn Jr (d); Robert Irving III (kyb/syn); Darryl Jones (b); John Scofield, John McLaughlin (g); Steve Thornton (pc/v); plus Sting, Marek Olko and James Prindiville (voice and handcuffs). Recorded at Record Plant Studios, NYC, 1984 and/or 1985.
(CBS 26447)
