I was trying to figure out what I should write about after wrapping up our series on Johnny Hartman, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Kurt Elling, and it occurred to me that there were probably a few Miles Davis and Miles-adjacent records that had entered my collection since I did my series on the great trumpeter starting over two years ago.
I checked and there are more than a “few”; between Miles and his sidemen, I have enough to keep us going for a while. But why revisit ground I’ve already covered? Turns out there are a few reasons.
First, there are a few sidemen who merit a second look; we’ll get to one of those early in the project.
Second, there are projects by some of Miles’ sidemen (and by Miles himself) that are too outstanding not to cover, though I didn’t own them on vinyl when I was writing the series. Likewise, there are some fascinating twists and turns in their discographies that make for fun listening. Somehow those records have newly turned up in my collection, so I thought it would be fun to listen.
Third, I cut off the series with Miles going electric, but his sidemen kept going, and I think it’s interesting to talk about the music they made as they got older and the musicians they made the music with.
So get ready to talk about some musicians we’ve discussed before in some new places and new (and old) records! And after this series? Well, there are some very fun connections that will take us into types of music I haven’t reviewed yet as part of this project, so stay tuned.