A Tribute To Jack Johnson

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 00:52:26
Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Steve Grossman (soprano saxophone); Herbie Hancock (keyboards); John McLaughlin (guitar); Michael Henderson (bass); Billy Cobham (drums).
Producer: Teo Macero.
Reissue producer: Nedra Olds-Neal.
Includes liner notes by Miles Davis and Chip Deffaa.
Digitally remastered by Mark Wilder (Sony Music Studios, New York, New York).
As Miles Davis gained more experience working with modern blues, the intellectual substance of jazz still dominated his music melodically. But with each successive project, the trumpeter looked to get on the good foot and approximate the rhythmic context of popular dance musics. A TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON was originally conceived as the soundtrack for a documentary on the life of the first Afro-American heavyweight boxing champion, but these two long, extended works stand on their own as great music, among the most deeply-felt pieces in the trumpeter's post-IN A SILENT WAY/BITCHES BREW canon.
The infectuous boogaloo groove of "Right Off" signals a major change in Miles' interpretation of the rhythm section, as John McLaughlin's crunching, wah-wah-inflected power chords dance fervently around the relentless backbeat of Fender bassist Michael Henderson and drummer Billy Cobham. Gone are the trappings of bebop harmonies and modern jazz rhythms, save for Miles' dramatic solo, with its long, linear melodies and nasty blues inflections.
Affectionate parodies of Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix abound on "Right Off" and the haunting, surreal "Yesternow," which is a contemporary update of the classic Miles/Gil Evans mood piece. The groove accrues momentum in a dreamy, backwards manner, keying off Henderson's hypnotic modal figures and McLaughlin's speech-like figures, culminating in an atonal distortion solo by free jazz pioneer Sonny Sharrock over a Band Of Gypsies-styled rhythm vamp.