Miles Davis – Miles Ahead: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Miles Davis – Miles Ahead: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:16:06 minutes | 840 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia – Legacy

The release of the movie MILES AHEAD, Don Cheadle’s wildly entertaining and moving exploration of Miles Davis, will be accompanied by this new soundtrack featuring musical highlights from Miles’ career and new recordings overseen by Grammy Award-winning jazz/hip-hop artist Robert Glasper.

This is a perfect primer on Davis’ career for the new fan and a brilliant audio keepsake of the film for those who’ve studied his works inside and out. The album features 11 tracks from across Miles’ catalogue from 1956 to 1981, select dialogue from the film featuring Cheadle in character, and five original compositions written, co-written, produced or performed exclusively for MILES AHEAD by Robert Glasper. These cues include “What’s Wrong with That?” a jam that closes the movie imagining Cheadle as Miles playing in the present day with guest performers Glasper, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Gary Clark, Jr. and Esperanza Spalding; plus “Gone 2015,” an end-credits song featuring guest verses from rapper Pharoahe Monch. Cheadle also pens new liner notes for the album discussing the selection and creation of the songs on the soundtrack.

At the end of Don Cheadle’s liner essay for Miles Ahead, the soundtrack for his expressionist Miles Davis biopic, he quotes Herbie Hancock from a documentary about the trumpeter’s electric years: “…I couldn’t pick a piece.. Because Miles is all of the pieces.” That’s a fine explanation for what is compiled here. Eleven of these tunes were selected from Davis’ catalog, beginning with the title track cut for Prestige in 1953. There are stops all along the way to 1981’s “Back Seat Betty.” In presenting such a wide selection of Davis’ music for a cinema audience, judicious editing was often necessitated: “Solea,” “Seven Steps to Heaven,” “Nefertiti,” “Duran (Take 6),” “Black Satin,” and “Back Seat Betty” are all presented this way. “So What,” “Frelon Brun,” and “Go Ahead John, Pt. 2” are presented in full. While fans may take issue with the entire idea of edits, they serve a proper purpose inside the soundtrack concept. Interspersed are bits of dialogue by Cheadle (as Davis) and others. They are so short they don’t distract. The album also includes the brief “Taylor Made” by pianist Taylor Eigsti. Titled for Davis’ first wife and muse Frances Taylor, it briefly recontextualizes several important themes in the trumpeter’s fakebook. There are also four new compositions written or co-written by Robert Glasper. The funky “Junior’s Jam” features saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, drummer Kendrick Scott, and bassist Burniss Earl Travis. Glasper, who plays Rhodes, perfectly captures the spirit of Davis’ early electric era, with riff-like basslines, funky drums, and eerie electric pianos, while the frontline horns engage and disengage from rhythm and vamp. “Francessence” is a lilting theme piece with Vicente Archer’s upright bass, E.J. Strickland’s brushed drums, and Elena Pinderhughes’ flute. The real highlight is “What’s Wrong with That?” Framed in the film as a live concert piece, it places Glasper’s Rhodes in the company of Harrold (using a mute), Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding (on electric bass), Antonio Sanchez, and guitarist Gary Clark, Jr. A loose jam based on vamps, it weaves Davis’ bluesy lyricism with spacy elements of fusion, harder psychedelic funk grooves, and even the tender soul pop notions from later years. The album closes with “Gone,” a hip-hop tune with Pharoahe Monch rapping over a bumping bassline, slippery snare, and hi-hat beats (Dilla style), adorned by a sampled brass section, gospel piano chords, and Harrold’s soaring, muted trumpet solo. It was wise to separate most of these new sounds from Davis’ sides, making the album a double portrait: One of the artist and another of how he contributed to the future. Miles Ahead is not a complete representation of Davis, and that’s fine. What it does accomplish is to offer an impression of essence as an artist who changed everything by his example. ~~AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek

Tracklist:
01. Miles Davis, John Lewis, Percy Heath, Max Roach – Miles Ahead (04:28)
02. Don Cheadle – Dialogue: “It takes a long time…” (00:05)
03. Miles Davis, Jimmy Cobb, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, John Coltrane – So What (09:22)
04. Taylor Eigisti – Taylor Made (01:03)
05. Don Cheadle, Phil Schaap – Dialogue: “Listen, you talk too goddam much…” (00:33)
06. Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Ernie Royal, Bernie Glow, Louis Mucci, Johnny Coles, Dick Hixon, Frank Rehak, Jimmy Buffington, Joe Singer, Tony Miranda, Bill Barber, Al Block, Harold Feldman, Romeo Penque, Danny Bank, Jack Knitzer, Janet Putman, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, Elvin Jones, Jose Mangual – Solea (Excerpt) (04:49)
07. Miles Davis, George Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams – Seven Steps to Heaven (Edit) (03:23)
08. Don Cheadle – Dialogue: “If you gonna tell a story…” (00:06)
09. Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herb Hancock, Ronald Carter, Tony Williams – Nefertiti (Edit) (04:54)
10. Miles Davis, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter – Frelon brun (05:36)
11. Don Cheadle – Dialogue: “Sometimes you have these thoughts…” (00:13)
12. Miles Davis, Steve Grossman, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Michael Henderson, Billy Cobham – Duran (Take 6 Edit) (05:34)
13. Don Cheadle – Dialogue: “You own my music…” (00:06)
14. Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Steve Grossman – Go Ahead John (part two C) (03:39)
15. Miles Davis, Carlos Garnett, Bennie Maupin, David Creamer, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Harold “Ivory” Williams, Michael Henderson, Billy Hart, Jack DeJohnette, Al Foster, Khalil Balakrishna, Badal Roy – Black Satin (Edit) (03:10)
16. Don Cheadle – Dialogue: “Be musical about this shit…” (00:06)
17. Miles Davis, Pete Cosey, Reggie Lucas, Mtume, Al Foster, Michael Henderson, Sonny Fortune – Prelude, Pt. 2 (06:34)
18. Don Cheadle – Dialogue: “Y’all listening to them…” (00:04)
19. Robert Glasper, Keyon Harrold, Marcus Strickland, Burniss Earl Travis, Kendrick Scott – Junior’s Jam (03:29)
20. Robert Glasper, Vicente Archer, Keyon Harrold, Elena Pinderhughes, E.J. Strickland – Francessence (02:06)
21. Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Barry Finnerty, Marcus Miller, Al Foster, Sammy Figueroa – Back Seat Betty (Excerpt) (05:30)
22. Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor – Dialogue: “I don’t like the word jazz…” (00:17)
23. Robert Glasper, Herbie Hancock, Keyon Harrold, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Gary Clark Jr., Antonio Sánchez – What’s Wrong with That? (05:18)
24. Robert Glasper, Keyon Harrold, Mike Moreno, Burniss Earl Travis, Justin Tyson – Gone 2015 (05:29)

Personnel:
Miles Davis
Robert Glasper
Taylor Eigisti
Chick Corea
Herbie Hancock
Esperanza Spaulding
Wayne Shorter
Keyon Harrold
Marcus Strickland
Gary Clark, Jr.
& more

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