Sky Garden

by Yo Miles! (Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith)
Cuneiform Records, Silver Spring, MD, 2004
Audio CD-ROM, Catalog #: Rune 191-192, $21.00
Distributor’s website: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/; http://www.waysidemusic.com.

Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Saginaw Valley State University

mosher@svsu.edu

The late Miles Davis is subject of renewed interest. The II-V-I Orchestra in Michigan has reconstructed Davis' "Birth of the Cool" from the original charts. Yet Davis' 1970s opus, controversial and derided at the time for its application of rock and funk motifs, is now inspiring jazz players, too. Yo Miles! is a California-based group led by Henry Kaiser on guitar and Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet. The 2-CD set is recorded as a Super Audio CD (SACD), with enhanced sound when played on an SACD player but enjoyable on any CD player. Listening to Sky Garden's first track "It's About Time/The Mask", we realize very quickly that nobody played like Miles Davis, and nobody does now. Seemingly disinterested, his face an angry mask or turned away from his audience, Davis would then pluck from his horn a sonic passage as if summoning it from another planet. This capacity to purposely screw up, to risk "bad" playing, may be a characteristic of genius, for Pablo Picasso often pushed the limits the acceptable by working that way when painting.

"Jabali (Part I)" has a funk beat that characterized much of his Miles Davis' 1970s work. "Great Expectations" makes use of tabla, flight-of-the-bumblebee trumpet pyrotechnics, to resolve in a playful and pleasant soulful ensemble gallop, and a dance between tabla and horn. "Shinjuku" is a smooth composition shifting from an introspective introduction to a drum roll and solo, to a hot funk fusion thing and explosion of 1970s jazzism that you just might see in Tokyo's entertainment district. Greg Osby's alto and John Tchicai's tenor and soprano saxes evoke the variegated moods of the international traveler. Then mood switches from seagull-scream guitar boogie and rockstar histrionics, to a lone bluesy horn. As Henry Kaiser is co-pilot of Yo Miles!, guitars are evident nearly everywhere, with Mike Keneally, Chris Muir, occasionally Dave Creamer providing electric guitars, and Michael Manring on bass. "Jabali (Part II)", a guitar and bass conversation, has interesting dynamics and built-in anticipation; nice bongo percussion, too. Smith's "Who's Targeted?" is a guitar-driven rock shuffle transforming into spacey——and how that concept dates quickly!——bleeps and fluttery drums, then muted drums behind an echoey B3 organ bossa nova. The long track "Sivad > Gemini Double Image > Little Church" strings together Davis/Zawinul/Pascoal insights delivered via afterhours trumpet and sax with characteristically 1960s and 1970s heavy acid rock guitar.

The Joe Zawinul piece "Directions" is a big band jazz workout here, as is the final cut of the second disc "Cozy Pete", its composition credited to the entire Yo Miles! band. Much of "Cozy Pete" sounds anticipatory, as if about to really break loose, developing its beat, layering in trumpet solos and breathing space, culminating in successive solos and instrumental interplay until its floppy, extraterrestrial outro showcasing echoed guitar. A second Yo Miles! double CD entitled Upriver revives more of Miles Davis' compositions from three decades ago, and features the same lineup of players. Yo Miles! isn't Miles Davis and his band, and I'm sure the musicians who recorded it would be the first to agree. Nevertheless, its listenable interpretations and continuations are served up with respect.