George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter & Jimmy Cobb – 4 Generations Of Miles (2002) [SACD / Chesky Records – SACD243]

George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter & Jimmy Cobb - 4 Generations Of Miles (2002)

Title: George Coleman, Mike Stern, Ron Carter & Jimmy Cobb – 4 Generations Of Miles (2002)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The night of May 12, 2002, may go down as another important milestone on the timeline of legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. Four musicians, each representing a different Miles Davis band from his ever-evolving career, came together at the club Makor in New York City to do what everybody said couldn’t be done—effectively fuse together elements of the radically different styles that Miles embodied over his 45 years of professional performance.
Four Generations of Miles is an unusual tribute to Miles Davis, featuring a quartet made up of alumni from four different editions of the trumpeter’s bands, while omitting keyboards and trumpet entirely. Drummer Jimmy Cobb, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, bassist Ron Carter, and guitarist Mike Stern concentrate almost exclusively on the 1950s repertoire of Davis, excepting Ron Carter’s somewhat abstract, R&B-flavored “81,” which is from the mid-’60s. Stern’s sparse accompaniment for Coleman in “All Blues” works surprising well in place of a piano, while the percolating take of “On Green Dolphin Street” will get a listener’s feet patting. Coleman’s soulful playing is the centerpiece of a lush treatment of “Blue in Green.” Carter and Cobb provide a superb foundation for the soloists throughout this live recording. The creativity and musicianship throughout this excellent tribute make it stand head and shoulders above most such efforts.

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2 min read

Christian McBride, Javon Jackson, Jimmy Cobb, Cedar Walton – New York Time (2006) [SACD / Chesky Records – SACD314]

Christian McBride, Javon Jackson, Jimmy Cobb, Cedar Walton - New York Time (2006)

Title: Christian McBride, Javon Jackson, Jimmy Cobb, Cedar Walton – New York Time (2006)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

“New York Time offers jazz fans a wonderful opportunity to hear two rising stars of the genre (McBride, Jackson) performing with two respected elders (Cobb, Walton). The past also meets the present in other exciting ways on this recording. The set is highlighted by several of Walton’s original compositions and a cover of the legendary John Coltrane’s “Naima”. Meanwhile, McBride’s acoustic bass talents are spotlighted on his self-written composition “Grove” (for trumpeter Roy Hargrove) and Jackson represents the new vanguard of jazz with his own tune titled “Notes in Three”.

Having spent most of his time since the late ’90s re-appropriating pop, funk, rock, and fusion elements into his progressive jazz albums, bassist Christian McBride makes a joyously off the cuff return to straight-ahead acoustic jazz on 2006’s New York Time. Working here with the seasoned rhythm section giants of pianist Cedar Walton and drummer Jimmy Cobb as well as an equally engaging contemporary, tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson, McBride has crafted a back-to-basics album that, while firmly in the mainstream jazz tradition, works to remind listeners why they dug him in the first place. New York Time is as creatively inspired, forward-thinking, and unexpected as 2000’s Sci-Fi and 2003’s Vertical Vision are with their mix of electronic-funk and angular, postmodern jazz, and McBride can’t escape the fact that his true gift is for swaggering, double-breasted, no holds barred, late-night, straight-ahead modern jazz. Primarily, it’s his big, full, commanding double-bass tone that not only drives his bandmates forward, but buoys them on fat swells of sound. It’s that natural acoustic tone and earthy pulse of McBride that fit so well with this kind of no-fuss jazz. It’s also that sound, paired with the soulfully urbane and elegantly muscular chops of Walton, Cobb, and Jackson, that makes New York Time a jazz lover’s dream.

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2 min read