Miles from India

Clearly I have Miles Davis on the brain, and that's OK!

Last night I listened to the first disc of Miles from India, a fascinating collaboration between western musicians, many of whom had played with Miles over the years, and musicians from India.  Bob Belden produced this package and did a fantastic job of selecting the artists and a cross-section of Miles' music.  My tastes run towards Miles' electric period (from Silent Way through his "retirement" in '75) although I do enjoy some of his earlier work (and come on, "Kind of Blue" still stands as an absolute masterpiece of 20th century music).

The music here really benefits from the textures added by the Indian musicians on traditional eastern instruments.  The contrast between the organic sounds of their instruments with Pete Cosey's downright nasty guitar tone is really a beautiful thing.  Mike Stern also adds some nice guitar work on a couple of tracks, and really the list of musicians is a "who's who" of jazz musicians who had worked with Miles including Ron Carter, Gary Bartz, Michael Henderson, Chick Corea, Marcus Miller, John McLaughlin, and so on.

This is a truly excellent album.