The soundtrack to actor Don Cheadle\u2019s labor of love, Miles Ahead <\/i>encompasses the music of the brilliant, troubled jazz trumpeter who forever changed the genre and influenced countless musicians of all other genres.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a straight hits compilation, nor does it feature hot new artists re-recording favorites. Rather, the disc compiles songs from all phases of Davis\u2019 storied, lengthy discography, and not necessarily the ones you would expect. Furthermore, many of these songs are necessarily edited for length, but the judicious cuts only underscore the main point of the song in question. <\/p>\n
In addition to the Davis songs, pianist Robert Glasper \u2013 who is as versed in hip-hop as he is in jazz \u2013 contributes four songs that honor various points in Davis\u2019 career. It\u2019s a brilliant move that illustrates how modern musicians in rock, blues, funk, soul, and of course jazz still feel the gravity of Davis as a person (which the film ably illustrates) and a musician. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo What\u201d is presented in full, as it would be sacrilege if this was not the case, and the songs come fast and furious: \u201cMiles Ahead,\u201d the lovely, slower \u201cNefertiti\u201d and \u201cSolea,\u201d the punchy \u201cSeven Steps To Heaven\u201d (about the happiest Davis ever was on record) and \u201cFrelon Brun,\u201d Davis\u2019 first steps into the fusion jazz territory that would result in the brilliant Bitches Brew <\/i>in 1970. Nothing from that record is featured here, unfortunately, but that song and \u201cDuran\u201d (an unreleased track from this era that first showed up on the rarities collection Directions<\/i>) nimbly illustrate this fertile period in Davis\u2019 career.<\/p>\n
Where this collection succeeds is in showing snippets of the many styles, moods, and supporting players across Davis\u2019 discography; where compilations like The Essential Miles Davis <\/i>went for the obvious and the full-length, Miles Ahead<\/i> pulls songs like \u201cDuran,\u201d the edit of the bluesy electric \u201cGo Ahead John,\u201d and the fearless \u201cBlack Satin,\u201d from On The Corner<\/i>, the one in which Miles consciously sought the \u201cblack\u201d experience and then dashed it with Eastern music. And where else would one hear \u201cPrelude, Pt. 2,\u201d from the electric rock-funk-jazz album Agharta<\/i>, not only occupying the same space as \u201cSo What\u201d but being one of the few songs not edited for length? It\u2019s also the final Davis song save one on the list before the Glasper songs start. Throughout the disc, it should be noted, are brief raspy spoken interludes taken from Cheadle in the movie that give the listener a hint at the personality behind the music.<\/p>\n
Glasper and his band absolutely nail their songs, paying tribute to Davis by honoring him while looking forward. \u201cJunior\u2019s Jam\u201d is quite good, the slower \u201cFrancessence\u201d is a thoughtful piece led by a flute and wheedling trumpet, and \u201cGone 2015\u201d blends hip-hop, horns, a trumpet solo, piano, and a funky, anything-goes, immediately-felt vibrancy that perfectly captures Davis\u2019 spirit. The same can be said for the live \u201cWhat\u2019s Wrong With That,\u201d which is taken from a scene in the film where Cheadle (as Miles) jams with Glasper\u2019s band on stage in a sort of past-meets-present moment.<\/p>\n
The film and the soundtrack will hopefully introduce new people to Miles Davis or reignite a dormant interest in his catalog, and this collection expertly bridges said catalog by giving equal weight to all of it. This is not the place to quibble about what\u2019s missing \u2013 real compilations exist for that reason \u2013 but rather as a sampler of Davis\u2019 many moods, his influence on modern music, and snippets of dialogue that show his personality. It succeeds on every level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5993],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-44471","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-motion-picture-soundtrack","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44471"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44471"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}