Miles Davis Biopic & Albums Coming Soon

With the New York Film Festival 2015 and the Sundance Film Festival 2016 in the rearview mirror, Miles Ahead – written by Steven Baigelman and Don Cheadle – will get a pair of screenings at the South by Southwest music festival this week.  Don, along with Robert Glasper will be there speaking about it as well.

The film, one that Cheadle learned to play trumpet for as well as his directorial debut, is not a standard birth to death biopic.   It focuses on a pivotal point in the life of the genius musician who grew up in East St. Louis and moved to New York in 1944.  The past is illuminated through flashbacks.  Cheadle has been quoted as referring to the narrative as modal.

Robert Glasper composed music for the film and scored its soundtrack.  A handful of tracks that Glasper wrote, co-wrote, produced and/or performed appear on the soundtrack along with eleven choice Davis tracks.  The project led to a whole other album as well in which Glasper interprets Davis’ music along with a mob of talented artists eager to paint their own musical colors on a Miles canvas.  Everything’s Beautiful features Bilal, Illa J, Erykah Badu, Phonte, Hiatus Kaiyote, Laura Mvula, KING, Georgia Ann Muldrow, John Scofield and Ledisi, and Stevie Wonder.  The film is in the now as much as that forthcoming album.  The closing concert sequence boasts Gary Clark Jr and Esperanza Spaulding along with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter aside Cheadle’s Davis.

The flick and soundtrack will be out a week from Friday (4/1) while Everything’s Beautiful will be released on May 27th which is the day after what would have been Miles’ 90th birthday.

Musical Holiday Gift Ideas for 2015

So you need some musical holiday gift ideas for 2015 – no problemo!  I have donned Santa’s hat and sprawled many tasties on a table for your amusement and to make suggestions on what to buy for yourself or the music lover on your list.  From the king of Afrobeat Fela Kuti to Rage Against The Machine, we’ve got wax and discs of audio and video to inspire and delight.

The Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 12: The Cutting Edge certainly yields some treasures for Zimmy enthusiasts.  This set offers alternate takes and other bric-a-brac from the Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde sessions.  If you’re writing a book on Dylan focusing on that period, maybe you’d want every note available on 18 CD’s!  If you’re hardcore, you’d likely go for the version on half a dozen CD’s.  I’m satisfied getting the best bits which are available on 2 CD’s and/or what I got – the 3 LP set which is packaged with the utmost affection.  I could say the same about the Spoon 10th anniversary re-issue of Gimme Fiction. 

The Sly and The Family Stone set offers both early and late shows recorded at Fillmore East, the storied joint on 2nd Avenue around 6th Street, in 1968.  The Who box set offers a DVD along with 2 CD’s in what could be their final live album, but I think I said that about Who’s Last in 1984.  Same format for Eric Clapton with a DVD/2 CD’s captured at Royal Albert Hall for his 70th birthday celebration.  I was lucky enough to catch one of the two Madison Square Garden shows that he played two weeks before the Royal Albert ones so I was especially pleased that it was recorded and released as Slowhand was in such sparkling form.  The Queen DVD is worth a peek and as far as Jazz goes, I can’t speak highly enough about the Miles Davis set covering 20 years of performances at Newport Jazz Festival.  It’s phenomenal.  The Weather Report and Jaco Pastorius soundtrack I’m just scratching the surface on, but these promise many hours of rewarding listening.

The Big Band Holidays disc by Wynton Marsalis and the fellas hits the spot, as does the Johnny Mathis box which has a few Christmas songs among the singles released between 1956 and 1981.  It’s a worthy collection on Johnny’s 80th birthday.  The Them compilation includes all the tracks on Angry Young Them (1965) and Them Again (1966) along with demos and what have you and it sounds great in remastered form.  Happy holidays!

Ho Ho Ho!  Here’s some suggestions if you’d like to give (or receive) the gift of music this holiday season whether it is boxed or unboxed.

Miles Davis Way is named in Manhattan, The Bootleg Series has unearthed some great performances from the jazz legend, and a biopic is scheduled to start production next month.