Classic music from Miles Davis, followed by new music from Malian vocalist/songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, and closing out with covers of Stevie Wonder featuring Tok Tok Tok, Peter Martin, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Tuck & Patti, Nguyen Le, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luther Vandross, Nnenna Freelon, Hank Crawford, Nancy Wilson, Sergio Mendes & Brazil ‘77, Cal Tjader & Carmen McRae, and Stephane Belmondo.
The age-old truth about our people is our ability to adopt and adapt other cultures thereby creating not only something new but also creating incredibly beautiful hybrids. Hendrix envy notwithstanding, Miles Davis was a master of sophisticated cool jazz, and was never a master of rock or funk. The beauty of Bitches Brew is that the recording ushered in the fusion movement, which ushered to the frontlines musicians and forms that never otherwise would have been considered jazz. I say ‘beauty’ because the immense strength of black music is that the music can genuinely make room for everybody regardless of their ethnic or class background.
Fusion music with its heavy backbeat never intended to swing, moreover in the long run as all the jazz fusion records make clear the predominant influence became rock rather than funk. Many of us old jazz heads have major issues with fusion jazz, not the least of which is the absence of swing but like Courtney Pine said about some Eastern European jazz cats, they had no intentions of swinging. And that’s ok, that’s their prerogative.
—kalamu ya salaam