Miles Davis Deconstructed and Reconstructed

from the Amazon.com Web page for the album being discussed

This past April saw the release of one of the more imaginative jazz records I have encountered for some time. The title of the album was New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60, performed by the Schapiro 17 big band, led by Jon Schapiro. The release was a little bit late to the party, since the five tunes on the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue were recorded in the spring of 1959; but, to be fair, all of the tracks for New Shoes were recorded in June of 2018!

The Wikipedia page for Kind of Blue claims that the album “has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis's masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time.” For those not familiar with the album, the five tunes are (in the original “order of appearance”) “So What,” “Freddie Freeloader,” “Blue in Green,” “All Blues,” and “Flamenco Sketches.” All were composed by Davis, two of them, “Blue in Green” and “Flamenco Sketches,” in collaboration with Bill Evans. Trumpeter Davis led a sextet with Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Paul Chambers on bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums, and Evans on piano for all selections except for “Freddie Freeloader,” on which Wynton Kelly was pianist.

Five is a relatively modest number of tunes; but each has achieved “standards” status in its own way. As might be guessed, that status was, for the most part, attainted through arrangements that honored the original spirit while introducing new “flesh.” For my money, the most imaginative arrangement was the one Jon Hendricks created for “Freddie Freeloader.” This was basically a note-by-note transcription of the original recording with a vocalist reproducing the music played by four of the performers. Hendricks himself sang Coltrane’s part, joined by Bobby McFerrin as Kelly, Al Jarreau as Davis, and George Benson as Adderley. (The bass part was not transcribed.)

With all of that historical background as context, Schapiro has definitely come up with some interesting “new shoes” for the music. Most important is that the transition from combo to big band is a smooth one. Furthermore, Schapiro clearly expects that anyone listening to this album already knows the tunes, meaning that he can engage in some highly imaginative techniques of deconstruction and reconstruction without the listener losing touch of the “original flesh,” so to speak.

In addition, Schapiro establishes his own original contexts for the tunes themselves. Each of those introductions has the title “Boiled Funk;” and the attentive reader may be able to recognize that this phrase is an anagram of “Kind of Blue.” My guess is that each introduction has its own way of disclosing one or more seeds of its corresponding Kind of Blue track. However, I must confess that, as of this writing, the only connection I could establish was the one preceding “Freddie Freeloader.” In addition, the very first “Boiled Funk” is followed by an extended piano solo by Roberta Piket called “Foiled Bunk” (to continue the anagram game), prior to the first Davis track, “So What.” Finally, the “Boiled Funk” that concludes the album is based on “The Theme,” which dates back to Davis’ recordings for Prestige and became his standard tune for closing out a set.

The overall result is that Schapiro has come up with one of the more imaginative encounters between past and present. At the risk of pushing the metaphor too far, the “feet” (foundations) are still Davis’; but the “new shoes” that Schapiro has cobbled fit just as well. Furthermore, for those of us that still feel that historical context matters just as much as the immediate present, Schapiro has created an encounter between past and present that is as true to past foundations as it is to in-the-moment inventiveness.