Tutu Revisited Marcus Miller Marcus & Miller Photography

Miles Davis fut l'homme de toutes les révolutions musicales,
et "Tutu", sa création millésimée "1986", n'échappe pas à cette règle.

Le trompettiste est alors fasciné par l'électronique, les sons synthétiques, la rythmique funk et le travail d'un Prince, lutin génial de l'électro-funk.

Pour "Tutu", album largement inspiré par la personnalité de Nelson Mandela, Miles Davis s'est entouré de partenaires de renom (George Duke, Omar Hakim...), mais surtout de

Marcus Miller,qui fut pendant une certaine période (1986-90)son éminence grise.


"Tutu" fut ainsi en grande partie "préparé" par Miller, qui arrangea ensuite les parties de Miles Davis.

On y déniche un jazz racé et rythmé, dont la suite s'intitula "Amandla", en 1989, que certains fans peuvent préférer pour son côté moins " électrique "...

« Quand j’ai écrit la musique de Tutu début 1986, je ne pouvais pas savoir que je la revisiterai vingt-trois ans plus tard.

Quand je l’ai enregistrée avec Miles Davis, c’était la musique de son temps.

Bien que j’ai joué la plupart des instruments sur cet album, il était primordial que la trompette de Miles soit au centre de la musique.

J’ai essayé de trouver des mélodies à la hauteur de sa fabuleuse sonorité.

Lors de la tournée Tutu Revisited, nous avons remplacé les sons “super électros”, mais l’essence cool de Miles était toujours là.

Les gens la ressentent, même vingt-cinq ans après, au même titre que les musiciens.


Quand j’ai été approché pour revisiter cette musique en concert, j’ai hésité…

Parce que s’il y a une chose universellement admise à propos de Miles, c’est qu’il ne regardait jamais en arrière.

Pourtant, l’idée de saluer Miles m’a attiré, et j’ai commencé à réfléchir à la façon dont je pourrais présenter cette musique dans un contexte nouveau.

Je me suis dit que le meilleur moyen serait de le faire avec des jeunes musiciens. »

Pour ça, Marcus avait un atout majeur dans sa manche :

la nouvelle sensation de la trompette, le néo-orléanais Christian Scott – un musicien avec seulement quatre albums à son actif mais une assurance, une confiance et un style qui reflètent le passé tout en évoquant le futur.

À la batterie, l’explosif Ronald Bruner Jr., qui vient d’enflammer les foules aux côté de Stanley Clarke et de George Duke.

Aux claviers, Federico Gonzalez Peña, un musicien expérimenté et au goût sûr qui a laissé une marque indélébile dans l’exceptionnel groupe de Meshell Ndegeocello.


Au saxophone alto, une vraie découverte de Marcus, Alex Han, qui l’avait éblouit lors d’une masterclass à la Berklee College of Music de Boston.

Comme au delà du mondialement (re)connu album Tutu, le groupe de Marcus explore en profondeur chaque titre :

Tomaas, Full Neslon, Portia ou le méchamment funky Splatch.

Hannibal, extrait de l’album suivant de Miles, Amandla (1989), est également revisité.

Ainsi que quelques titres du début des années 80, tel la célébrissime comptine Jean-Pierre de We Want Miles.


Lors des premières répétitions, ces jeunes loups jouaient pratiquement l’album note pour note, Marcus les a alors imploré de trouver leur propre voix à travers la musique.


Et bien que Marcus soit désormais un vétéran de l’époque du comeback de Miles Davis – lors des tournées de 1981 et 1982, il n'avait que 21 ans –, l’année de la sortie de Tutu, il ne faisait plus parti du groupe de Miles.

C’est donc la première fois qu’il rejoue live la musique de ce disque !

Concert North Sea Jazz 2010

& Maucus Miller Photography

North Sea Jazz 2007

North Sea Jazz 2007

S.M.V Tour 2011

Concert North Sea Jazz Festival 2010

. Miles Davis : "Someday My Prince Will Come" & Kind of Blue .

Miles Hulton Archives

"Someday My Prince Will Come," from the 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, has been recorded by many, many great jazz artists.
(It can also be found on the Brubeck recording above.)


One of the best-known and loved versions is this one, performed by the all-star cast of
Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane and Hank Mobley on tenor sax, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

The musicians maintain some of the wistful feeling Snow White sang in the film version of the song, but the group's instrumental version exudes more depth and complexity.

Miles Davis 1959 Don Hunstein

Miles Davis Kind Of Blue

"E.S.P." is the title track from the eponymous 1965 LP.

The record is the first studio album to feature Miles Davis' so-called "second" great quintet, pairing the great trumpeter with the advanced harmonic and rhythmic ideas of a younger generation of musicians.

Featured are Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums).

Round Midnight

. Sonny Rollins : The Saxophone Colossus Turns 80 .

Valery Hache/AFP

It's hard to overstate Sonny Rollins contribution to jazz.

As the groundbreaking saxophonist celebrates his 80th birthday on Sept. 7, he can look back on a performing and recording career that spans more than 60 years and has influenced generations of jazz players.

And, of course, the good news is that he's still recording, performing and living up to the name of his magnificent 1956 recording, Saxophone Colossus.

As a way of wishing Rollins a happy 80th birthday, here are five classic examples of his extraordinary sax work.

.......................................

Sonny Rollins: The Saxophone Colossus Turns 80

• Artist: Miles Davis & Modern Jazz Giants
• 
  
• Album: Bags' Groove

Although Sonny Rollins began recording as a sideman in 1949 and as a bandleader in 1953, he really came into his own in his work with Miles Davis from 1951 to '54.

On Davis' 1954 Bags Groove, Rollins contributes three of his own compositions and great bop chops. All three have gone on to become jazz standards:

"Airegin," "Doxy" and this song, "Oleo."

Along with Sonny and Miles, this band also includes Horace Silver (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums).

• Artist: Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet
• 
  
• Album: At Basin Street

In 1955, in addition to working on his own musical projects, Rollins teamed up with the band led by Clifford Brown and Max Roach.

Everyone plays masterfully on these recordings, and the band might have gone on to create a great body of work.

But after Brown's death in 1956, Rollins would continue to record almost exclusively as a bandleader, creating his own unparalleled body of work.

• Artist: Sonny Rollins
• Album: Saxophone Colossus

Rollins' 1956 album Saxophone Colossus was perhaps his first classic recording as a leader.

It was also the album that provided him with the sobriquet he'd own from then on:

"The Saxophone Colossus."

His recording of "St. Thomas" is taken from a traditional calypso melody from the Virgin Islands, which his mother sang to him as a boy. With the help of drummer Max Roach, pianist Tommy Flanagan and bassist Doug Watkins, the song has since become yet another Rollins-inspired jazz standard.

• Artist: Sonny Rollins
• Album: The Bridge

Between 1956 and '58, Rollins was on fire creatively: He recorded 16 albums, including Saxophone Colossus, Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Way Out West and Freedom Suite.

That's why the jazz world was stunned when Rollins decided to take what would turn out to be a three-year sabbatical from performing and recording. During that time, he practiced his playing relentlessly, often playing solo on New York's Williamsburg Bridge, trying to break through what he perceived as his musical limitations.

When he returned in 1962, he recorded The Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Ben Riley; it remains one of his best-selling albums.

• Artist: Sonny Rollins
• 
  
• Album: Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert

After 50 years of making excellent recordings, Rollins won his first Grammy in 2001 for This Is What I Do.

Later that year, on Sept. 11 -- four days after his 71st birthday -- he had to evacuate his downtown New York apartment, which was just blocks from the World Trade Center.

All he took with him was his saxophone. Five days later, he played a concert at the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

The recording of that concert was released in 2005, and it earned Rollins his second Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for the song "Why Was I Born?"

Sonny Rollins is a true jazz legend, a sax player with a six-decade career and a giant who's outlasted the giants he played with:

Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell.

Rollins' career spiked in the 1950s with a series of acclaimed recordings, including perhaps his best-known song, "St. Thomas," which experimented with calypso rhythms.

But his career has also had its downturns.

In 1959, he retired from playing gigs and became famous for practicing alone on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York.

He has also battled health problems.

Rollins is taking his career into his own hands.

He's started his own record label, launched a

new Web site, and continues to tour and record.

Sonny Rollins' record is called Sonny, Please.

2006 Nov.

. Remembering Jazz Photographer Herman Leonard .

Charley Gallay/Getty Images

Herman Leonard in 2008.

. August 16, 2010 .

Leonard died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital, according to his official website. No cause of death was listed.

Herman Leonard's life was an example of the phrase "everything in its time."

Shortly after earning a fine-arts degree in photography in the late 1940s, Leonard was making a living as a commercial photographer during the day and hanging out in jazz clubs in New York at night.

Leonard focused his camera's lens on young musicians who would go on to become jazz legends: Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, to name just a few.

HERMAN LEONARD Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Richard Rogers, Downbeat, New York 1949

HERMAN LEONARD DIZZY GILLESPSIE ROYAL ROOST N Y C 1948

HERMAN LEONARD Dexter Gordon, Royal Roost, New York City, 1948

HERMAN LEONARD Ray Brown, NYC, 1948

"You could look at his photos and almost hear the music," says John Edward Hasse, curator of American music at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

"He used light, shadow and smoke, and he made indelible the faces of many of the greatest American musicians of the 20th century."

While many of his subjects became his good friends, only a few of his photos were used on album covers. He gave many away to jazz clubs for promotional purposes.

Mostly, the negatives sat in boxes. 

Meanwhile, Leonard's career took him to Paris, where he worked as a fashion and commercial photographer for almost three decades. After taking a break from photography, the Leonard family eventually landed in London.

HERMAN LEONARD Nat King Cole, NYC 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Richard Rogers, Downbeat, New York 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Charlie Bird Parker with Metronome All Stars, NYC 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Tony Bennett, New York City, 1950

His daughter Shana Leonard remembers it being a tough time.

"He was in his 60s at this point," she says. 

"I can't imagine when you're in your 60s and you have no money ... he was pretty lost at that point."

For direction, he returned to those early jazz negatives. "I would very comfortably say that these jazz negatives saved his life," Shana Leonard says.

Herman Leonard published his first book of photographs in 1985, more than three decades after he made his first images. After being turned down by the major London galleries, his first exhibit took place in a small space in 1988.

More than 10,000 people visited the show in its first month. 

What those people saw was what Leonard saw through his viewfinder sitting in the front row of jazz clubs so many years before, as he explained in a 2007 interview with NPR's Michele Norris.

"Well, that's where I could hear the music," Leonard said.

"And that's where it happened. It happens in the clubs. It doesn't happen in a photo studio. And I wanted to record image-wise to make a visual diary, if you wish, of what I was experiencing." 

Leonard died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital .

Herman Leonard Sonny Stitt N.Y.C 1953

HERMAN LEONARD CHET BAKER N Y C 1956

HERMAN LEONARD Art Blakey, Paris, 1958

HERMAN LEONARD DUKE ELLINGTON, Paris 1960

Louis Amstrong Newport Jazz Festival, 1955 Herman Léonard.

And 155 of his prints are in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. 

They share space there with many jazz items, including the trumpet of his old friend, Dizzy Gillespie.

Armstrong Louis , Herman leonard

Billie Holiday and her dog , kitchen N . Y . C 1949 Herman Leonard

Billie Holiday Shoes HERMAN LEONARD 1955 N.YC.

Elington Duke Olympia Theater 1958 Herman Leonard

HERMAN LEONARD MILES DAVIS 1989

THE PICTURE SHOW Herman Leonard's Vision Of Jazz : NPR :