ilikethetrumpet

With the big band here I'm playing a feature on Tutu now, and that's led me to go back and check out some more 80s stuff again and reevaluate it from the standpoint of a player. First of all, exhibit A for "he had no chops" is "Decoy." Those tunes are complex, the melodies difficult and angular, and the solos are absolute throwdowns. And as for the live stuff, the band with Kenny Garrett featured really simple tunes and forms--but rather than making this music weak (it's not as dense and shifty as, say, Pangea or even In a Silent Way) the sense of dialogue in the band is on a par with any of the fifty or sixties bands. (Well, maybe not quite, but at least in the same ballpark.) Coltrane, Wayne and Miles would finish each other's sentences, but Kenny and Miles would actually speak together. It really brings out the best in Kenny Garrett too, because he has humongous chops but checks his ego at the door and really gets in the vibe, every moment, with all the clipped Miles phrases. The Munich Concert--it's a budget three-disc set, has some different recordings than Live around the world--It's worth a second, third, or fiftieth listen.