Like the career of
Miles Davis himself -- and, in particular, the part of his career to which this two-disc set pays homage -- this album presents a maddeningly uneven collection of material and performances, ranging from intense and lovely elaborations on
Davis' original themes to numbingly tedious and overlong expositions of others. The experiment was the brainchild of experimental guitar hero
Henry Kaiser and trumpet player
Wadada Leo Smith, who teamed themselves up with bassist
Michael Manring, drummer
Lukas Ligeti, and a large number of other musicians both famous (
John Medeski,
Elliott Sharp) and obscure to rework some
Miles Davis compositions from his electric jazz-funk period.
Kaiser is a guitarist of multi-layered genius who is equally at home producing experimental noise with
Fred Frith and accompanying Hawaiian slack-key guitarists and Okinawan folk singers;
Smith is a trumpet player with a rich, brilliant tone who has worked with
Anthony Davis and
Muhal Richard Abrams, among many others. But despite the generally attractive noises they create with their band, too many of the tracks on this album are strung out far too thin; there tends to be far more elaboration than the conceptual content of the tunes can support. "Ife," for example, has a smoldering, minimalist groove and lots of great moments, but 35 minutes of one chord is just too much, no matter how deep the groove is or how intrepid the soloists. On the other hand, "Maiysha," which follows it, is perfectly crafted (and relatively concise at just over eight minutes) and features a scorching
Henry Kaiser solo. On the second disc, "Moja-Nine" stands out with its refreshing, punky intensity, and the "Themes from Jack Johnson" medley works, despite its extended length, because the themes vary so widely. So all in all, this album is by no means a failure -- it just needed some trimming. ~ Rick Anderson