Customer Reviews

Miles apart - By: R. J. Heath, 16 Apr 2008
This double CD represents a large project with numerous musicians,in a number of combinations, & playing a number of Davis's more popular compositions from the 60's & 70's. So admittedly it is difficult to takein justin one go. Whilst rating it as "good/3 stars", Miles From India has not instantly become one of my favourite Indo-jazz fusion albums or likely to be. Why: because of a number of petty annoyances it carries with it, neither does it have the degree of integration of two distinct musical styles, & instead the joins show on a number of tracks.

So I offer a number of questions & observations:
a) whilst appreciating cost limitations, does recording at a several locations on the planet & with musicians notin face to face contact, make for rapport? For instance, I hear Indian musicians laying down percussion, & I hear jazz musicians doing their own things - (to borrow from Kipling) "never the twain do meet" that often, since rarely does this album reflect the sophisticated Indo-jazz fusion of Shakti, Jonas Hellborg, Fareed Haque, & many others nowadays.
b) At least at one point the lack of seemless fusion, not so much reflects Indo-jazz fusion of the 21st century but rather where this movement started, with Joe Harriott/John Mayer Double Quintets' albums of the mid 60's. Indeed I thought the sitar solo on All Blue, sounded like a take from their first Indo Jazz Fusion album of 1966......
c) No doubt I've missed several points here. So I have to conclude that this is a modern "reiteration" of the music Davis was evolving post-Bitches Brew, without necessarily taking on the modern sophistication of Indo-jazz fusion.
d) I wonder if Miles would approve,in particularly of some of the playing - I'm sure he would growlingin the ears of several of his former sidesmen something along the lines: "Less is more, MF".
e) Could more have been made of the Indian percussion, especially when it seems to compete & even get subsumed by the jazz or jazz-funk percussion? Is the tabla/tablas multi-tracked any stage - sincein its busy-ness it morphs temporarily into what sounds like the Burundi Black Drummers - now there's an option for the next Miles Davis tribute?