{"id":13988,"date":"2018-01-26T05:30:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T10:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=13988"},"modified":"2025-05-28T08:59:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:59:45","slug":"miles-davis-electric-jazz-fusion-legacy-lives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/26\/miles-davis-electric-jazz-fusion-legacy-lives-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Miles Davis’ Electric Jazz Fusion Legacy Lives On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trumpeter and band leader Miles Davis was one of the most important and innovative musical figures of the last hundred years. He tirelessly explored a wide variety of musical dimensions, changing the rules and pushing the boundaries of every style he touched. Davis died in 1981, but his influence and legacy live on in many forms. One of the most intriguing of these is the Miles Electric Band, led by Davis’ nephew, drummer and frequent sideman Vince Wilburn, Jr.<\/p>\n

The band first came together in 2010 when Wilburn was asked to put together a group to celebrate the 40th<\/sup> anniversary of one of Davis’ most important works, the landmark jazz-rock fusion double LP Bitches Brew<\/i>. Wilburn says that his goal in assembling the group \u2013 originally called Bitches Brew Revisited \u2013 was to bring together \u201cguys who had played with Miles or who had love for that music.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After that debut, the band renamed itself and expanded its scope. \u201cWe offer our interpretation of Miles’ electric period,\u201d Wilburn says. That era is generally accepted to cover 1968 to 1975, beginning with In a Silent Way<\/i> and continuing through a series of mid ’70s compilation albums.<\/p>\n

A hallmark of Davis’ work in that period \u2013 and indeed of all jazz \u2013 is a focus upon improvisation. The Miles Electric Band faces a challenge: embracing the spirit of innovation and exploration while remaining true to Davis’ original recordings. And Wilburn happily accepts that challenge. \u201cBecause the core of the band actually played with Miles,\u201d he explains, \u201cwe have an edge. We have a way of interpreting the music live. We know how to keep true to the music but put a spin on it.\u201d He refers to the experience of playing with his uncle as having graduated from \u201cthe University of Miles Davis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group also features younger, top-level players in the rock, jazz and funk idioms, including former Prince bassist and experimental musician Dwayne \u201cMonoNeon\u201d Thomas Jr. But the Miles Electric Band doesn’t have a full-time member playing Miles Davis’ instrument, trumpet. Instead the group uses a variety of top-notch guest players. \u201cEach trumpeter has a different way of approaching the music,\u201d Wilburn says. \u201cNot to cop Miles, but to interpret their own way of expressing themselves in Miles’ music. It’s exciting that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Miles Electric Band was conceived as a live performance unit, the group records all of its shows, and plans are underway to cut an album. That release will likely follow on from another of Davis’ favored approaches: the combination of live and studio recordings into a cohesive whole. \u201cUncle Miles never shut the tape off,\u201d Wilburn says. \u201cHe just let it roll. And that’s the way I love to record; you come up with gems inside of gems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group’s web site prominently features a famous Davis quote: \u201cDon’t play what’s there. Play what’s not there.\u201d Wilburn tries to live by that advice. \u201cPlay something different,\u201d he says. \u201cForge ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trumpeter and band leader Miles Davis was one of the most important and innovative musical figures of the last hundred years. He tirelessly explored a wide variety of musical dimensions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,41,42],"tags":[1482,3316,3317],"class_list":["post-13988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fusion","category-interview","category-jazz","tag-miles-davis","tag-miles-electric-band","tag-vince-wilburn-jr","cat-32-id","cat-41-id","cat-42-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29499,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13988\/revisions\/29499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}