FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES
5 Fridays... 5 Quintets... 5 Eras of Miles Davis...
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Every Friday in March, at The Loft Cinema in Cobourg, multi-award winning trumpet player BROWNMAN ALI -- heralded as "Canada's preeminent jazz trumpet player" by New York's Village Voice -- will lead 5 different all-star ensembles through 5 historic eras of jazz which Miles Davis catalyzed & immortalized with his presence.
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Week 1 - Fri. Mar 01: "Young Miles" - The Bird Years
Week 2 - Fri. Mar 08: "Birth Of The Cool" - Post-Bop Miles
Week 3 - Fri. Mar 15: "Plugged Nickel" - The Shorter Years
Week 4 - Fri. Mar 22: "Bitches Brew to Tutu" - Electric Miles
Week 5 - Fri. Mar 29: "Doo-bop" - Had He Lived…
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FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES
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by Brownman Ali, executive producer Ken Prue
A Tribute to jazz legend Miles Davis
Every Fri in March @ THe Loft Cinema, Cobourg, Ontario
www.miles.brownman.com for info and tickets
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Brownman, when asked about the tribute and the musicians behind the music, states, "For those who appreciate jazz as a true art form, FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES represents a rare opportunity to understand its greatest legend's career, where he could have gone and a reminder of what he might have meant to us today. I'm truly honoured to be fronting this sequential tribute and performing with such a monsterous cross-section of players." Brownman has put together a spectacular all-star cast for his production featuring everyone from award-winning Canadian jazz veterans Andy Ballantyne, Nick Morgan & Frank Botos, to luminaries in his own generation such as Adrean Farrugia & Ross MacIntyre to the best of the youngest new breed of jazz modernists like Nick Maclean, Matt Lagan, Jacob Aylward & Norbert Botos. This year will also feature in Week 5 acclaimed rapper Ayrah Taerb (formerly Ase Eschu Bafamet and member of Brownman's GRUVASYLUM SYNDICATE), DMC World Turntable Champion DJ Dopey and new Brownman Electryc Trio bass phenom Sean Dennis -- making the Week 5 ensemble an all-star jazz-hip-hop affair. "Whatever age, whatever background, whatever colour - we're all going to be giving all of ourselves over to Miles’ music… to try and do the man and his vision justice”, Brownman concludes.
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"Brownman Ali ... one of the greatest interpreters of Miles Davis' work in Canada."
-- Graham Rockingham, Hamilton Spectator
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The Loft Cinema | www.CobourgLoft.ca
Cobourg, ON - 201 Division St, K9A 3P6
Every Friday in March
doors @ 6:30pm, show @ 7:00pm
$25 adults, $15 students
Get your tickets online at www.Miles.Brownman.com
or through the ticket links below:
Week 1: https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3016
Week 2: https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3017
Week 3: https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3018
Week 4: https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3019
Week 5: https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3020
Seating is on a first come, first serve basis
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Week 1 - Fri. Mar 1, 2019
"Young Miles" - The Bird Years
www.miles.brownman.com
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At 17 years of age Miles would travel across the river from his home in East St. Louis, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri to hear well-known jazz musicians play in clubs. Mesmerized by their talent and style, he would listen to their all-night jam sessions until Charlie "Bird" Parker arrived in St. Louis with the Billy Eckstine Band in 1944. Charlie was the creative force behind a new form of jazz later dubbed "bebop"; the young Miles would become fascinated with it's complex melodic and harmonic structure leading Miles to follow Bird across the country until he was allowed to substitute for Parker's trumpet player at the time - Dizzy Gillespie. His tenure as Bird's sideman would most exemplify this hard-swinging period of his life.
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Brownman Ali - trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Nick Morgan - alto sax (Grand Prix Du Jazz nominee)
Adrean Farrugia - piano (Juno nominee)
Jesse Dietschi - upright bass (Nick Maclean Quartet)
Tyler Goertzen - drums (Nick Maclean Quartet)
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Week 2 - Fri. Mar 8, 2019
"Birth Of The Cool & Kind Of Blue" - Post-Bop Miles
www.miles.brownman.com
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The term "cool" came to particular prominence in the 1950s to describe a more cerebral, less impassioned way of playing jazz. It's generally supposed that these sessions were part of the inspiration for the 'cool school' of jazz which flourished, particularly on the West Coast, in the 50s. Miles would confound the public's expectations by departing the bop world of Charlie Parker and embracing this new order of jazz, examples of which are heard on "Birth Of The Cool" (Capitol Records, '50), a pillar of this era of Miles' jazz development.
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Brownman Ali - trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Matt Lagan - tenor sax (Oscar Peterson Award winner)
Nick Maclean - piano (Global Music Award Gold Medal winner)
Ross MacIntyre - upright bass (Elizabeth Shepherd / Matt Dusk)
Frank Botos - drums (Robi Botos Trio)
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The first set will focus on the "Birth Of The Cool" beginnings of this era... the second set will emphasize the "Kind Of Blue" approaches
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Week 3 - Fri. Mar 15, 2019
"Plugged Nickel" - The Shorter Years
www.miles.brownman.com
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Two quintets in particular featuring 2 tenor saxophone giants dominated Miles' musical life almost exclusively from the mid 50's, right up until the 70's, one featuring John Coltrane and the other featuring Wayne Shorter. This period would feature an assortment of quintets and sextets all pushing the boundaries of improvisation within a simple modal framework, but the two teamings that would leave the world breathless would be those of Coltrane and Shorter. Of those two teamings it would be the Miles-Shorter pairing that would result in some of the most explosively creative & exploratory jazz in Miles' history. "Live at the Plugged Nickel" (Columbia / Legacy '65) continues to be a paramount recording in the great Miles lineage and considered by many to be some of the most ground-breaking jazz in history.
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Brownman Ali - trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Andy Ballantyne - tenor sax (Juno Award winner)
Nick Maclean - piano (Global Music Award Gold Medal winner)
Nick Arseneau - upright bass (Chronophobe / Contra-band)
Norbert Botos - drums (24-year old fast-rising jazz drumset star)
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Week 4 - Fri. Mar 22, 2019
"From Bitches Brew to Tutu" - Electric Miles
www.miles.brownman.com
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Legendary as a kind of line in the sand challenging jazz fans during the ascendance of electric, psychedelic rock, "In a Silent Way" (Colombia Records, 1969) hinted at the repetitive polyrhythms Davis would employ throughout the early '70s. It also partook generously of electric piano and bass tonal colourings previously explored in acoustic settings, but "In a Silent Way" and the subsequent "Bitches Brew" and "Live Evil" recordings remains a clearly electric jazz record, part ambient color exploration, part rock-inflected energy and vibe, and part outright maverick creativity. Long, breathy solos would be a feature of this era, glistening against his new groups' strange admixture of musical moods. Miles would stay on this "electric" path right in to the '80's, continually exploring these textures with newer and younger generations of musicians.
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Brownman Ali - electric trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Dave Riddel - electric guitar (Socialist Night School)
Nick Maclean - rhodes & synths (Snaggle / Robert Ball)
Sean Dennis - 6-string electric bass (Brownman Electryc Trio)
David Steinmetz - drums (Ali Bros / Funny Funk)
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The first set tonight will focus on the "Bitches Brew" 70's era...
the second set will emphasize the "Tutu" 80's ideologies.
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Week 5 - Fri. Mar 29, 2019
"Doo-bop" - Had He Lived…
www.miles.brownman.com
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Towards the end of Miles' life he began an exploration of another sub-component of modern popular music - hip-hop. The "Doo-bop" recording (Warner,'92) would feature rappers and loops and would have marked the beginning of Miles' exploration or this artform. It is often harshly referred to by critics as his "worst" documented recording and as a "forgettable" era of his life, but it still stands strongly as a prime example of the Milesian ethic - his ability to recognize "what's next" and creatively move within and extend that artform. Brownman states "I believe it is extremely probable that Miles would have worked closely with the likes of Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Rakim, Guru, Big Daddy Kane, junglists, DJs, rappers, beat-makers alike... had he lived. Tonight will be a salute to what MIGHT have been."
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Brownman - electric trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Ayrah Taerb - rapper (T.Dot BANGERZ Brass / Dirty B-sides)
DJ Dopey - turntables (DMC World Turntable Champion)
Sean Dennis - 6-string electric bass (Brownman Electryc Trio)
Jacob Aylward - drums (KC Roberts & The Live Revolution)
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ABOUT BROWNMAN | www.Brownman.com
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Born in Trinidad, schooled in New York City under Randy Brecker’s watchful eye and now called "Canada’s preeminent jazz trumpeter" by New York City’s Village Voice magazine, the ever dynamic Brownman tirelessly leading no less than 7 highly respected ensembles of his own. He is best known for his work as the leader of Canada's premiere latin-jazz ensemble CRUZAO and his electrified Miles Davis' influenced BROWNMAN ELECTRYC TRIO (2007 National Jazz Award winner for "Electric Group of the Year"). Despite the demands of leading 7 groups he is still one of the most called upon trumpet players in the studio scene, his recording credits sitting at just over 300 records to date.
He was the featured soloist from 2006 to 2010 with the legendary New York City jazz-hip-hop artist GURU (of Gangstarr fame) for his JAZZMATAZZ ensemble, replacing Donald Byrd in that primordial ensemble and has since become in high demand with A-list hip-hop artists including Mos Def, Jay-z, Missy Elliot & KRS-One. Since returning to Canada from NYC, he has been on the cutting edge of modern music in the nation for the last decade, winning multiple awards nationally and achieving international recognition while touring the globe.
Please visit www.Brownman.com for more information.
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