Doo-Bop

Performer: Miles Davis
Artist: Easy Mo Bee
Producer: Easy Mo Bee
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: Miles Davis (trumpet); A.B. Money, J.R. (vocals); Easy Mo Bee (rap vocals). Engineers include: Kirk Yano, Bruce Moore, John McGlain. Recorded at Unique Recording, New York, New York. This is the recording Miles Davis was working on when he checked into the hospital in mid-September of 1991. With his passing on the 28th of September, a major epoch in American music came to a close. Somewhere in the back of his mind he probably knew that he was living on borrowed time, because earlier that summer he'd finally consented to make a nostalgic return to the classic music that emerged from his collaborations with Gil Evans (MILES & QUINCY AT MONTREAUX). But as the contemporary sounds of DOO-BOP indicate, Miles Davis was incapable of sustained backwards glances. As the rapology of J.R., A.B. Money and Easy Mo Bee on "The Doo-Bop Song," "Blow" and "Fantasy" indicates, Miles and his collaborators were still feeling each other out in terms of themes and context. The raps revolve around hangin' with the legendary Davis--let's dim the lights and get down with my man Miles. In terms of dance tracks, the Afro-Cuban airs of "Blow" make it the most successful, while "Fantasy" re-visits Clyde Stubblefield's much sampled "Funky Drummer" beat--via the "Red Clay" chord changes--with hip-happy results. But many of the funky arrangements are a bitch, and Miles sounds funky, lyrical and relaxed. "Chocolate Chip" recalls the ancient doo wop and R&B antecedents of modern funk, including a nod to James Brown, while "Duke Booty" presents the modern perspective on funk. And "High Speed Chase" anticipates the current acid jazz fascination with cool blues and boogaloo grooves of the Blue Note and CTI studio styles, as Miles blows bumblebee lines over fatback organ, vibes and a variety of street sounds.

Entertainment Weekly (8/21/92, p.60) - "...[Miles] solos with impeccable logic and wistful finesse over smoothly intricate hip-hop rhythm tracks..." - Rating: B- Q (9/92, p.70) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a collector's piece...it is as hip, sexy, open and complex as the best of his work since he elected to turn to FM airplay music in the 1980's..." Down Beat (8/92, p.37) - 4.5 Stars - Very Good Plus - "...What excites me about DOO-BOP is the way Miles was playing in his last days....Where he has sounded tentative at times on recent recordings, here he starts and ends his ideas crisply....It's a hell of an exit, chief..." Musician (6/92, p.96) - "...This is a hip hop record....For younger ears weaned on modern beats, it's an inviting opening into one of the great cornucopias of American music....Like most everything Miles played, the music of DOO-BOP is cool and warm, beautiful and true..."

Few musicians have managed to change the course of music--trumpeter Miles Davis did it several times. An early disciple of Charlie Parker, Davis created an austere, understated approach that became the model for cool. His superb albums in the 1950s made him a star, and in the following decade, he brought small-group jazz to the limit before he unapologetically (and, for some, unforgivably) took on jazz-rock. After a break, he re-emerged in the '80s with a mixture of pop and dense, bristling funk. All the while, his refusal to follow anyone but his own muse made him both a hero and an enigma--either way, he was one of the most magnetic, influential figures in American music.

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