Miles from India (TWO CD SET)

this cd is a tribute to Miles Davis if you are exposed to his style and
ever listened to Kind of Blue. The tracks are a fusion of east meets
west with all traditional instruments played by masters of the same.
If you have a good system it will reveal the recording quality.Very nice
happy listening and enjoy.

IF YOU LOVED THE ECLECTIC (AND ELECTRIC!) JAZZ FUSION MUSIC THAT MILES DAVIS RECORDED IN THE LATE 60'S AND EARLY 70'S (BITHCES BREW, BIG FUN, SORCERER, NERFERTITI, JACK JOHNSON, LIVE/EVIL, IN A SILENT WAY, ON THE CONRER, ETC, ETC), THEN YOU WILL GET TO APPRECIATE THIS TRUE LABOR OF LOVE THAT COMBINES MILES' WORK FROM THAT PERIOD WITH A HOST OF GREAT MUSICIANS THAT HE RECORDED WITH (ALMOST TOO NUMEROPUS TO NAME), AND SOME STELLAR MUSICIANS FROM INDIA PLAYING TRADITIONAL INDIAN INSTRUMENTS. MILES WOULD APPROVE, AND I AM SURE HE IS LOOKING DOWN FROM SOMEWHERE RIGHT NOW AND SMILING. GREAT DOUBLE CD RELEASE. PRODUCED BY BOB BELDEN, WHO YOU COULD EASILY DESCRIBE AS THE "CARETAKER' OF MILES' MUSIC. THIS CD TRULY CAPTURES THE SPIRIT AND SOUND OF THOSE EARLIER RECORDINGS, WITH MORE OF A WORLD SOUND TO IT THAT ENHANCES IT EVEN MORE.

Some people have been disappointed that this project did not realise its full hybrid potential, and perhaps not unduly so. However, we must remember that the music of Miles' electric period was already inflected with Indian musical structures and musicians, irrespective of the extent of explicitly Indian instrumentation (surely part of its appeal to me). On Miles From India I will concede that some tracks are more successful than others in their achievement of indo-jazz synergy. But for example, Spanish Key is absolutely incredible- a really distinctive interpretation with a pronounced Indian inflection, and reason alone to purchase this. As an obsessive about this era of Miles' music, this rendition really caught my attention, filling me with delight.

Others have complained that the project suffers from the segregation of its recording, with separate sessions in India and the US (reducing the carbon footprint of its production), with the music only combined in production, thereby depriving the musicians from the dynamic intersubjectivity of shared being. This too I will partially concede. Again however, I will defend this project by noting just how successful the dynamic integration of component parts has generally been. And after all, so much of this era of Miles' music was a cut and paste job by Teo Macero anyway.

In recent years we have been treated to Bill Laswell's Panthalassa project and its dance remixes, to Henry Kaiser and Leo Wadada Smith's Yo Miles! project (producing three wonderful CDs), and to the potent live performances on the Children on The Corner album. Miles From India represents another worthy addition to a body of work that so warrants celebration through reinterpretation. Whether these projects try to innovate or replicate, I'm still happy to hear alternative versions of so many tracks that I love so much. Great stuff.

Another great example of how Miles' music, particularly the 70s period, his greatest period, will stand the test of time and continue to influence future generations. A true Jazz GIant and a great tribute. I'm looking for Miles From Africa next...

I am usually ambivalent of this genre of music.Fusion albums can be either superb or very banal.For example compare this release with "Floating Point" the latest album by John Mclaughlin.I was utterly disapponted.It has absolutely no new ideas and is banal at it's best.Interestingly, both albums have a lot of musicians in common - Luiz Banks,Ranjit Barot, Shankar Mahadevan...

This album is a totally different cup of tea.It works and like how.Of course the premise to begin with, is brilliant.And then the musicians are on fire and you can actually feel that on every track.

All the songs on the album are superb, but if I have to pick a favourite it would be Jean-Pierre, the last track on the first CD.

Highly recommended.

Miles Davis passed away in 1991, but his majesty has lived on through any number of reissues, boxed sets of classic sessions and the reinterpretation of his music in a variety of settings.

This set - placing Miles in a World Music context - is sweeping in scoop and breathtaking in sound. The project was overseen by producer Bob Belden and co-arranged by Louiz Banks, who also performed on keyboards.

Utilizing classical and jazz artists from India and musicians who mostly performed with Miles during his "electric" years, the 12 numbers - which include In a Spanish Key, Silent Way, Jean Pierre and Miles Runs the Voodoo Down - are powerfully presented on an illuminated landscape that subtly changes with each listening.

But it's the title track - composed, produced and performed by guitarist John McLaughlin with U. Shrinivas on electric mandolin, Louiz Banks on piano and Sikkil Gurucharan on vocals - that merges the sketches of excellence of the past with the brilliance of the present.

The project is not just a tribute to the genius of Miles, but an absolute gem in the art of making modern music.

Davis may have died in 1991, but he lives on in reissues, tributes and memorial albums. You'd think there was nothing left to say, but this cross-cultural collaboration between original Davis sidemen, including Chick Corea and John McLaughlin, and Indian classical musicians is fresh, unexpected and indispensable.

"A Cross-Cultural Celebration of the Music of Miles Davis," it says, in which prominent Indian musos get down and dirty with prominent ex-Davis sidemen in... well, you've read the subtitle already. And guess what? It works, by and large. Miles always had a thing for Indian music and Davis-heads will recall his expansive use of tablas and sitar on various Sixties and Seventies records.

"Miles From India" is a remarkable collection of music featuring some of the best musicians of contemporary American Jazz, Indian Jazz, and Classical Indian music coming together to honour one of the most brilliant composers of our time.

Miles Davis not only created remarkable music on his own, but he provided the inspiration for some of modern Jazz's best and most creative minds.

Everybody from Wayne Shorter to Chick Corea and John McLaughlin played with and were influenced by Miles and his innovations. While some of them might have pushed the envelope of fusion much further then he did, he was the one who put their feet on that path.

It is only fitting, therefore, that a collection of music in his honour is such a bold attempt at fusing two such disparate types of music. The fact that it is so successful is surely a testimony to his genius as a composer.

"Miles From India" is not just an example of how to properly bring East and West together musically, it is as magnificent collection of Jazz music that you are liable to find anywhere these days.

Material is culled from both acoustic and electric eras: "So What", "In a Silent Way", "All Blues" "Jean Pierre" etc - and the approach is about as respectful of the original idioms as it could be. Highly enjoyable.

Amazing work of fusion the boss would have been proud of.

'So What' has always been my favourite and the way it has been improvised in this CD is just marvellous.

For fans of Shakti there is 'Miles from India' with jaming by the dynamic Shankar Mahadevan and the amiable John Maclauglin.

Truly amazing album in the league of Bitches Brew.

i've always liked Indian music, prob comes from the Beatles period, when they were into their Yogi friend & Ravi Shankar.
I've always been a big Miles fan too, from when my father & his drummer brother played Sketches of Spain, non stop, when it was first released about 50 years ago.
So to have a group of Indian musicians playing with some of the people I see mentioned in the small print on the CD jacket-covers of my Miles CDs, well I think, maybe they made this double CD just for me.
I saw Gary Bartz at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival 5 or 6 years ago & have been a big fan ever since, so loved the tracks on Miles from India that he plays on.
I rang the DJ who does a World Music programme late on Sunday nights on a subscriber radio station last week, as he had been playing some Indian music, lots of tablas,etc, that night & recomended he get a copy of M from I & play it on his programme. Be interesting to see if he does so tonight.
Thank you Amazon for recomending it to me.It is currently my favourite CD.
Regards, Geoff R from Melbourne Australia.

new jazz sound, entertaining, good music. I f you like jazz and open for " new waves" this is the thing.

MILES FROM INDIA IS AT THE PINNACLE OF JAZZ FUSION BETWEEN TWO GREAT CULTURAL/MUSICAL FORCES. THE MUSIC IS BRILLIANT AND OF ENDLESS VISION... MILES AND MILES OF WORDS WILL STILL NOT DO JUSTICE TO THIS INCREDIBLE MASTERPIECE. THIS WILL HAVE TO BE THE JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR, AND SHOULD RANK AS THE JAZZ ALBUM OF THE DECADE. MILES DAVIS' SPIRIT IS EVER PRESENT IN THE BURNING MINDS AND HANDS OF ALL THE MASTER MUSICIANS WHO CRAFTED THIS TOUR DE FORCE... A FITTING TRIBUTE TO A GIANT(BY GIANTS), WHO HAD GIVEN THE WORLD SO MUCH...KAISER

I am a lifetime Miles Davis fan, and I also have an interest in Indian music. The "Miles From India" album, although an awsome concept, just didn't move me all that much. I must say that that Wallace Roney does do a really fine job of capturing the Miles Davis sound and conception. I do recommend Alice Coltrane's "Journey To Satchidananda" for an ethereal blend of Indian music and Jazz.

I've listened to the album, and also attended the concert in NY, and although I'm not greatly disappointed, I find the results of both to be uneven.
The best pieces date from Miles' electric period: Spanish Key, Miles Runs the Voodoo Down, Ife, It's About That Time. Problem is, these pieces were already percussion-heavy, and had some Indian influence to begin with, so these versions aren't dramatically new.
The disappointments are the songs from Kind of Blue. The sitar lead on All Blues sounds like an outtake from a Beatles session, and the rest of the arrangement sounds like yet another cover version. A great song to cover, sure, but I can't say this adds anything new. Blue in Green was always a Bill Evans showcase, and without him, the song just seems aimless.
The CD's most exciting moments come from the Indian vocals and violin, and Pete Cosey's electric guitar. A real surprise is the closer, Miles From India. Not a Miles composition, this is oddly one of the most beautiful pieces in the set.
The biggest let-down is In A Silent Way. The strong melody disappears, and if I weren't looking at the title on the CD, I'd never recognize it.

Best tribute to miles so far with most of the western artists to have collaborate with DAVIS in the past .The result is also very refined with an oriental direction beatifully presented BOTH by musicians from INDIA and the rest of the other ones who participate in this tribute .EXCELLENT .

It's not often that transcontinental attempts at "fusion" work, and even rarer still for "tribute" albums to produce anything memorable. This album is an exception because it's neither fusion nor tribute - it's something else altogether. It's vibrant, it's organic, it's creative, it's original. Very much like the man who inspired the music behind this effort. Buy It!

If this CD doesn't win a Grammy, I will be stunned. It's a who's who of Miles Davis former musicians and the best jazz artists from India. The way the jazz intertwines with the Indian instruments is fantastic. It is so unique, yet so natural. I've purchased no only my own, but 3 others as gifts...that should say something there.

Spanish Key with traditional Indian Vocals? An awesome combination on this striking CD - an intriguing, inimitable offering which, if you love fusion, you'll want to immediately procure. I'm not going to drool superlatives over this revisioning of the Miles cannon as others have and assuredly will, because, at an early stage of listening, I find this sprawling hoot to be uneven, descending, at its worst, into a rather vapid, simplistic funk - choppy, innocuous riffs without real cohesion or direction.
After all, "new directions" was what Miles was about. With every release, Miles and his incredible sidemen were pushing music to its perimeters, to the edge, over the edge, and beyond. The project was symbiotic with our age - the chaos - the alienation - the primal urge for freedom - for life itself - if there's much left. The excitement `Spanish Key' generated thirty-eight years ago as the autochthonous bars of `B[...]es Brew' began to unfurl seems to be exactly what is lacking here - the new directions. The only direction `Miles from India' looks to is backwards - to the past. In terms of East/West fusion, there's little new (though en masse it comes together quite nicely). While Jai Uttal's `Shiva Station' was revolutionary, ten years ago, 'Miles from India' seems to ape or rehash similar ventures from the past.
The concept and the performances: a great idea - no doubt. When one remembers McLaughlin's storied Shakti, one wonders why it didn't happen sooner. Yet, as good as the idea and many of the interpretations are, I found myself embellishing and rearranging many parts, imagining the whole as so much more. For instance, why only one voice when a chorus would have been that much more powerful? Which brings us to the playing. As a celebratory reunion of surviving Miles' alum with a core of gifted Indian musicians it's o. k, with a few questionable absences. Dave Holland isn't there (not in any way to disparage the venerable Ron Carter)- but considering the context, they could have used him - and a few more of the 'Cellar Door' era crowd, any number of percussionists - like the boys on 'Dark Magus'(although . . . amazingly Jimmy Cobb re-emerges after half a century to play on "All Blues"), that long lost genius, Wayne Shorter and/or Kenny Garrett, and, of course, Colin Wolcott (is he still alive?). And what about Bennie Maupin, currently undergoing a ressurgence and some long overdue recognition?
On the Indian side, there is one towering omission - L. Subramanium - the world's leading Mridangam/Violin player - and the leading fusion maestro on the subcontinent (he was doing East/West fusion beginning in the mid-70's simultaneously with McLaughlin and Miles of the `On the Corner' era. The guy they've got (prominent on `In a Silent Way') is not bad - but one cannot help but speculate on what this session would have been like with the luminous L. Subramanium at the helm and, curiously, why he was not.
John McLaughlin. The critical consensus has generally settled that recent years have not been kind. Not even the most diehard fan (I might be considered one)would seriously contend that McLaughlin's stature at the vanguard of innovation is anywhere near what it was in 1969-70, when he shared the stage with Miles as the most far out guitar soloist anyone had heard since Hendrix - and decidedly a new direction for jazz. I sat at the foot of the stage during his legendary performance with the original edition of the Mahavishnu Orchestra at the Mar Y Sol rock festival in Puerto Rico in 1972, when the magical vibrations emanating from his double-necked guitar literally brought in the tradewinds to assuage the 90+ degree stifling tropical heat- truly, a remarkable experience.
What he was channeling in those days at the height of his eminence - I can't say. I still listen to 'The Inner Mounting Flame' occasionally - a kick after all these years. Whatever it was - it's not happening here. McLaughlin's riffs often come across as retro, trite, more noise than substance, a somewhat exposed throwback to his early glory. Listening to 'The Way Up', a fairly recent Pat Metheny Group release, also an uneven venture, I found the crucial difference - when it gets good - it's great - utterly elevating and absorbing - a level that `Miles from India', for all its delights, never seems to really reach.
However - don't get me wrong. Within 24 hours of first hearing this music on the radio, I snapped up a copy at retail. In the end, what I sense to be shortcomings, dwelt upon at some length here, in the larger view prove ephemeral, because the listening is that much fun.