SFJAZZ presents Miles Electric Band
2014-08-23
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
7:30 PM, Saturday, August 23, 2014

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[7:37 PM lights down, announcements from RK]

1. [7:45 PM] (Intro sequence)
2. [7:47 PM] DC solo
3. [7:51 PM] ?
4. [8:00 PM] shhh/peaceful 8:02 » 8:06 its about that time
5. [8:15 PM] Percussion trio
6. [8:19 PM] piano solo » Nefertiti »
7. [8:28 PM] ? »
8. [8:37 PM] DC solo
9. [8:39 PM] ?
10. [8:50 PM] AQ solo
11. [8:55 PM] ?
12. [9:00 PM] MJ solo
13. [8:06 PM] bass solo »
14. [9:07 PM] ?
    [show ends 9:20 PM, no encore]

Miles Electric Band

• John Beasley: keyboards;
• Debashish Chaudhuri: tabla;
• Robert Irving III: keyboards;
• Munyungo Jackson: percussion;
• Darryl Jones: bass;
• Jason Kibler AKA DJ Logic: turntables;
• Abbos Kosimov: doyra, percussion;
• DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight: guitar;
• Antoine Roney: soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet;
• Vincent Wilburn Jr.: drums;
  * ?: drum machine;
• with featured guest -
• Etienne Charles: trumpet.

Tonight's show was pretty darn good at delivering what was promised: a healthy dose of electric-era Miles tunes. The band that show up was slightly different from what was advertised – hopefully SFJAZZ will update us sooner or later on the personnel changes, though I'm pretty sure I got 'em all correct except for the drum programmer.

I was a little disappointed at the amount of time set aside for solo wanking – 12 dudes times 5 min apiece is a loooong hour of NOT playing electric Miles tunes. Thankfully, a good portion of the soloing was darn interesting (the acoustic percussion trio segment and RI3's turns come foremost to my recollection), and the other bits were at least passably interesting once I put aside my preconception that tonight's performance was supposed to be about ensemble motives.

Darryl Jones laid down the killer bass riffs all night long, and certainly deserves an MVP award in that role – at least to my ears, this era of Miles tunes is almost solely defined by the killer riff – catch those, and it's easy to name that tune. Of course, the astute reader, stealing an upward glance, might then ask rhetorically, “so what's up with all those question marks in the setlist?” To which I slyly reply: (1) confidence! I only jotted titles I felt confident about, and (2) attention! As I let myself drift with the groove, and didn't really pay close attention to keeping a setlist, except to note a full stop or a segue in or out of a solo segment. My buddy Carl tells me they played Jack Johnson. Cool! Could be right! I can play the opening in my head, but I don't recall whether I heard it tonight or not.

Etienne Charles deserved kudos for his excellent take on Miles' cool trumpet lines. I'd been wondering before the show how he'd fit in with this ensemble, and the short answer turns out to be: perfectly well!

I'll close with hearty thanks to Randall Kline and SFJAZZ for bringing this group to town.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2014 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!