Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Chris Kelsey & What I Say: The Electric Miles Project

7

Chris Kelsey & What I Say: The Electric Miles Project

Chris Kelsey & What I Say: The Electric Miles Project
It takes no shortage of fortitude for contemporary artists to take on the electric Miles Davis. Banking off of his seminal Bitches' Brew (Columbia, 1970), the trumpeter headed for looser, louder and funkier fare, culminating in the twin two-disc releases, Agartha (Columbia, 1975) and Pangea (Columbia, 1976), two shows performed in the afternoon and evening of February 1, 1975 at Japan's Osaka Festival Hall. Laden with electric guitar, seditious percussion and an assortment of effects, Davis spins noisy magic off a single chord, a magic saxophonist Chris Kelsey captures on his The Electric Miles Project.

Kelsey chooses pieces from Agartha, Directions (Columbia, 1981), Big Fun (Columbia, 1974) and Live-Evil (Columbia, 1971). The saxophonist's leadership and approach is like that of Davis, leading the musicians in a certain direction and then stepping away to see where things go. The results are a ruminating "Mad Love Pt. 1," featuring Kelsey's straight alto saxophone channeling Gary Bartz and ending with a frantic "Mad Love Pt. 2," which has guitarists Jack DeSalvo and Rolf Sturm dueling as if part of A Game Of Thrones.

This is reckless, ill-behaved music that will forever have to justify itself to the traditional jazz purist. That said, it is also the artistic convulsion or psychotic break necessary to shake loose the "new" so evolution may occur. In that, Kelsey captures the spirit of Davis well.

Track Listing

Agharta Prelude; Mad Love Pt. 1; Directions; Ife; Sivad; Mad Love Pt. 2.

Personnel

Chris Kelsey
saxophone, soprano

Chris Kelsey: soprano and straight alto saxophones; Rolf Sturm: electric guitar (left channel); Jack DeSalvo: electric guitar (right channel); Joe Gallant: six-string bass; Dean Sharp: drums.

Album information

Title: The Electric Miles Project | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Self Produced

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.