Miles Davis 100
Miles Ahead | Porgy & Bess | Sketches of Spain
Paolo Fresu, Axel Schlosser, Arve Henriksen | Trumpet
Miho Hazama | Conductor
On his 100th birthday, the hr-Bigband honors Miles Davis with something unprecedented: Experience the joint work of Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans in a single evening, when their legendary albums are performed in their entirety with three of the most exquisite trumpet soloists on the current scene.
Miles Davis was just 31 years old when he recorded the album "Miles Ahead" together with Gil Evans. The title was programmatic: The heavily orchestrated, musically precise work was conceived as a suite, with ten pieces seamlessly transitioning into each other. This way, while the arrangements gave less room for the star of the record to improvise, the unique style of Miles Davis' playing still resonates in the Bigband, masterfully translated into the arrangements by Gil Evans. Instead of trumpet, Davis exclusively played flugelhorn on the album, and the instrumentation of the Bigband seemed peculiar: No usual saxophone section, but instead French horns, tuba, flutes, and clarinets, supplemented by an alto saxophone. The calm, almost lyrical feeling of the pieces, together with the instrumentation, emphasized the European influences in the music.
The success was enormous: "For the first time since Duke Ellington, we are confronted with a type of big-band arranging that is logical and makes use of the countless possibilities of such a group," wrote jazz author and musician André Hodeir about the record. For both Miles Davis and Gil Evans, their collaboration was a cornerstone for their later status as music legends. To build on that, two more joint albums by Miles Davis and Gil Evans followed in the next three years: "Porgy and Bess" and "Sketches of Spain."
In "Porgy and Bess," Evans completely turned the eponymous Gershwin opera on its head and reinterpreted it from the ground up. The record is considered groundbreaking for orchestral jazz and was one of Miles Davis's best-selling albums. Jazz trumpeter Ian Carr wrote: "If Miles Ahead is the most perfect of the three orchestral albums by Miles Davis, then Porgy and Bess has more grandeur and depth."
"Sketches of Spain" processes influences from Spanish folk music and is considered Davis's most accessible album. It was awarded a Grammy in 1961. Instead of typical jazz improvisations, it features long, sometimes contemplative and sometimes dance-like arrangements, which initially drew criticism from contemporary jazz colleagues. Nowadays, the album can be found on numerous best-of lists of major music magazines. "Once again, they had broken the form for themselves and for everyone else," judged music journalist Keith Shadwick.
These three groundbreaking albums, which would forever shape the musical landscape of orchestral jazz, have never been performed together in their entirety. Enjoy an evening with pure Davis/Evans and experience jazz history up close!
An event of the Alte Oper Frankfurt in cooperation with the hr-Bigband
Concert duration: about 165 minutes – including break
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On his centennial, the Frankfurt Radio Big Band honors Miles Davis with something unprecedented: Experience the joint work of Miles Davis and arranger Gil Evans in a single evening, when their legendary albums are performed in their entirety with three of the most exquisite trumpet soloists on the current scene. Enjoy an evening of living jazz history!
An event of the Alte Oper Frankfurt in cooperation with the Frankfurt Radio Bigband
Concert duration: about 165 minutes – including break
Doors open: 18:00 After the concert has started, there is no guarantee of entry to the hall.
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