Les McCann Ltd.
Beaux J. Pooboo

PRESSED ON OPAQUE YELLOW COLORED VINYL IN A GATEFOLD JACKET WITH JAPANESE STYLIZED INSERT AND DELUXE OBI STRIPSony Legacy Recordings X Get On Down Miles Davis 1980s Reissue Series Remastered from the original analog tapes The first live Miles Davis electric band release since the very dark and heavy “Dark Magus” (1977). This album is edited together from live concerts at Boston’s Kix Club. The 2xLP set from 1982 contains reimagined versions of songs from “The Man With the Horn” (1981), tunes from the pre-electric Gil Evans collaboration “Porgy and Bess” (1959), and a dedication to the Boston venue called “Kix”. While this is one of the first live Miles Davis performances in over half a decade it certainly did not show!!! This album features R&B legend Marcus Miller on bass, Mike Stern on guitar, Bill Evans on saxophone, Mino Cinelu on percussion, and electric band alumni Al Foster on drums. Produced and edited by long time Miles collaborator Teo Macero.

On the fourth album of his fusion cycle for the man from the Black Forest, George Duke substantially expanded the number of his colleagues. As before, drummer Leon “Ndugu” Chancler beats as the heart of the rhythm section, and the Brazilian couple, Airto and Flora are again on board. The ten tracks perform a stylistic balancing act. The jittery funk of Chariot and the smooth ballad Someday show off Duke’s soulful vocal flair. Flora Purim crowns the complex Look Into Her Eyes with her spheric sound as she and guitarist George Johnson take care of business on this stratospheric piece with its bluesy electric shuffle. With two high-voltage guitarists (Daryl Stuermer and Byron Miller), That’s What She Said points to the tie between rock and funk. The most eye-opening outing occurs with star guitarist Lee Ritenour stomping on Rokkinrowl, I Don’t Know, and its Hendrix parody. Sister Sirene shows that, naturally, the typical dreamy Duke instrumentals are not left off the album. An almost animistic soundscape is woven into the fabric of Mashavu, and Giant Child Within Us – Ego is a small fusion suite encompassing the spectrum from the classical to the Zappaesque finale. The title piece is indeed a blues, dished out pure and simple – a far cry from the sounds of the preceeding piece with its mountains of synthesizers. Rather, the sultry delta heat, the acoustic simplicity and raw truth of the song prevail – the blues.