When people think about Miles Davis, Hip Hop is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. However, if you know a little bit about Miles’ career, you know that he was in constant search of the next wave, always ready to try new things and push the “jazz” genre forward. This is exactly what happened here on his first posthumous release, produced by an up and coming Hip Hop beatmaker, Easy Mo Bee (who end up taking care of the music for a large part of Notorious B.I.G. debut album “Ready to Die” a couple years later). The critics were mostly harsh about the project, probably not ready for this new endeavor from the legendary trumpeter. Frankly, the album is unequal, but still an important piece of work as one of the first full Jazz/Hip Hop collaborations. The pen game of Easy Mo Bee on the tracks with lyrics is just not good enough, but the instrumental cuts that let Miles’ playing abilities shine to the forefront are phenomenal. The best example is the opener “Mystery”, one of the best songs on the LP, an “Acid Jazz” masterpiece that stills sounds fresh more than 30 years later.
Full album on YouTube:
Stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer & Tidal.
