{"id":88365,"date":"2021-09-28T11:12:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T09:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/merci-miles\/"},"modified":"2021-09-28T11:52:42","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T09:52:42","slug":"merci-miles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/merci-miles\/","title":{"rendered":"Merci Miles! The trumpeter\u2019s final concert at Vienne"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Discover our tribute to Miles Davis in 100 tracks and 5 playlists<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miles and France have had a long history. It began in Orly where he landed in May 1949 to play at the Salle Pleyel, and ended during his final festival tour in the summer of 1991, just before he passed away in Santa Monica on 28th September that same year. He spent some long and happy periods in France during his lifetime. It was a country where, in his autobiography, he stated that “for the first time [I] felt free and treated like a human being<\/em>\u201d. That\u2019s quite a claim. I mean, who could forget Davis\u2019 free and melodic improvisation over Louis Malle\u2019s film Ascenseur pour l\u2019\u00e9chafaud<\/em>? That night (4th December 1957) marked an aesthetic milestone for the musician. The release of this final concert then, which had languished in the back of a draw for so long but which remains engraved on the memories of all those who were able to attend, marks the pinnacle of France\u2019s link with the artist who received the L\u00e9gion d\u2019honneur (France\u2019s highest civilian honour) from culture minister Jack Lang in July 1991. Looking super cool, with aviator glasses and a scarlet trumpet, Miles<\/a> was still very much alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nightfall on 1st July 1991, in the Vienne arena overlooking the Rh\u00f4ne. It was a magical setting for what was to be a form of requiem for the trumpet player. Surrounded by a rather muscular jazz team \u2013 but who were nonetheless capable of taking a softer approach (like on \u201cAmandla\u201d, a Marcus Miller theme) \u2013 our trumpeter was concluding a decade that finally saw him back in business, this time as a crossover artist playing a form of metallic funk, rather than the more experimental artist of the 1970s. In other words, it was more of a proto-synthetic performance than a post-psychedelic experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, Merci Miles!<\/em> should grab the attention of anyone who\u2019s ever loved our sound innovator extraordinaire. For those particularly keen on the records made with Marcus Miller, this live album is a godsend. For others who abandoned our Illinois native at the time of his thunderous comeback in the 80s, sometimes even finding it difficult to watch him on stage, this unreleased record is nevertheless not without interest \u2013 if only for the presence of two tracks by Prince, whose talent the \u2018Prince of Darkness\u2019 greatly appreciated. For these alone, this record is worth listening to: \u201cPenetration\u201d and \u201cJailbait\u201d, two compositions originally conceived of for Madhouse (one of Prince\u2019s brilliant side projects) are the moment where the funk jam session gets turned up to 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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