The Role of Keyboardists in Miles Davis's post-On the Corner music

[Guy Berger]

I posted the following question to the Miles Davis list:

After On the Corner and "Ife", Miles went on tour with Cedric Lawson. After a few months Lawson was replaced by Lonnie Liston Smith. After a few more months, Smith left the group and Miles took over the organ.

I haven't heard Smith's work with the group, but my recollections of Lawson's contributions to In Concert are that he participates primarily as a colorist -- there is little of the keyboard-as-solo-instrument role that Miles's previous groups (acoustic and electric) had. Maybe that's because of the direction Miles was headed in, maybe it's because these guys weren't of the same caliber as Jarrett/Corea/Hancock.

I also haven't heard enough of Miles's 80s music to judge the role of guys like Adam Holzman and Robert Irving. Did they make significant contributions as soloists to Miles's music?

I got the following response:

After Smith left and Miles took over the organ role, to my ears the purpose was mainly background, punctuation. Certainly not a soloist situation (Cosey, Miles and whoever was the saxophonist, Garnett, Liebman, Fortune, Morrison were the soloists, Lucas rarely if at all and percussion solos were almost all Mtume, not drumset). Many times it was an impenetrible wall of sound, a wash to set off the rhythm section. Sometime (Mayisha) it was background chords. Sometimes it was used to signal the beginning of the next "tune".

In the 80s it was much more an arranging tool, playing parts. Bobby Irving was the first and then Holzman. Between the two it was usually Irving who soloed. Later after Scofield's departure and the arrival of Kei Akagi there were more keyboard solos, and at the very end little Deron Johnson was playing his ass off in the reduced context of the sextet.

What are your thoughts?

Guy

Edited April 27, 2007 by Guy

[Rosco]

Actually, it was usually Holzman who soloed, while Irving was primarily playing grooves and colours.

Kei Akagi was probably the most talented of the late period keyboardists (I haven't heard enough of the band when Joey DeFrancesco was there to make a judgement on his contribution) but they were pretty much all there primarily to weave textures around the soloists (usually Miles, Garrett & Foley).

Pity the group with Johnson didn't have longer. He sounded promising.

As for the 70s band, Miles seemed more concerned with rhythm than anything melodic or harmonically complex. With Reggie Lucas chugging away there seems little that an additional instrument could add although Miles' own rudimentary organ stabs worked surprisingly well most of the time. A virtuoso would probably have just got in the way.

[bertrand]

I thought Kei Akagi was awful.

I saw Miles for the last time at Wolf Trap, September 1989. His chops were totally shot, and Akagi did most of the solos. It was a very sad gig.

I had seen Miles several times in the eighties, and he played great.

Bertrand.