Decoy (album)
| Decoy | ||||
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| Music album by Miles Davis | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Columbia Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
39:36 |
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| occupation |
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Miles Davis |
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Studio (s) |
A&R Recording Studio or The Record Plant , New York City |
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Decoy ( English for decoy ) is an album by jazz musician Miles Davis , which was released in April 1984.
background
Decoy was the first album in 25 years that Davis produced at his own request without recourse to Teo Macero . George Butler remained executive producer ; Robert Irving III was listed as co-producer and Vincent Wilburn , Davis' nephew, as associate producer .
Decoy consists of recordings from June, July and September 1983: In addition to two funk-jazz live recordings from a performance in Montreal ( What It Is and That's What Happened ), studio productions were selected: two pieces composed by Robert Irving III, Robot 415 and Code MD , as well as a 12/8 blues ( That's Right , to which Davis had added a bass line that he associated with Kurt Weill ) and two synthesizer-heavy pieces. The idea was to produce music suitable for radio (similar to how Herbie Hancock had succeeded with Rock-It shortly before ). So, as Davis said, "clothes were put on the melodies:" synthesizer chords, strong bass lines, overdubbing, and voices against. Gil Evans was reactivated as a consultant by Davis , even if he felt out of place in the opinion of Robert Irving III because it was his strength as an arranger to create something from the beginning and not to give hints during the recording.
Some pieces were not recorded with seven musicians, but only with a trio ( Robot 415 ) or a quartet ( Freaky Deaky ). Bill Evans plays the soprano saxophone on the live pieces that were created as a sextet (without Robert Irving III) ; for the studio recordings he was replaced by Branford Marsalis . The authors of the compositions on the B-side were named Miles Davis and John Scofield , with Scofield's compositional technique indicated as follows:
"Gil (Evans) was arguably the most overqualified transcriptor in the world because Miles had him transcribe trumpet and guitar solos and then we played the transcribed parts of the solos as themes."
By superimposing recordings, the piece “What It Is” creates a trumpet duet.
Track list
- Decoy (Robert Irving III) - 8:33
- Robot 415 (Miles Davis, Robert Irving III) - 1:09
- Code MD (Robert Irving III) - 5:58
- Freaky Deaky (Miles Davis) - 4:34
- What It Is (Miles Davis, John Scofield) (recorded live at the Festival International de Jazz, Montreal , 1983) - 4:31
- That's Right (Miles Davis, John Scofield) - 11:12
- That's What Happened (Miles Davis, John Scofield) (recorded live at the Festival International de Jazz, Montreal, 1983) - 3:30
reception
The album received mostly poor ratings. Francis Davis called the album in Rolling Stone in a review of You're Under Arrest "wretched". Due to the inconsistent composition of the album titles, Decoy was rated by Peter Niklas Wilson as "an unbalanced, fragmentary album".
Scott Yanow wrote on Allmusic that it was "a pretty mixed compilation of music":
“There are some moments of interest…, but it is doubtful if anyone will be reviving" Robot 415, "" Freaky Deaky, "or" Code MD "anytime soon."
"There are some interesting moments ... but it is doubtful if anyone will be playing" Robot 415 "," Freaky Deaky "or" Code MD "anytime soon."
Robert Christgau was able to gain positive sides from Decoy with all the weaknesses of typical groove albums and despite the synthesizer colors of Robert Irving III; it is "a damn good conventional fusion album."
Critics Richard Cook & Brian Morton gave the album 3½ stars (out of four) in The Penguin Guide to Jazz ; nevertheless they criticize “the hard, brittle and unattractive sound” of the record; it sounds so programmed that one has the impression that in some places only one player or none at all is playing. You have to search long for the fleeting impressions of what made Miles Davis so great, but when they come, "they are in a monotonous electronic soundscape".
Davis biographer Peter Wießmüller was able to gain more from the album. “Miles masterfully knows how to polytonally break up the seemingly simple structure of arranged passages, the calling and answering or the contrapuntal unison playing of changing instrument combinations ; Sometimes the inclusion of ambiguously dissonant clusters that continuously rub against subdominant blues phasing sounds so banal that its intricate subtlety can easily be overlooked. "However, Wießmüller misses" those elements that recently made Davis' fascination with live performances. strong chromatic gradations or concise asymmetric phrasiology; Last but not least , Miles dispenses with surprising twists and turns in the rhythmic foundation - not without the ulterior motive to lure a broad audience with it. A sensual mélange through spontaneous communication does not take place. "
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c John Szwed So What: The Life of Miles Davis 2004, p. 362
- ↑ cf. George Cole The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991 University of Michigan Press 2007, p. 151f.
- ^ Davis discography (jazzdisco.org)
- ^ A b c Peter Niklas Wilson: Miles Davis. His life. His music. His records. Oreos Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-923657-62-5 , pp. 205-206.
- ^ Francis Davis: You're Under Arrest. In: Rolling Stone. July 4, 1985, accessed January 3, 2015 .
- ↑ Scott Yanow: Review by Decoy. Retrieved January 2, 2015 .
- ^ Christgau reviews of Miles Davis albums
- ^ Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 , p. 382.
- ↑ Peter Wießmüller: Miles Davis: His life, his music, his records. Oreos, (Collection Jazz), Schaftlach o. J. (2nd edition = 1988). P. 184.