I was really shocked last night to read of the passing of the cornetist Ron Miles.
He was a musician who always cropped up in interesting musical scenarios and I first became aware of him as a member of Ginger Baker's Denver Jazz Quartet-Octet which offered a view of American jazz beyond the larger cities and showed how original other scenes were. The first record of his I bought was called "Woman's Day" and sounded like a blending of Chet Baker meeting Nirvanha. Subsequently, he made his name with leaders sich as Bill Frisell and Mira Melford including Frisell's exceptional "Quartet" album which drew inspiration from the music of the 1920s by the likes of Eddie Lang / Joe Venuti and Adrian Rollini. I still think this is Frisell's best album.
Ron Miles played the cornet with a very cool tone which was not too far away from the kind of style Johnny Coles used with Gil Evans in the 1960s. He seemed to associate with more interesting and original musicians as opposed to inhabiting the mainstream yet remained a distinctive voice in contemporary jazz.
He was a musician who always cropped up in interesting musical scenarios and I first became aware of him as a member of Ginger Baker's Denver Jazz Quartet-Octet which offered a view of American jazz beyond the larger cities and showed how original other scenes were. The first record of his I bought was called "Woman's Day" and sounded like a blending of Chet Baker meeting Nirvanha. Subsequently, he made his name with leaders sich as Bill Frisell and Mira Melford including Frisell's exceptional "Quartet" album which drew inspiration from the music of the 1920s by the likes of Eddie Lang / Joe Venuti and Adrian Rollini. I still think this is Frisell's best album.
Ron Miles played the cornet with a very cool tone which was not too far away from the kind of style Johnny Coles used with Gil Evans in the 1960s. He seemed to associate with more interesting and original musicians as opposed to inhabiting the mainstream yet remained a distinctive voice in contemporary jazz.