1959: Miles Davis

KIND OF BLUE  - PORGY & BESS

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The Jazz Repertory Company continues its celebration of music from the 1950s by paying tribute to one of jazz history’s most revered and influential trumpeters – Miles Davis. 

60 years after its release, Kind of Blue (featuring saxophonists John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and pianist Bill Evans) remains the best-selling jazz album of all time with over four million copies sold.

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The Jazz Repertory Company continues its celebration of music from the 1950s by paying tribute to one of jazz history’s most revered and influential trumpeters – Miles Davis.  60 years after its release, Kind of Blue (featuring saxophonists John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and pianist Bill Evans) remains the best-selling jazz album of all time with over four million copies sold.

The accomplishments of Davis and bandleader Gil Evans rank among those of Louis Armstrong/Earl Hines and Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie as one of the most celebrated collaborations in jazz history.

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Porgy and Bess was Davis’ second outing with Evans and featured some of the most beautiful work of their careers. The delicacy of Evans’ impressionistic work on his albums with Davis is breathtaking, using instruments seldom heard in jazz – oboe, alto and bass flutes, french horns, bass clarinets and tuba – to create a gorgeous backdrop for the solo trumpet.

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Taking the role of Miles will be Freddie Gavita, winner of Best Trumpet Player at the 2017 British Jazz Awards. Gavita will also solo on music from Sketches of Spain (also 1959) and 1957’s Miles Ahead, Davis and Evans’ first collaboration.

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Following the success of his entertaining and enlightening introductions for The Jazz Repertory Company’s show 1958: A Jazz Jamboree, the evening will, once again, be presented by music journalist, author and TV presenter David Hepworth.