Music Monday: Miles, Reuben, Black Nile

This weekend was very relaxed. I spent time grading, reading a couple manuscripts, doing some writing, and watching sports. It was a good weekend and productive without feeling like I was being buried.

I’ve been working my way through the Miles Davis discography and listened to Nefertiti for the first time in a number of years. The album is so good. I mean, you can hear his 1960s albums flowing through it, but it’s textural quality looks ahead to In a Silent Way. Someone somewhere argued that Nefertiti was driving by Tony Williams and Ron Carter with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Miles supporting them. I don’t honestly hear that — although my ear is pretty unstudied — I still hear a dynamic rhythm session forming a foundation against which Miles and Shorter, in particular, carve sparsely elegant lines.

To be clear, listening to Nefertiti is work. It’s good work, but it’s work. My buddy Kostis Kourelis, reminded me of Rueben Wilson and since I was in the late 1960s, I thought I’d put on his album Love Bug. This album is a great example of late 1960s Blue Note soul jazz. Wilson on organ, Lee Morgan on trumpet, George Coleman on sax, and Leo Morris on drums (Jimmy Lewis plays bass on one track). Morgan sounds fantastic with some crisp clear solos. Coleman does Coleman things but with more a soul jazz vibe and Wilson keeps it all organized. This is not heavy listening, but patient listening reveals good musicians playing well and that’s its own reward.

Finally, maybe to complement Nefertiti, I was happy to listen to the new album from Black Nile, Blue Indigo. From what I understand Black Nile is a project of Aaron and Lawrence Shaw and various other members of the LA jazz scene. The album is good with just enough hiphop to make it feel contemporary, but not so much to make it feel like an R&B album with some advanced solos. This is jazz music whatever that means. Listen to it on Bandcamp or check out a track here: