Don´t worry Mat, I´ll be here whenever you wish to talk again.
I´ll send you the best blessings while you´re back to working hours with some deep thoughts on Miles Davis.
First of all he was a very distingquished trumpet player. He never played or recorded a lot on the flugelhorn, but he did one album that I have where he only used the flugelhorn "Miles Ahead" Columbia Records, 1958. His co-musicians on this album are: Wynton Kelly (piano) Paul Chambers (bass) and Art taylor (drums) and The Gil Evans Orchestra. Funny Gil Evans´s real name is Ian Ernest Gilmore Green, just a footnote.
I believe Miles Davis had an almost one-man-kind-of-talent. He always managed to find new musicians on various instruments, who were about to make the breakthrough on the american jazz scene, and sort of just needed the last puuuush (as the late rock star the incredible very missed Frank Zappa/Mothers would say it).
I happened to watch an interview on the TV some years back during the danish night with the very young at the time new international (almost) star on tenor and soprano saxophone: Bill Evans. He told the funny story on how Miles contacted him at Bill Evans home adress, and said: "My name is Miles Davis. My band will do a concert to night in Baltimore. I would like to hear you live, so if you want to play with the band, please show up at 6 P.M."
That was the message by phone.
Bill Evans of course knew of Miles Davis a-legend-in-jazz (who didn´t?), an he felt almost embarrased and a bit nervous to get the chance to play with Miles Band for the first time, and then live.
So Bill turned up, and Miles instructed Bill Evans after the introduction to the rest of the band members: "Bill, you know the songs we play, right? We always improvise during concerts. Just fall in and follow me, keep the time and the rhytm, and I will signal you with my eyes and then you play solo".
That was it. Bill Evans after the concert became a member of the Miles Davis Band, and later began recording with his own bands.
Miles Davis had this very significant talent to be able almost to see inside someone, whether he was good or not, and just needed the final puuuush. Every famous jazz musician from Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Joe Zawinul, Miroslav Vitous (from the former Chechoslovakai - proberly spelled wrong), Anthony Braxton, John Mclaughlin, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Marcus Miller, Airto Moreia, John Scofield, Mike Stern, Mino Cinelu etc.etc.etc. All of them played with Miles who gave the musicians inspiration and one chance playing with him and his current band, and they all succeded in each their own bands later in life.
That talent of Miles Davis to me is what Miles Davis was all about. An incredible trumpet player, band leader and then this significant talent to spot new talents and give them the room they needed to do the very best they could offer, musicians who would carry on as international jazz musicians.
I had the pleasure to attend a concert close to where I live years ago, after his many years of illness, in the beginning of the 1980´s around the time after the release of his album "The man with the horn" 1981. The band then were Miles (trumpet) Bill Evans (soprano saxophone), Barry Finnerty/Mike Stern (guitars) Robert Irving III (piano, keyboards), Randy Hall (vocals, syntheziser, guitar), Marcus Miller/Felton Crews (fender el. bass), Vincent Wilburn/Al Foster (drums) and finally Sammy Figuera (percussion).
The press the next day felt angry, cheeted and told that Miles Davis was arrogant on the stage, because Miles at all times had his back to the audience. But then that was Miles in the essence. His appearence on any stage was always in close interaction with each musician in his band. That was what counted to the legend Miles Davis. Obviosly the musicians they knew, that improvising on the stage in front of thousands of audience, there had to be at least one leader, who keept the whole shabang together, like a conductor, and yet not.
So Mat you´re classical educated and play oboe, piano, cello and have dreams for the soprano saxophone. Some day (if God and you will) you´ll make your own one-man-band chamber orchestra. or perhaps something in jazz, like the englishman John Surman, an expert on the soprano saxophone and various other instruments. I wish to be alive then.
See you and take care on the roads if slippery,
intet-at-tabe