Charles Pillow Large Ensemble - Electric Miles (2018)

“Electric Miles” celebrates the music of the early electric period of Miles Davis with big band arrangements of classics from “Bitches Brew”, “On the Corner”, “Jack Johnson” and “In a Silent Way”. Trumpeters Tim Hagans and Clay Jenkins are featured as the “Miles” voice with Dave Liebman appearing on “Black Satin” and “Yesternow”. Also featuring trombonist Michael Davis, Pillow on alto sax/alto flute; the band is powered by the rhythm section of drummer Jared Schonig and bassist Chuck Bergeron. This band is full of NYC seasoned pros and peppered with up and coming musicians.

“Over his long and varied career, Miles Davis recorded several seminal jazz orchestra albums in collaboration with the great arranger Gil Evans. Those disciplined affairs (“Sketches of Spain” and others) were in stark contrast to Miles’s wild, improvised, “electric” period that produced records like “Bitches Brew.” Charles Pillow Large Ensemble’s “Electric Miles” brilliantly fuses these two aspects of Miles’s oeuvre with gorgeous big band arrangements of tunes from “Bitches Brew,” “Jack Johnson,” and “In a Silent Way.”

Featured soloists Tim Hagans and Clay Jenkins ably take on Miles’s role on trumpet while Pillow takes flight on alto sax and alto flute. Dave Liebman, who participated in the original sessions a half-century ago, contributes soaring soprano sax solos on “Yesternow” and “Black Satin.” All of the soloists, including Michael Davis (trombone) and Luke Norris (tenor sax), are outstanding, but the stars here are Pillow’s arrangements, with beautiful voicings on more subtle tunes like “Sanctuary” and a powerful punch on compositions like “Pharaoh’s Dance.”