Miles Davis: Doo-Bop [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This Rhino reissue presses Doo-Bop on 140g vinyl in a single-pocket jacket. It won the 1993 Grammy for Best R&B Instrumental Performance, and "Fantasy" earned a nomination for Best Jazz Performance.

This edition

• 140g vinyl
• Single-pocket jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

Miles Davis spent a New York summer in his apartment with the windows open, listening to the street, and decided he wanted to make a record that sounded like it. Early in 1991 he called his friend Russell Simmons and asked him to find some young producers, which is how he ended up working with Easy Mo Bee.

Six pieces were finished when Davis died later that year. Easy Mo Bee then built "High Speed Chase" and "Fantasy" around unissued trumpet from the 1985 Rubberband sessions, shaping tracks Davis would have loved, and a reprise of "Mystery" rounds out the set. "The Doo-Bop Song," "Chocolate Chip" and "Blow" lay that muted, echoing horn over boom-bap beats, and DownBeat's Robin Tolleson heard his phrasing adapt sharply from tune to tune. Musician magazine pitched it as an accessible way in for younger ears raised on modern beats.

It sold around 300,000 copies worldwide within a year. The title splices doo-wop and bebop, the sort of merger that usually needs a team of lawyers; Miles managed it with a trumpet and a mute.

Also at Kops: more Miles Davis on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Warner / Rhino (cat# R1-26938), a reissue of the 1992 album.