March 1, 8,15, 22, 29

Five Weeks For Miles - March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 - full event descriptions

All shows at 7:00pm
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WEEK 1
FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES -- Week 1 : "Young Miles" - The Bird Years
At 17 years of age Miles would travel across the river from his home in East St.Louis, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri to hear well-known jazz musicians play in clubs.  Mesmerized by their talent and style, he would listen to their all night jam sessions until Charlie "Bird" Parker arrived in St. Louis with the Billy Eckstine Band in 1944.  Bird was the creative force behind a new form of jazz later to be dubbed "bebop" and the young Miles would become fascinated with it's complex melodic and harmonic structure leading Miles to follow Bird across the country until he was allowed to substitute for his trumpet player at the time - Dizzy Gillespie.  His tenure as Bird's sideman would most exemplify this hard-swinging period of his life.
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Brownman Ali - trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Nick Morgan - alto sax (Grand Prix Du Jazz nominee)
Adrean Farrugia - piano (Juno nominee / Mohawk faculty)
Jesse Dietschi - upright bass (Nick Maclean Quartet / Sugar Devils)
Tyler Goertzen - drums (Nick Maclean Quartet / Koopa Troop)

TICKET LINK - Young Miles https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3016
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Week 2
FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES -- Week 2 : "Birth Of The Cool" - Post-Bop Miles
The term "cool" came to particular prominence in the 1950s to describe a more cerebral, less impassioned way of playing jazz. It's generally supposed that these sessions were part of the inspiration for the 'cool school' of jazz which flourished, particularly on the West Coast, in the 50s.  Miles would confound the public's expectations by departing the bop world of Charlie Parker and embracing this new order of jazz as heard on "Birth Of The Cool" (Capitol Records, '49).  This 'cooler' form of expression would gradually over the next 10 years lead to the modal approaches of "Kind Of Blue" (Columbia, '59) free of fixed harmony and the now legendary collaboration with the then rising tenor saxophone icon John Coltrane.
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Brownman Ali - trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Matt Lagan - tenor sax (Oscar Peterson Award winner)
Nick Maclean - piano (Global Music Award Gold Medal winner)
Ross MacIntyre - upright bass (Elizabeth Shepherd / Matt Dusk)
Frank Botos - drums (Robi Botos Trio)
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The first set will focus on the "Birth Of The Cool" beginnings of this era... 
the second set will emphasize the "Kind Of Blue" approaches

TICKET LINK Birth of Cool https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3017
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WEEK 3
FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES -- Week 3 : "Plugged Nickel" - The Shorter Years
Two quintets in particular featuring 2 tenor saxophone giants dominated Miles' musical life almost exclusively from the mid 50's, right up until the 70's, one featuring John Coltrane and the other featuring Wayne Shorter. This period would feature an assortment of quintets and sextets all pushing the boundaries of improvisation within a simple modal framework, but the two teamings that would leave the world breathless would be those of Coltrane and Shorter.  Of those two teamings it would be the Miles-Shorter pairing that would result in some of the most explosively creative & exploratory jazz in Miles' history.  "Live at the Plugged Nickel" (Columbia / Legacy '65) continues to be a paramount recording in the great Miles lineage and considered by many to be some of the most ground-breaking jazz in history.
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Brownman Ali - trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Andy Ballantyne - tenor sax (Juno Award winner)
Nick Maclean - piano (Global Music Award Gold Medal winner)
Nick Arseneau - upright bass (Chronophobe / Contra-band)
Norbert Botos - drums (24-year old fast-rising jazz drumset star)

TICKET LINK  Plugged Nickel https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3018
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Week 4
FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES -- Week 4 : "Bitches Brew to Tutu" - Electric Miles
Legendary as a kind of line in the sand challenging jazz fans during the ascendance of electric, psychedelic rock, "In a Silent Way" (Colombia Records, 1969) hinted at the repetitive polyrhythms Davis would employ throughout the early '70s. It also partook generously of electric piano and bass tonal colourings previously explored in acoustic settings, but "In a Silent Way" and the subsequent "Bitches Brew" and "Live Evil" recordings remains a clearly electric jazz record, part ambient color exploration, part rock-inflected energy and vibe, and part outright maverick creativity. Long, breathy solos would be a feature of this era, glistening against his new groups' strange admixture of musical moods.  Miles would stay on this "electric" path right in to the '80's, continually exploring these textures with newer and younger generations of musicians.
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Brownman Ali - electric trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Dave Riddel - electric guitar (Socialist Night School)
Nick Maclean - rhodes & synths (Snaggle / Robert Ball)
Sean Dennis - 6-string electric bass (Brownman Electryc Trio)
David Steinmetz - drums (Ali Bros / Funny Funk)
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The first set tonight will focus on the "Bitches Brew" 70's era... 
the second set will emphasize the "Tutu" 80's ideologies.

TICKET LINK  Bitches Brew https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3019
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Week 5
FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES -- Week 5 : "Doo-bop" - Had He Lived…
Towards the end of Miles' life he began an exploration of another sub-component of modern popular music - hip-hop.  The "Doo-bop" recording (Warner,'92) would feature rappers and loops and would have marked the beginning of Miles' exploration or this artform.  It is often harshly referred to by critics as his "worst" documented recording and as a "forgettable" era of his life, but it still stands strongly as a prime example of the Milesian ethic - his ability to recognize "what's next" and creatively move within and extend that artform.  Brownman states "I believe it is extremely probable that Miles would have worked closely with the likes of Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Rakim, Guru, Big Daddy Kane, junglists, DJs, rappers, beat-makers alike... had he lived.  Tonight will be a salute to what MIGHT have been."
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Brownman - electric trumpet (National Jazz Award winner)
Ayrah Taerb - rapper (T.Dot BANGERZ Brass / Dirty B-sides)
DJ Dopey - turntables (DMC World Turntable Champion)
Sean Dennis - 6-string electric bass (Brownman Electryc Trio)
Jacob Aylward - drums (KC Roberts & The Live Revolution)

TICKET LINK  Doo Bop https://tickets.cobourg.ca/TheatreManager/1/online?performance=3020