HENRY KAISER & WADADA LEO SMITH: YO MILES!
Tom Coster • Henry Kaiser • Mike Keneally • Michael Manring • Chris Muir • Greg Osby • Karl Perazzo • Wadada Leo Smith • Steve Smith • John Tchicai

"Yo Miles! has gone beyond the fundamental with songs that breathe the spirit of Davis to create an atmosphere that resonates with a fire and an essence of their very own. Kaiser and Smith's knowing explorations through Miles' complex electro-funk realm revisits the dread while expanding the beauty." - All About Jazz

 

Henry Kaiser's official website


UPRIVER



RUNE 201/202

Upriver is Yo Miles! second Cuneiform release and was recorded live directly to stereo DSD recorder at the same sessions that produced the award-winning Sky Garden release.

"Smith and Kaiser have recovered some of (Miles') radical energy and reapplied it in the context of a new technology that gives this music clarity as well as thudding power...if you want to see where (Miles') example leads us, this is the way to go." – The Wire

Kaiser and Smith have assembled an all-star cast that includes Smith on trumpet; Kaiser, Mike Keneally and Chris Muir on electric guitars; Michael Manring on bass; Steve Smith on drums; Karl Perazzo on percussion; Greg Osby (alto) and John Tchicai (tenor and soprano) on saxophones; and Tom Coster on keyboards. It also features special guests Zakir Hussain on tabla, Dave Creamer on guitar, and the ROVA Sax Quartet.

"...a sprawling blowout that should convert open minds...at once dangerous and respectful..." – Denver Post

Containing 2 1/2 hours of music, this recording focuses on Davis' improv-fueled works from the early-mid 70's, while also including an original Smith composition and a group improvisation.

"This studio production, recorded direct to DSD, offers some of the most immediate and realistic sound of both electronic and acoustic instruments." – Stereophile

Sky Garden won the 2004 Surround Music Award for "Best High-Resolution Stereo Program"; Upriver is from the same sessions, and that makes this album one of the most important audiophile releases of 2005!

"...beautifully played by great musicians...it's fabulously recorded...the album trucks along like the world's number one jam band..." – Paris Transatlantic

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SKY GARDEN



RUNE 191/192

Among the giants enthroned in jazz’s pantheon, no one made as big, as broad, as bad-boy brazen of an impact on popular music in many manifestations – jazz, rock and improvisation - as Miles Davis. At the same time, he pioneered new routes for rock. The innovations Davis made in both jazz and rock spawned immediate followers in his time, and continue to infuse and energize the music of today.

But even during the revival that began in the 1990s, "… only one band has had the courage to throw itself full bore into the thorniest Davis era, the mid-'70s years when he created a dark, dangerous, haunting, ecstatically wondrous body of music that no one has ever attempted to duplicate."(San Francisco Chronicle). That band is Yo Miles! Yo Miles! was formed in 1998 to explore, expound and expand on Davis’ mid-70s electric music.

For Sky Garden, Yo Miles!’s 2nd recording and 1st release on Cuneiform, Kaiser and Smith have assembled an all-star cast culled from both the jazz and rock communities. The lineup here includes Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet; Henry Kaiser, Mike Keneally and Chris Muir on electric guitars; Michael Manring on bass; Steve Smith on drums; Karl Perazzo on percussion; Greg Osby (alto) and John Tchicai (tenor and soprano) on saxophones; and Tom Coster on keyboards. It also features special guests Zakir Hussain on tabla, Dave Creamer on guitar, and the ROVA Sax Quartet.

This set is about equally split between Miles' compositions and original compositions in the electric Miles style. The group’s studio performance at The Site was recorded live, directly to a stereo DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recorder. The result is a set of two hybrid SACDs (Super Audio CDs, a new technology for enhanced audio quality) playable in either an SACD player or on a standard CD player.

"A sprawling blowout that should convert open minds on a quest for freeform funkwith a pulse as well as brains...The covers of Davis' riffs are at once dangerous and respectful, but the standout tracks are the new compositions, including Smith's atmospheric "Miles Star" and the reckless, expansive "Shinjuku" – Bret Saunders, Denver Post

This CD was the 2004 winner of the best High-Resolution, Stereo-Only release at the 2004 Surround Music Awards.


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MEDIA
For press and media: cover art and high resolution images are available below for download (click thumbnail, right-click image and select "Save As.."). Please credit the photographer (when available) and "Courtesy of Cuneiform Records". For more information, click here.

PRESS RELEASES
Upriver press release
Sky Garden press release
Sky Garden press quotes

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