Bitches Brew Revisited

Competition!

Hello everyone,

I hope you’re all well.

Last month my Electric Dreams band and I performed a re-imaging of the ground breaking Miles Davis album, Bitches Brew, at Studio de l’Ermitage, Paris, which was filmed for France TV and is now available on YouTube.

My concept was to create a 21st century take on the album by using fragments of the original material as launch pads for collective improvisation and musical ‘conversations’ between the band and myself.

You will hear elements of rock, jazz, ambient textures, UK grime and a bit of techno.

We recorded two complete performances of my through-composed suite and decided to go with take one for the broadcast. It was the premiere of this music and it had a real edge to it, as if we were playing for our lives, listening, communicating, breathing as one.

It was an incredible experience and I’m so grateful to all the musicians, film and audio crew and to Oleo Films for this wonderful opportunity.

So, I have a fun competition for you with some prizes for the most attentive listeners.

Here we go! ~

1. name the three tunes which we reference in my suite. 1 point per tune.

2. I play two direct Miles quotes from the album - where are they? (List the timings). 1 point per quote.

3. who’s playing the fragment of melody originally recorded on bass clarinet?

4. the riff I created in the ‘UK Grime’ segment of the suite, which tune from the album do you think this is from?

Send your answers to me here on Substack.

Third place will win you a scan of my set list with all my scribbles.

Second place, earns scans of my set list plus my trumpet part from our rehearsals with lots of markings.

The top prize will be a scan of all the above, plus a pdf of the entire score.

Good luck!

After the second performance of the suite, we played an improvised encore which I’ve called Belleville Brew at 34:42. This was an entirely spontaneous reaction to Bitches Brew - there was no plan, or discussion, just emotion, a celebration of the album and Miles’s centenary with my wonderful band ~

Jason Singh - beatboxer

Samuel Hällkvist - quarter-tone guitar

Alcyona Mick - keys and piano

Rosa Brunello - bass guitar

Rod Youngs - drums

In other news, I’m travelling to Osnabrück and Istanbul this week with my quartet. Get your tickets here.

Hope to see you at a gig soon!

Peace and love,

Yazz x