The crowd anticipation for Ron Miles’ Dazzle set on Aug. 5 hinted at the uncertainty over his new material. Photo by Sarah Slater.
Has lost his edge?
Thatap a question that has been stuck in the craws of some Denver jazzbos since last year’s release of Miles’ “Stone/Blossom” double album, which unveiled, among other novelties, a track with a canned drum beat — the horror! — and a cover of the Partridge Family’s “I Woke Up in Love This Morning,” thankfully sans any trace of The Bonaduce “feel,” as they say.
Miles’ latest batches of songs don’t hit you with knockout punches, but then, they’re not meant to; they’re more exploratory. And isn’t that what musicians are supposed to do, anyway? Explore? People didn’t gripe when Thelonious Monk put out an album of spoken-word limericks; or when Coltrane covered the “Petticoat Junction” theme song; or when Miles Davis played bagpipes with his back completely turned to the audience… Alright, maybe none of those events actually occurred — but you know damn well people wouldn’t have griped.
At Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge on Aug. 5, a capacity crowd grew restless in anticipation of how Miles and group would handle his new material. Long-time fans laughed a bit more carefully. The young professionals arrived with more reserve, dressed down in blue jeans. The cottonheads stabbed at their salads guardedly, as if to avoid bruising either the lettuce or themselves. It was no surprise that an 8-year-old girl was fidgeting. But she fidgeted like she MEANT it. And, with the help of some fellow patrons, a mailman still in uniform had dismantled the room’s usual, squared dinner set-up by pointing a whole row of chairs toward the stage. Needless to say, none of the help was about to tell a mailman still in uniform to put the chairs back in order.
At the first warm tone of Miles’ trumpet, the tension in the room vanished. More than a few people paused from enjoying good-looking plates of food with their forks held in mid air. The band joined in to build a looping, carny-like blues base around Miles’ melodic line in the first song, “Is There Room in Your Heart for a Man Like Me.” The contrast of the trumpet line with the rest of the band created a kind of descending cadence, a gospel flourish here, a New Orleans funereal beat there. Not that we’re condoning it, but imagine getting drunk at a carnival and experiencing everything around you kind of shift into slow motion — this song could be the soundtrack playing in your head. Itap was just one example in the night of Miles taking a fairly simple melody and framing it in contexts that make it seem grander, sometimes almost triumphant.
Joining Miles was an appropriately eclectic lineup for the music, with Eric Moon on piano and accordion, Roger Green on electric guitar, Glenn Taylor on pedal steel guitar, Matt Skellenger on electric bass and the mighty Rudy Royston on drums.
On “I Will Be Free,” Moon’s accordion, Taylor’s pedal steel and Green’s electric guitar zigzagged between country and New Orleans bayou music, with Miles veering the song in a yet another direction with his trumpet.
With an angular, free jazz introduction, the sextetap interpretation of Funkadelic’s “Holly Wants to Go to California” was unrecognizable to me until I spoke with Miles later and he identified the song for me. “What appeals to me in music is commonality. Whether itap Hank Williams or Funkadelic, we all listen to it and love it,” he said. “And then to be spontaneous — each performance to me is about possibility.”
“Untitled” contrasted Miles’ Middle Eastern-influenced refrain against a backdrop of bygone-era American roots music, especially that of the American West. It was a good measure of what Miles’ latest music does in general. With the sounds of Americana as a loose framework, he adds on musical styles from all over the world until more solid forms arise.
“Marionetta” may have been the only song that didn’t shine from many sides, sounding slightly unfinished, with the accordion and trumpet clashing instead of reaching a balance.
Toward the end of the show, the 8-year-old climbed up on her chair to give the band a “kneeling” ovation; on a pedal steel guitar, Taylor plucked the melody to the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There”; And Moon smashed his head into the corner of a hanging speaker but kept right on playing.
If thatap not edgy, I don’t know what is.
Sam DeLeo is a Denver-based writer and Reverb contributor.
Sarah Slater is a Denver-based photographer and Reverb contributor.
