September to Remember

Jazzofonik X-perience is among those remembering the music of
two jazz giants who have separate anniversaries in September.
Had they lived, Miles Davis and John Coltrane would each be
celebrating their 79th birthday this year(Davis was actually
born April 11, 1926). The month of September brings a unique
opportunity to comemorate these two giants of jazz. On September
28, 1991, Miles Davis died, officially of complications from a
stroke and pnuemonia, but known to be the final outcome of years
of hard living, fuelled at various times by drug addiction.
Coltrane, (born Septemebr 23, 1926), who also had his problems
with heroin and alcohol, died July 17, 1967 of liver cancer.

Davis will be the subject of Music for Miles" a special tribute CD
party at The Deck, on September 21 and againon September 28, beginning
at 7:30p.m. each Wednesday. "The Trane Comes Round Again" will
specially pay tribute COltrane on those two dates

In addition to Kind of Blue, which featured Jamaican-born Wynton Kelly on piano, Davis is best known for the album Bitches Brew (1970) which marked one of the most successful examples of fusing jazz with rock and funk stylings. His instrumental cover of the Michael Jackson hit, "Human Nature" is also popular. His last recorded album, Doo-Bop (1992) was produced by a hip-hop artist and found Davis experimenting yet again with fusing jazz with modern rhythms.

Coltrane’s best-known works as a leader include Giant Steps, A Love Supreme and the Live at the Village Vanguard series, recorded at the renowned New York jazz club (still going strong). His re-working of the Rodgers/Hammerstein song "My Favourite Things" (from the soundtrack to the Sound of Music) became an almost instant jazz standard.