Ron Miles 1963-2022

When you listen to Black American Music for over 50 years, over that time one discover musicians whose music you automatically gravitate to. Sometimes it's the sound of their instrument or how their music immediately draws you in or the company they keep or the messages in their music.

Photo: Thomas J. Krebs

For this writer, Ron Miles was one such person. Since first hearing him alongside guitarist Bill Frisell in the mid-1990s, I have been attracted by how his sound and melodic approach fits into the ensembles he plays with and how that translates into the music he creates with for his own recordings.  Plus, he was a great mentor for his students––Miles has been on the Music Faculty of the Metropolitan State University of Denver since the late 1990s.  He and his family had moved to Denver, CO, from Indianapolis when he was 11. Unlike many jazz musicians who go to New York City or Los Angeles, Miles, as his family grew, stayed close to home.   

Still, his association with Bill Frisell lasted throughout the last quarter century-plus. Miles appeared on six of the guitarist's album while Frisell shows up on five of his.  It's a delightful musical relationship; they push and pull against each other at times but most of the time they engage in a musical dialogue that belies influences and embraces melody.  Miles also worked alongside Matt Wilson, Denver-based saxophonist Fred Hess, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, Joshua Redman, and drummer Ginger Baker among many others––he always managed to sound like himself in every situation.

Photo: Alan Nahigan?WSJ

His two most recent albums as a leader, "I Am a Man" (Yellowbird/Enja) and "Rainbow Sign" (Blue Note) feature the quintet of Miles, Frisell, Jason Moran, Brian Blade, and Thomas Morgan combine so many different elements such as folk music, spirituals, blues, social commentary, and more.  The group created music one could get lost inside, feel challenged yet come out of the experience satisfied.  

It was this quintet that reopened the Village Vanguard in October of 2021.  Now, less than five months, Ron Miles has succumbed to a rare heart ailment (Polycythemia Vera). His music, his mentorship, his family, all live on. He set such a great example of how to be a human being, illustrating how a musician can be part of the local community and the global community without giving up his identity.  Still, he died much too young.

 Here is music to keep you company:

Here's a fascinating trio of Otis Taylor, Jason Moran, and Ron Miles:

Here's Ron Miles with Joshua Redman, Brian Blade, and Scott Colley paying tribute to Dewey Redman and the group Old & New Dreams:

 

Delight-filled Saxophone, Piano, & Bass

 

Canadian-born (Montreal, Quebec) Chet Doxas plays tenor saxophone, composes, plays in bands with his drummer brother Jim, and has co-leads the quartet Riverside with trumpeter Dave Douglas.  He has played alongside Carla Bley, Rufus Wainwright, the late John Abrecrombie, and Maria Schneider (to name just four) and plays in the Brooklyn, NY-based quartet LandLine.  He's got a "classic" tenor saxophone sound meaning one hear the influences of Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Jimmy Giuffre, and others.

Doxas was on tour with Ms. Bley and her partner, bassist Steve Swallow, when they suggested he take one month each per composition for a project he was creating. As the songs took shape, the saxophonist kept hearing a drummer-less trio in his head.  He recruited bassist Thomas Morgan and pianist Ethan Iverson and, in September of 2019, they recorded the program that one can hear on Doxas's new Whirlwind recording "You Can't Take It With You".  The results are fascinating, playful, adventurous, melodic, and highly interactive.  

The title track leads off the album; the first sounds you hear are Morgan's richly melodic bass lines (at times, the melody one hears sounds like the "Sesame Street Theme" before the piano and tenor enter. The music settles in to a bluesy groove which the pianist jumps in and plays a delightful, playful, Thelonious Monk-inspired solo.  When the leader comes in for his solo, he starts with fluttering lines that sound Middle-Eastern before diving into a playful solo filled with circular lines, jabs, and feints. Watch out for the false endings.

"Lodestar (for Lester Young)" has a bouncy riff played by sax and bass while the pianist plays inside his instrument creating all sorts of dissonant tones before decided turn towards melody.  Doxas's long-held tenor notes connects the song to the next one, "Cheryl and George". Dedicated to the saxophonist's mother and father, the song starts with the tenor leading the way before Doxas and Iverson play together while Morgan solos.  After a short break, the trio comes back in and improvise in and around each other.

There's plenty to enjoy here.  "The Twelve Foot Blues" (inspired by Mark Twain) is another playful tune whose rhythm has a New Orleans-feel in its danceable bounce.  "Soapbox" was built on the rhythms of the speech patterns of late-night politicos.  Doxas not only creates melodic lines, he also "speaks" through his sax.  "All The Roads" is inspired by a speech by the late Fred Rogers; the music is contemplative asking the listener to think of all the people "who have helped to shape you."  

The program closes with "View From a Bird."  Composed in response to viewing a painting by Joan Miró (see left), there is a formality yet playful that hints at the influence of Ms. Bley's writing.  Iverson's piano lines have a classical feel while Morgan plays counterpoint off the pianist's left hand.  As the tenor solo flies above his partners, he does come back to land. The piano solo is delightful (is that James P. Johnson we hear for four bars?)

You can take "You Can't It With You" with you as a recording but make sure to sit and contemplate on what you have heard before going back and listening again. It's obvious Chet Doxas put a lot of thought and work into these 10 pieces, that he chose the right musical partners, and that they too worked hard to make this music sound so good, so effortless, so alive.  

For more information, go to www.chetdoxas.com. To hear more and to purchase the album, go to https://chetdoxas-whirlwind.bandcamp.com/album/you-cant-take-it-with-you. 

Hear "View From a Bird":