For artists many times there is a precursor. Something they dabbled in or explored and then got sidetracked and headed off in a different direction. But that precursor comes back. And this time that earlier experiment, that earlier spark or exploration becomes a driving force.

The idea for Miles Davis and Gil Evans to record with a large orchestra did not happen overnight. It was the evolutionary result of a musical partnership that began years earlier with the Davis and Evan’s work on the so called Birth Of The Cool sessions.

But that partnership lead to Miles Davis and Gil Evans working with a large orchestra yielding their landmark Columbia Records trilogy Miles Ahead in 1957, Porgy and Bess in 1959, and Sketches of Spain in 1960.

Although Miles Davis was known for always looking ahead and not back, Quincy Jones finally convinced him to revisit his orchestral work at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on July 8th 1991. On this, the one hundredth birth year of Miles Davis we look at his ground breaking work with Gil Evans and a large orchestra.

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The copyright of all music in this podcast series is held by the individual holders. The theme and end songs are licensed from Fresh Music Library. All commentary is copyright by David Husom. All rights are reserved. Contact the author for educational use of this material.