How good do you think the music that Prince did with Miles Davis is? Yeah, Prince was at the height of his creativity, but Miles was at the end of his life and was losing it. Don't get me wrong, if Prince decided to put out the music he made with Miles, I'd buy it. I just don't know how good it would be.

Hmmm, Miles losing it at the end of his career?
Have you ever heard Doo Bop?
Miles never stopped being the coolest man on the planet, and was breaking new ground all the way to the end.

I just wanted to also add, from what I've heard from Miles and Prince's collaboration, the music is great!
I love Can I play with U?, Sticky Wicked on Chaka's album, the Madhouse 24 tracks that Miles was suipposed to play on, and Miles' live version of Movie Star kicks ass.

Paris9748430 said:

Except for illness, Miles hadn't lost much; his tone was sharp. He was just looking for a commercial pop framework to put his music out front so he could get paid what he could wring out the market. That stuff Miles did with Prince was 2 steps back from the stuff he'd done earlier, but it was what folks wanted. Most of what I've heard is not very interesting, but hearing Miles play on top of those riffs is worth it.

We'll finally how PRINCE-related stuff there really is next month when WARNERS puts out the box set.

I wonder whatever happened to this WB Box Set from www.wbjazz.com/miles_pierson.cfm (this link no longer works) I haven't seen it in stores yet! Check out this article from May 2001.

It's hard to quote just the Prince parts which come towards the end of it, without diggin the whole thing so, here you go:
_____

Celebrating Miles
Miles Gets The Last Word
By Matt Pierson
Executive VP/GM Warner Bros. Jazz


September 3rd, 1991. My first day at Warner Bros. Records. I had wanted to work here since I got into the music business, but I had an additional motive. Miles Davis was on Warner Bros.

As a young trumpeter, Miles inspired me. I transcribed his solos, ripped off his phrasing, wore out my Harmon mute.

As a music fan, Miles inspired me with his honesty, his melodicism, his fearlessness. He had the vision to combine the dicerse talent of the most brilliant musicians of his time, embarking on journeys to the musically unimaginable. When it comes to musical standards, Miles Davis set the bar.

My first call was to Peter Shukat, Miles' attorney and manager. I knew that Miles was in the hospital, but this was often the case after a tour. He would work so hard on the road that when he arrived home he was usually ill, often with pneumonia. However, after entering the hospital this time Miles had a stroke. Peter told me that he was stable, but the doctors couldn't say whether or not he would fully recover.

Peter hooked me up with Gordon Meltzer, who was Miles' road manager and close friend. Gordon told me that Miles had been working on his next recording, an overview of the current hip-hop and R&B scene. He had completed six tracks with Easy Mo Bee, a hip-hop artist/producer who had been recommended by Russell Simmons. The project was to be called Doo-Bop, and songs were also submitted by Sid Reynolds (another Simmons suggestion) and John Bigham (a producer/programmer with whom Miles had an ongoing relationship). Prince was also to collaborate on some tracks.

Within a month, the Chief was gone.

I never met the man, much less had the honor of working with him. However, it was my responsibility to figure out how to deal with what remained of Miles Davis' Warner Bros. recordings. I immediately set about the task of deciding how to best complete Doo-Bop.

Miles had considered including songs from the 1986 "Rubber Band" sessions on Doo-Bop, but on repeated listening I felt that nothing fit musically. However, there were some tracks that contained great Miles trumpet performances, and Easy Mo Bee felt that he could build two additional tracks around these performances. I told him to go forward, and that if the finished tracks were up to snuff we would include them on Doo-Bop. They were, and we did. "Fantasy" and "High Speed Chase" are wonderful tracks, and I'm confident that Miles would be happy with them. I fondly recall the A&R meeting where my legendary boss Mo Ostin, recited the rap on "Fantasy" ("Watch out for licks from my big fat stick/the stick is real thick/call me Easy Mo Bic!"). Priceless.

When the time came to put this boxed set together, I went into a studio with keyboardist Adam Holzman, who had worked intinately with Miles during the Warner years, and listened to every single unreleased tape in the vault - no small task. Of the thirty unreleased songs, there were only five that were worthy of inclusion on this set. I only wanted to release tracks that would make Miles proud. We spent weeks mulling over our choices, and when they were made, I played mixes of the material for some of our people that I trust when it comes to Miles.

My three small daughters - Lucia, Lola and Romy - love to listen to music during breakfast. Their favorites are Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan ("Play that fancy music again, daddy!) and Miles, in particular Sketches of Spain and Kind of Blue. One morning I added the Prince tune "Jailbait" to our playlist. After the first phrase of Miles' solo, Lucia blurted out, "Miles Davis, Kind of Purple!" The die was cast.

In early 1986, Prince sent a track to Miles with a note saying, "Miles, even though we have never met, I can tell just from listening to your music that you and I are so alike that I know whatever you play would be what I'd do. So if this tape is of any use to you, please go ahead and play whatever you feel over it. Because I trust what you hear and play." Miles did and, it wasn't a good musical fit with the material Marcus Miller was producing for the album Tutu. So it sat in the vault, until now.

Miles and Prince were in contact from this point forward, and Miles added the Prince song "Movie Star" to his live set. A high point in their relationship was Prince's December, 1987 New Year Eve party, when Miles sat on the song "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night".

In early 1991, Prince sent Miles eight 24-track masters. They planned to collaborate on these songs in one form or another. Miles immediatrly started playing "Penetration", "A Girl And Her Puppy", and "Jailbait" with his live band. In March of that year, Miles entered a recording studio in Germany for what became his final recording session and recorded those songs. "Jailbait" is the one releasable track, featuring some transcendent blues playing by Miles. During this final tour, "Penetration" became a set highlight, and the version included here from the La Villette concert is a masterwork of soulful funk.

Why a 5-album set of Miles David in his 60's, you may ask? this isn't Miles in THE 60's! This isn't as great as Kind of Blue, Files de Kilamanjaro, or Milestones, right?

These five albums show the musical depth and restless creativity of one of the greates artists of the twentieth century. Although Miles was in his sixties, he was aggressively pursuing four distinct musical paths: studio recordings, soundtrack work, collaborative projects and the ongoing development of his live band. Although no artist is above critisicm, artists like Picasso, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Sinatra, and maybe most of all Miles Davis have earned the right to our attention for whatever they do. and just as Lawrence Olivier's peformance in "A Little Romance" represents some of his finest work, the music of Miles' 1991 quintet, with its infectiuos grooves and eerie melodies, further comfirms his stature as a true musicla renaissance man.

From the opening phrase of "Tutu" to the closing, funkified bars of "Penatration", you will certainly feel this about Miles Davis: his desire to create a new kind of beauty through music was never-ending. Everything he played was pure, undeniable, unmistakenly Miles.

Anyone who knew Miles will tell you about his strength of personality. Although he was open-minded, if you were dealing with someone that he knew intimately he would inevitably have the last word.

Miles knew music intimately. As you can hear for yourself, once again Miles Davis had the last word.

Stay tuned for the release of the Warner Bros. Jazz Miles Davis Box!
_____
copyright 2001 Warner Bros. Records. All Rights Reserved

A great listening session:

If you are ever feeling Paris, Prince and Miles, play the 'Parade' album followed by the 'Dingo' soundtrack by Miles.

http://www.pricegrabber.c...224e0228f/

perfect for this time of the year too!

peace!