Mark Ledford
Miles 2 Go
Verve Forecast 3145373192
1998   Time: 61:02Musicians: Mark Ledford (vocals, trumpet, guitar, keyboards), others.

Rating:

Miles 2 Go is a collage of musical styles and textures that appeal to many listeners at one time. It is obviously a tribute to Miles Davis, in its own unique way, and it presents the versatile Mark Ledford in a variety of settings that are uniquely his own.

Some may recognize Leford’s name from his recording and touring activities with the Pat Metheny Group. But he actually started out in Detroit playing violin and singing soul music. He attended Berkelee in Boston, where his classmates were a virtual who’s who of young lions: Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and Marvin “Smitty” Smith, among others. Along the way to this solo project, he’s also worked with Eliane Elias, Stephanie Mills, Living Colour, the Brecker Brothers, and Mary J. Blige. He also performs with Bobby McFerrin’s a cappella vocal group Circle.

The disc starts out with “Way I Feel,” one track that I did not particularly care for. But once he gets away from the more pedestrian tunes, and hits the first Miles track, things improve measureably. “So What/Impressions” is a slow electrofunkified version of the classic Kind Of Blue track. One highlight is the track “Walkin (Miles 2 Go)”, which is a mixture of the jazz song “Walkin'” with more than a few licks from “Milestones”, all sung in scat at a breakneck pace. Gershwin’s “Summertime” is a rather disjointed “minimalist” track (which surprisingly works in its favor), helped along with some subdued licks from Pat Metheny. Some tracks like the odd version of “Blue In Green” don’t quite work, but that’s redeemed by a slow but playful “Bye Bye Blackbird” and a neat scat vocal version of “Freedom Jazz Dance” (a la Jon Hendricks).

A potpourri of styles, but quite unique and fresh. Far better than what many of his contemporaries are recording these days. We’ll here more from Ledford!