George Schuller
Round 'Bout Now

'And a final coda to Miles Davis and Tony Williams' is the only written note of commentary in the CD apart from the canonical acknowledgments ('extended solos') to the people involved. George Schuller, drummer, is one of the sons of Gunther Schuller, an arranger and composer with academic roots who collaborated in the early '60s with jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman (Jazz Abstractions), the Modern Jazz Quartet, Mingus, Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Scott La Faro, George Russell, Eric Dolphy.

Schuller dedicates his group’s music to the 1968 Davis and his genius, very young drummer at the time Tony Williams, delivering an excellent homage to his style and to Williams's contribution in changing the role and the way drums are played from then on. With this CD, the drummer indeed produced in 2003 one of the most accomplished and original tributes to Miles Davis's music I have ever heard. As in the best expressions of this music, 'Round 'Bout Now' is heavily inspired by the 'electric shaman' without ever quoting him too explicitly, sparingly taking (as in the trumpeter’s own style) his sparse musical phrases and above all creating a new, rearranged, and original sonic context, vitalized by the interaction and character of these musicians. Three tracks by Davis and another five inspired by his music; four by the drummer-leader, one by vibraphonist Tom Beckham.

In the '90s and 2000s, we witnessed the republication and critical recontextualization of Davis's discography in various editions, box sets, and remasters with the definitive 'clearance' of the first electric Miles. During that period of increasing exposure to this music, Schuller decided to dedicate these recordings to Davis’s music in the little-known pre-fusion moment, transitioning between the acoustic group with Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Shorter, and Hancock (who was already often on the electric Fender Rhodes piano rather than acoustic) and the electric one with Zawinul, Dave Holland, Corea, and Jarrett. In the minds of the musicians in Round 'Bout Now, there are still balanced acoustic records with which Davis began his much-discussed 'jazz-rock' shift, records featuring the first riffs, repetitive and extended acid themes, unusual forms in the trumpet player’s music until then, non-orthodox soundscapes in jazz realms dominated by standards or more abstract and prolonged free abandonments. Themes featuring funk accents like those of Water Babies (where George Benson's electric guitar appeared, the same year as the extraordinary and already innovative recordings that comprise Nefertiti) and Filles De Kilimanjaro, where the change in sound becomes even more determined and Hancock leaves the band to make way for Chick Corea's electric keyboards).

The group playing in 'Round 'Bout Now', already active for five years then, now known as Circle Wide, included a solid quintet with drums, double bass, vibraphone, sax, and trumpet. With a certain originality, Tom Beckham’s vibraphone effectively winks in these tracks at the electric Fender Rhodes piano by Hancock and Corea. On the trumpet, the then little more than a rookie Ingrid Jensen, a Canadian jazz musician of strong instrumental competence, never verbose and not at all intimidated by her role, capable of blending impeccably into the situation. Saxophonist Donny McCaslin was also still almost unknown at the time and brings all his originality and impetuousness, with an implicit admiration for Shorter and his elliptical, skewed, and unpredictable developments in solo. Dave Ambrosio is a solid double bassist very well capable of integrating with the drummer and sustaining the rhythmic-melodic role necessary to make the soloists soar.

As Davis himself increasingly did in works like Bitches Brew, here 'special guests' are used mainly for coloristic and sonic enrichment purposes, for electric guitar (Pete McCann), Kaval and Bass Clarinet (Matt Darriau) and accordion (Sonny Barbato). The eight tracks of 'Round 'Bout Now' form a suite, in which strongly rhythmic and driving moments (Vat 19, Miles Later/Having Big Fun) alternate with expansive and meditative ones with exotic atmospheres (Circle In The Round, Filles De Kilimanjaro).

The overall result, excellent, requires some listening to highlight the details and beauty of the solos, the arrangements and what merits in the ensemble, letting us understand the respect and magical influence that the protean Miles Davis and his 'musical directions' still hold among today’s musicians.