Caught "Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents: Music of Miles Davis" last night at the Mesa Center for the Performing Arts. Great show, with Eddie Henderson (trumpet/leader), Jimmy Cobb (drums), Wayne Escoffery (tenor saxophone), Dave Kikoski (piano), Edward Howard (bass), and Steve Wilson (alto sax), featuring such Davis classics as "So What", "On Green Dolphin Street", "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "'Round Midnight." All very laid back and a great way to end a semester. Jimmy Cobb was the drummer for the Kind of Blue sessions (1959) and at 76 is the only surviving member of the band, so that was a definite pleasure.
Sad thing is that the auditorium was less than quarter full. Phoenix is not a jazz town.
Eddie Henderson has an interesting history. Born in NY, at the age of nine he was getting lessons from Louis Armstrong. In the fifties, Miles Davis was a patient of Henderson's stepfather, and took the sixteen-year old Henderson to a Black Hawk Jazz Club gig in San Francisco. Last night Henderson recounted learning "On Green Dolphin Street" by ear during that time. He subsequently served in the air force, became the first African-American to compete for the National Figure Skating Championship, earned a BS in Zoology, and finally the MD, specializing in psychiatry. In the 70's played with the Herbie Hancock Sextet (aka "the Mwandishi Band") and Art Blakeys band. In the 80's he largely concentrated in psychiatry, only to return to jazz the following decade.
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I can't even begin to tell you how jealous I am of this. Miles is probably the artists I listen to most...AND you got to see all those talents together playing his music.
sounds like a great set.
In addition to his great work with Herbie Hancock (the sextet side of the old double-LP VSOP is one of my all-time favorites) Eddie Henderson has some nice records out under his own name...