This is SUCH a good record, one of those "absolutely have to haves". But it's a bit of a tricky listen at first. The opening notes of Like Those Who Dream, the first track on side one, might fool you into thinking you've bought one of the stranger Ornate Coleman albums. It squeaks and squawks and beeps and burps … my dog was playing with her favourite squeaky toy the first time I listened to this and she fit right in! In places, it sounds like a high school marching band tuning up.
But keep listening! The music slowly builds and finds its way, and what unfurls from the grooves over the next 14 minutes is an absolutely gorgeous soundscape that just takes me away and makes me wonder why I never heard of Ron Miles before. The rest of the record is just as good. It turns out this is Miles' first release on a major label - Blue Note - and also his last ever studio recording. He died a couple of years later, aged just 58.
The overall feel of this record is dream-like, the kind of stuff I could listen to all day long. It's truly beautiful music, and even the album's cover, with the way the colours glide into each other, is a beguiling thing to behold. In fact, the cover was what first grabbed my attention. I don't know if I'd know about this record today if I hadn't seen the cover first.
Miles' longtime collaborator, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, is featured throughout this record and his fretwork - sparse at times, more prominent at others - adds dimension and depth. Miles previously appeared on Frisell's 1996 Quartet LP, after which Frisell returned the favour by playing on Miles' Woman's Day album, in 1996, a recording I have not yet heard but is said to have been influenced by grunge music. So now, of course, I want to hear it.
In 2014, Miles and Frisell again collaborated on Miles' Circuit Rider album, which also featured drummer Brian Blade, who shows up on Rainbow Sign. The relationship Miles and Frisell shared goes back more than 20 years. They compliment each other so well it's almost as if they can communicate telepathically, which is probably why this record is so damned good. Jason Moran, another obviously exceptional musician I have no previous knowledge of, handles Rainbow Sign's piano duties beautifully. He is also credited with "photography," which I guess means he took the LP cover photo of Miles blowing his horn.
It's hard to describe how well this record flows, one track into the next. Subtle difference, gentle flourishes. It's intentional, of course, and it works. But I wonder how much freedom the musicians were given during the recording process. I bet it was a lot. There is obviously structure to the overall proceedings, but there is also the suggestion of freedom at play, as though Miles handed his musicians charts that were mostly empty and told them to "fill the gaps.". In the middle of Average, Moran starts playing single piano notes repeatedly - tap, tap,tap,tap,tap,tap - which is unusual enough to make me wonder how the songs were scripted. It's effective and adds significantly to the overall mood of the music, something a good musician given a modicum of trust and freedom might be brave enough to attempt.
Bassist Thomas Morgan is another talent I am oblivious to. I thought I was pretty well acquainted with jazz music, so it's irks me that this recording has such excellent and previously unknown-to-me musicians playing on it. I definitely have some work to do!
After Circuit Rider, in 2017, Miles, Frissel and Blade brought in Moran and Morgan and recorded I Am a Man, completing the lineup that appears here. The record's title comes from the pre-civil war "negro spiritual" of the same name, which is basically the Biblical fairy tale of Mary of Bethany's distraught pleas to Jesus to raise her brother, Lazarus, from the dead. The fact that this record was released in 2020, given that title and the reasoning behind it, is telling.
This album is …
This is SUCH a good record, one of those "absolutely have to haves". But it's a bit of a tricky listen at first. The opening notes of Like Those Who Dream, the first track on side one, might fool you into thinking you've bought one of the stranger Ornate Coleman albums. It squeaks and squawks and beeps and burps … my dog was playing with her favourite squeaky toy the first time I listened to this and she fit right in! In places, it sounds like a high school marching band tuning up.
But keep listening! The music slowly builds and finds its way, and what unfurls from the grooves over the next 14 minutes is an absolutely gorgeous soundscape that just takes me away and makes me wonder why I never heard of Ron Miles before. The rest of the record is just as good. It turns out this is Miles' first release on a major label - Blue Note - and also his last ever studio recording. He died a couple of years later, aged just 58.
The overall feel of this record is dream-like, the kind of stuff I could listen to all day long. It's truly beautiful music, and even the album's cover, with the way the colours glide into each other, is a beguiling thing to behold. In fact, the cover was what first grabbed my attention. I don't know if I'd know about this record today if I hadn't seen the cover first.
Miles' longtime collaborator, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, is featured throughout this record and his fretwork - sparse at times, more prominent at others - adds dimension and depth. Miles previously appeared on Frisell's 1996 Quartet LP, after which Frisell returned the favour by playing on Miles' Woman's Day album, in 1996, a recording I have not yet heard but is said to have been influenced by grunge music. So now, of course, I want to hear it.
In 2014, Miles and Frisell again collaborated on Miles' Circuit Rider album, which also featured drummer Brian Blade, who shows up on Rainbow Sign. The relationship Miles and Frisell shared goes back more than 20 years. They compliment each other so well it's almost as if they can communicate telepathically, which is probably why this record is so damned good. Jason Moran, another obviously exceptional musician I have no previous knowledge of, handles Rainbow Sign's piano duties beautifully. He is also credited with "photography," which I guess means he took the LP cover photo of Miles blowing his horn.
It's hard to describe how well this record flows, one track into the next. Subtle difference, gentle flourishes. It's intentional, of course, and it works. But I wonder how much freedom the musicians were given during the recording process. I bet it was a lot. There is obviously structure to the overall proceedings, but there is also the suggestion of freedom at play, as though Miles handed his musicians charts that were mostly empty and told them to "fill the gaps.". In the middle of Average, Moran starts playing single piano notes repeatedly - tap, tap,tap,tap,tap,tap - which is unusual enough to make me wonder how the songs were scripted. It's effective and adds significantly to the overall mood of the music, something a good musician given a modicum of trust and freedom might be brave enough to attempt.
Bassist Thomas Morgan is another talent I am oblivious to. I thought I was pretty well acquainted with jazz music, so it's irks me that this recording has such excellent and previously unknown-to-me musicians playing on it. I definitely have some work to do!
After Circuit Rider, in 2017, Miles, Frissel and Blade brought in Moran and Morgan and recorded I Am a Man, completing the lineup that appears here. The record's title comes from the pre-civil war "negro spiritual" of the same name, which is basically the Biblical fairy tale of Mary of Bethany's distraught pleas to Jesus to raise her brother, Lazarus, from the dead. The fact that this record was released in 2020, given that title and the reasoning behind it, is telling.
This album is …
BONUS TRACK
Ron Miles, whose understated cornet playing refocused attention on the oft-overlooked instrument, died in 2022, the result of a complication brought on by a rare blood disorder. His death came at a time when he was finally receiving the recognition that had mostly eluded him and was long overdue.
Although Miles had, for decades, enjoyed the admiration of fellow musicians, he remained for the most part well outside the spotlight. In the bands he assembled, the musicians he chose to accompany him were almost always better know than he was. It was only with the 2017 release of I Am a Man, on which a Miles-assembled all-star quintet appears, that he started to gain wider recognition. Three years later Blue Note Records released Rainbow Sign, the quintet's second recording, which Miles had written while caring for his ailing father, who died in 2018.
The album's title is said to refer to a passage in the Bible. Some say it is related to the story of Lazarus, while others point to a passage in the Book of Revelation in which Christ perceives his skin to be multihued. “The idea of a rainbow is that it’s this thing that takes us outside of our expectations and our limitations of what we can see,” Miles told the Westword, a Denver-based publication.
Miles, who spent almost his entire life in Colorado, started playing trumpet in a summer music program in middle school. He continued to play the instrument while attending high school, joining the school's jazz band alongside future actor Don Cheadle, who played saxophone. Miles eventually became director of jazz studies at Metropolitan State University, in Denver while continuing to play and develop as a musician, teaming with guitarist Bill Frisell for several albums.
In the 2000s Miles switched from the trumpet to the cornet, and by his mid-50s had become the leading brass player in a Colorado-based style of music that blended American folk, blues and country with jazz and spiritual influences. He began collaborating with Frisell in the 1990s, and both men appeared on several of each others' recordings where they continued to develop this new sound.
Miles was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
Ron Miles, whose understated cornet playing refocused attention on the oft-overlooked instrument, died in 2022, the result of a complication brought on by a rare blood disorder. His death came at a time when he was finally receiving the recognition that had mostly eluded him and was long overdue.
Although Miles had, for decades, enjoyed the admiration of fellow musicians, he remained for the most part well outside the spotlight. In the bands he assembled, the musicians he chose to accompany him were almost always better know than he was. It was only with the 2017 release of I Am a Man, on which a Miles-assembled all-star quintet appears, that he started to gain wider recognition. Three years later Blue Note Records released Rainbow Sign, the quintet's second recording, which Miles had written while caring for his ailing father, who died in 2018.
The album's title is said to refer to a passage in the Bible. Some say it is related to the story of Lazarus, while others point to a passage in the Book of Revelation in which Christ perceives his skin to be multihued. “The idea of a rainbow is that it’s this thing that takes us outside of our expectations and our limitations of what we can see,” Miles told the Westword, a Denver-based publication.
Miles, who spent almost his entire life in Colorado, started playing trumpet in a summer music program in middle school. He continued to play the instrument while attending high school, joining the school's jazz band alongside future actor Don Cheadle, who played saxophone. Miles eventually became director of jazz studies at Metropolitan State University, in Denver while continuing to play and develop as a musician, teaming with guitarist Bill Frisell for several albums.
In the 2000s Miles switched from the trumpet to the cornet, and by his mid-50s had become the leading brass player in a Colorado-based style of music that blended American folk, blues and country with jazz and spiritual influences. He began collaborating with Frisell in the 1990s, and both men appeared on several of each others' recordings where they continued to develop this new sound.
Miles was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
