Cuneiform
2004
Skygarden / Yo Miles
About This Album
Sky Garden and Upriver were recorded at the same sessions, featuring the same band. A parallel can be drawn to Miles' Pangaea and Agharta, which were both recorded on the same day by the same band. Agharta was the afternoon show and Pangaea the evening show, and it's reflected in the performances. Agharta was more aggressive and in-your-face while Pangaea was more subdued and introspective in comparison. Here, Sky Garden plays Pangaea to Upriver's Agharta: a bit moodier and playing with a bit more space, but burning with the same intensity. Where Sky Garden departs from the other entries in the Yo Miles! catalog is the number of original tunes. Yo Miles! and Upriver both had only a single original tune written by Wadada Leo Smith; Sky Garden has four tunes penned by Smith (out of 11 total) and a collaborative group effort (punningly titled "Cozy Pete" after Miles' great guitar player) making nearly half of this album original material. It's an interesting (and successful!) move for a so-called "tribute band." Here's why it all works: this is a group of consummate musicians, each with a strong solo voice, who know how to listen and work as a band. Beyond that, they've internalized this music to such a degree that a casual Miles Davis fan might be hard-pressed to differentiate between the songs that Miles himself played and which are new compositions.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1 and 2)

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Disc 2 (try track 4)

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