Miles Davis

Although far less groundbreaking than his visionary '60s work, the '80s era of Miles Davis's career is now being a little more warmly received. This live DVD, filmed around the time of his Tutu album, mixes in plenty of jazz funk, which is sometimes a bit tedious, alongside Davis's creative reworking of tunes from unlikely sources: Cyndi Lauper ("Time After Time") and Michael Jackson ("Human Nature"). Those two numbers and "Tutu" are actually the highlights of the set. Miles is his typically uncommunicative and slightly arrogant self, spending much of the set with his back to the audience (as he did when this scribe caught a Toronto concert around the same era). Still, his trumpet playing, much of it muted, is as precise and nuanced as ever, and there's much to enjoy here. His band at the time included excellent saxophonist Kenny Garrett and bassist Darryl Jones, although the synthesized sounds from his two keyboardists sound rather dated now. The bonus feature of a Davis interview is also interesting, especially his revealing comment, "I have to perform perfect to myself and eight other people, plus my subconscious. That's all." A short profile of Miles and his art features the following gem: "I fuck on the floor, I draw on the floor." One of a kind, indeed.