Miles Davis- December 17, 1988 Indigo Blues, New York City [1st concert] featuring Joey DeFrancesco

December 17, 1988
Indigo Blues, New York City, New York
1st concert

MILES DAVIS
Miles Davis- trumpet
Kenny Garrett- alto saxophone, flute
Joe 'Foley' McCreary- piccolo bass
Adam Holzman- keyboards
Joey DeFrancesco- keyboards
Benny Rietveld- bass guitar
Ricky Wellman- drums
Marilyn Mazur- percussion

Miles warming up and announcement 0:00
In a Silent Way (Josef Zawinul) 0:16/
Intruder (Miles Davis) 1:47
New Blues [Star People] (Miles Davis) 7:34
Hannibal (Marcus Miller) 18:48
announcement 26:03
Don't Stop Me Now (David Paich-Steve Lukather) 26:18
The Senate (Joe McCreary) 33:39/
Me and You (Joe McCreary) 39:03
announcement 43:54
Wrinkle (Attala Zane Giles-Randy Hall-Wayne Linsey) 44:05
announcement 53:42
Perfect Way (Green Gartside-David Gamson) 53:47
Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper- Rob Hyman) 58:59
Movie Star (Prince) 1:06:35

From _The Miles Davis Radio Project,_ narrated by Danny Glover
Broadcast by American Public Radio

_The Miles Davis Radio Project_ was an eight part documentary series that was broadcast on American Public Radio in 1990, featuring six episodes exploring Miles' life story, working methods, his bands and innovations and his influence. Each hour long episode was narrated by actor Danny Glover and interviewees included many musicians from Davis' long career as well as noted admirers and critics: Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Clark Terry, Gerry Mulligan, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller, Art Blakey, Jimmy Cobb, Airto Moreira, Gary Bartz, George Duke, Olu Dara, Lester Bowie, Jon Faddis, Tommy LiPuma, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, Ira Gitler, Stanley Crouch and many others.

The series ended with a two part compilation of rare and unreleased live music, including 70 minutes taken from a concert at Indigo Blues, a New York club part owned by Miles. Naturally, the band played the opening weekend and these recordings come from the first concert on the second night (incidentally, the opening 'In a Silent Way/ Intruder' medley from the second concert that same evening appears on the official release _Live Around The World_ [Warner Bros., 1996])

The concert is especially valuable for including keyboardist Joey De Francesco who, at the time of writing, has recently passed away at the age of just 51. A brilliant organist, a fine Miles-inspired trumpeter and, in recent years, tenor saxophonist, De Francesco was spotted by Miles when he was a guest on 'Time Out', a Philadelphia TV show on which the young Joey was keyboardist. When Miles needed to replace the departing Robert Irving for an autumn tour of Europe, 17 year old Joey got the call. Despite his youth, DeFrancesco was already a superb musician- hear his spectacular digipiano solo on Don't Stop Me Now or his funky synth organ playing on Wrinkle- it was another example of Miles spotting a promising young talent and shining a spotlight on them.

It's a typical set of the era, with popular covers of songs by Cyndi Lauper and Scritti Politti, tunes written for him by Toto and Prince, a handful of funk jams, a blues and, of special note, the first known live recording of Hannibal- which Miles _announces_ ('we're gonna play the new song...')! Sessions for his next album _Amandla_ had begun this month and Hannibal was one of the first pieces to be recorded. It would become a staple of the live sets, although it's not quite played in yet here, as evidenced by a ragged ending. It's a fine set, with a more intimate atmosphere than usual, well mixed and recorded. I've edited together only the music from the Indigo Blues concert, with a few of Danny Glover's announcements remaining from the radio broadcasts. Two further pieces from these broadcasts were recorded in San Juan Capistrano the following year and will be presented in a future upload.

Two titles from the Indigo Blues show were issued on a couple of grey market releases, mistakenly credited to the San Juan Capistrano date. Time After Time and Movie Star both appear on _Live 1989- Coach House, San Juan Capistrano_ [DOL, 2016] (where Movie Star is titled Crash Bang Funk) and _Live In San Juan '89_ (Hi Hat, 2016) which doesn't even list the titles at all.

In memory of Joey DeFrancesco.

If you enjoy these posts and would like to thank us for our efforts you can buy us a coffee:
https://ko-fi.com/milestonesarchive
Thank you!