Legends of Jazz re-creates Miles Davis’s ‘Brew’

Barking Legs collaborates with Knoxville Jazz Orchestra to host rare performance

One of the landmark recordings in the history of jazz music — Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew” — will be re-created tonight, Nov. 2, by a stellar group of contemporary jazz musicians. The program gives Chattanoogans the unique opportunity to experience “Bitches Brew” live.

Barking Legs The- ater, in collaboration with Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, will host this rare performance of the album. The Knoxville group is led by bassist Matt Nelson, one of the top young musicians on Knoxville’s jazz scene. He’s bringing an octet that includes acclaimed guitarist Mike Baggetta, who recently relocated from New York City to Knoxville.

“Bitches Brew,” released in 1969, was Davis’s most dramatic departure from the jazz tradition he helped create as a trumpeter and composer in Charlie Parker’s band. Davis pushed musical boundaries throughout the 1960s with his quintets, but with “Bitches Brew” he went fully electric — electric guitar, electric bass, even playing his trumpet through electronic processing. Many of the rhythms were derived from rock and funk, giving the music a distinctly different feeling than what the world was used to hearing at that time.

Reaction to the album varied wildly; some cried traitor, others hailed the coming of a new musical direction. The “jazz fusion” movement had its start.

Tonight’s show is part of an ongoing collaboration between Barking Legs and Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. CoPAC, the nonprofit that runs Barking Legs, brings shows on a quarterly basis to Chattanooga that the Knoxville group has curated and performed. The series is called Legends of Jazz.

For more information: 423-718-1842

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO The late Miles Davis was a legendary jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer. His million-selling 1970 record “Bitches Brew” is credited with sparking the popularity of jazz fusion. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Large Group or...