Giacomo Gates: Miles Tones

Giacomo Gates

Composed by: , ,

Miles Tones, ,

Scat singing is one of the true paradoxes in jazz. A vocalist who scats with any level of authority is usually considered to be a jazz singer, yet one need not scat to fall into the jazz singer category. There is, however, a small cadre of artists who can both sing and scat with aplomb. Among them is Giacomo Gates, who, performing music here written by and associated with Miles Davis, gives us the best of all possible worlds: a bit of syllabic scatting, some Hendricks-inspired singing of instrumental lines and a lot of his mellifluous baritone voice. With Miles Tones, Gates proves, as he did with his historic Gil Scott-Heron recording, that great music is not bound to the instrument on which it was created. Though there are notable contributions from pianist John di Martino, laying down some tasty changes, and Freddie Hendrix sounding quite Miles-like in his muted utterances, this disc is all about Giacomo Gates, joyously creating music both carefully rehearsed and on the spot.

Price: $22.98