Tutu (Album)
Occupation
- Miles Davis - Trumpet
- Marcus Miller - bass, guitar, synthesizer, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone,
- Paulinho da Costa - Percussion on Tutu, Portia, Splatch, Backyard Ritual
- Adam Holzman - synthesizer solo on Splatch
- Steve Reid - percussion on Splatch
- George Duke - all instruments other than percussion, bass and trumpet on Backyard Ritual
- Omar Hakim - drums on Tomaas
- Bernard Wright - synthesizer on Tomaas and Do not Lose Your Mind
- Michał Urbaniak - violin on Do not Lose Your Mind
- Billy Hart - drums, bongos
Tutu is a jazz album by American trumpeter Miles Davis, who was released in 1986 on Warner Bros. Records. Miles Davis was awarded for his solo performance Grammy, Eiko Ishioka, who designed the photographed by Irving Penn Cover, won a Grammy for her work as an art director. The title of the album chose Miles in honor of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa. It was next to Kind of Blue is one of the best selling albums of Davis.
Background
Tutu was Miles Davis 's first album after he had finished his more than thirty -year collaboration with CBS. After the originally planned cooperation with Prince did not materialize, Miles worked with bassist Marcus Miller. Miller, who had worked in his career already as a sideman and arranger for Davis, wrote six tracks on the album, one of them in cooperation with Davis, the other two were from George Duke and Scritti Politti. He also produced the album, along with Tommy LiPuma, who had Davis brought to Warner.
The music is applied to the sound of the 1980s with many R & B and funk elements. The piece Full Nelson refers to South African politician Nelson Mandela and is also a reference to an earlier Davis composition, Half Nelson, which was named after the bebop jazz bassist Nelson Boyd.
Reception
Tutu was rated by the contemporary jazz critics uneven. Robert Christgau awarded a B and wrote:
" I cried fraud at first, and if you have no use for catchy little anythings you'll agree, but I changed my mind Marcus Miller acquits himself in the Gil Evans role, George Duke gets off a nice lick, Scritti Politti and Provides a snappier than cover Cyndi Lauper. "
" I screamed at first scam, and if you have no use for small, catchy randomness, you will agree with me, but I 've changed my mind. Marcus Miller has proven itself in the Gil Evans role, George Duke takes off with beautiful Scritti Politti licks and offers a quicker cover as Cyndi Lauper. "
Scott Yanow awarded at Allmusic two and a half out of five stars and wrote:
" Certainly the results are not all that spontaneous, but Davis is in top form and some of the selections (most notably the title cut) are quite memorable. "
" Certainly, the results are not quite as spontaneous, but Davis is in top form, and some of the pieces (especially the title track ) are very memorable. "
By contrast, said Mike Zwerin, "There is absolutely no doubt that the best Tutu Miles Davis album of the decade is. This is the music for the film of our lives. " British music critic Charles Shaar Murray gave the album five stars and said that I may have with the exception of the album We Want Miles and You're Under Arrest there been a better album since the comeback of Davis. "Maybe he does not make more such albums as he did in the 1950s. But no one made an album like this. Besides Miles Davis. "
The keyboardist Kei Akagi, who played from 1989 to Davis and then taught music at the University of Los Angeles, has impressively pointed out that this music has influenced a whole generation of younger musicians, " for now Tutu has the same meaning as So What. "
Title list
All compositions by Marcus Miller, unless otherwise noted