Nicholas Payton and Butcher Brown honor Miles Davis and John Coltrane with A Supreme Blue, reimagining Kind Of Blue and A Love Supreme for their shared centennial celebration.
Nicholas Payton and Butcher Brown have taken on the kind of project that could make even the most adventurous jazz musician think twice. On A Supreme Blue, the GRAMMY-winning multi-instrumentalist joins forces with the Virginia collective to reimagine two of the most revered albums ever recorded: Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.
The timing is especially fitting. A Supreme Blue arrives during the centennial year of both Davis and Coltrane, who were born in 1926 and whose work continues to shape jazz and countless other forms of music. Rather than attempting note-for-note recreations, Payton and Butcher Brown approach the material with the same spirit of exploration that made the originals so groundbreaking in the first place.
Recorded at Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia, the album brings the music into the present through house-inspired rhythms, dub textures and the wider spectrum of Black American music. It's a natural meeting of Payton's restless musical imagination and Butcher Brown's groove-heavy combination of jazz, funk, hip-hop and soul.
The nine-track album preserves the running order of both classics. Davis' side includes "So What," "Freddie Freeloader," "Blue In Green," "All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches," followed by Coltrane's four-part A Love Supreme: "Acknowledgement," "Resolution," "Pursuance" and "Psalm."
That's some seriously sacred jazz territory, but Nicholas Payton and Butcher Brown aren't afraid to walk right into it. Their arrangements recognize what Miles Davis and John Coltrane created while allowing the compositions to breathe in a completely different musical environment six decades later. The result connects two landmark recordings while showing just how much room remains inside these compositions for musicians willing to explore them.