In Memoria

I don’t know where the years have gone since TheLastMiles.com was updated. Sadly, in that time, a number of people I interviewed for my book or this website have died, and this is my tribute to them.

Al Foster (1943-2025)

Al Foster held a unique position amongst the myriad of musicians who played with Miles Davis. He was the only musician to play with Miles before, during and after his five-year hiatus from the music world in 1975-1980.

Miles first encountered Al Foster at The Cellar Club on 95th Street, Manhattan in 1972. Miles knew the club’s owner and would occasionally eat there. One day, a quartet comprised of bassist Earl May, pianist Larry Willis, guitarist Al Gafa and Al Foster was on the bandstand when Miles was present. In his autobiography, Miles recalled the impact of Foster’s playing on him: “He knocked me out because he had such a groove and he would just lay it right there. That was the kind of thing I was looking for, and so I asked him to join the band.”

In an interview with Elliot Meadow in DownBeat in 1975, Foster described the meeting with Miles, “Miles came into the Cellar one night… liked the band and decided to have us record. The next week, [Miles’s producer] Teo Macero came in to handle that [the band made a recording with Columbia Records, but so far, it remains unreleased].

“A couple of weeks after that, Miles came back and told me that he wanted me to record with him. That was for the On The Corner album. I ended up being on only part of the record because Miles didn’t have my number. He finally reached me, giving me the details of when the session would be. I remember walking in to the date — Billy Hart, Herbie Hancock, Bennie Maupin were there — and being pretty nervous.

“Afterwards, I really didn’t think I had contributed as much as I could have, and felt Miles probably wouldn’t call me, but three days later he called and told me to come over to his house and learn the music.” Foster added, “In the three years I’ve been with him, he has been beautiful, and I’ve learned a great deal.”

Miles didn’t single out too many people for praise in his autobiography, but Foster was one of them: “Al could set-up for everybody else to play off and then he could keep a groove going forever… what I wanted in a drummer; Al Foster had all of it.” Foster was at the helm during Miles’s heaviest jazz-rock period, when his band included Michael Henderson, Mtume, Reggie Lucas and Pete Cosey, recording albums such as Dark Magus, Agharta and Pangaea.

In mid-1975, a sick, exhausted and burnt-out Miles dropped out of the music scene. It would be more than five before he was back playing again in public. During that time, Al Foster was one of the few regular visitors to Miles’s New York home. Miles recounted Foster’s visits, “It was Al that kept me in touch with the music scene when I was out for those years. I would talk to him almost every day… I really trusted him during that time.”

Miles recorded a few studio sessions with his band during 1975 and 1976, but the only time he is known to have recorded in the studio in the late 1970s was in March 1978, with a band that included Al Foster and guitarist Larry Coryell. The band recorded one track, “Miss Last Summer,” and it would be two years before Miles entered the recording studio again.

In 1980, Miles went into the studio, initially with a group from Chicago that included Miles’s nephew drummer Vince Wilburn Jr. The music was more pop, funk and soul orientated, and Foster – who was present at some of the sessions – told Miles that he was being taken in the wrong musical direction. Miles’s respected Foster’s opinion and put together another band that included Foster, bassist Marcus Miller, saxophonist Bill Evans, percussionist Sammy Figueroa and guitarist Barry Finnerty (who would later be replaced by Mike Stern).

The band recorded the bulk of the tracks that appeared on Miles’s 1981 comeback album, The Man With The Horn. The album highlights Foster’s versatility, ranging from the heavy jazz-rock number “Back Seat Betty,” to the jazz-funk “Aida,” and the jazz-swing “Ursula,” which has Foster playing an array of bebop accents and fills.

In 1981, Miles took Foster, Mike Stern, Bill Evans, Marcus Miller and percussionist Mino Cinelu on the road. The tour included the U.S. and Japan, and selected recordings from these concerts appeared on the album We Want Miles.

Once again, Foster’s powerful drumming is much in evidence on tracks such as “Fast Track” and “Back Seat Betty.” Another tune from the album, “My Man’s Gone Now,” featured a new arrangement that alternated between ballad and jazz-swing, which attracted the attention of singer Shirley Horn, a long-time friend of Miles’s – he played trumpet on the title track of her 1990 album You Won’t Forget Me.

Horn recalled her reaction when she heard the arrangement of “My Man’s Gone Now.” “I went into a little bit of a shock. It was the first time I had heard that drummer Al Foster. He was playing those rhythm patterns. I listened, listened and listened. I got stuck on it. When I used to do “My Man’s Gone Now,” I did it really straight with a little ad-libbing and maybe a small tempo change. I hadn’t imagined I could do it like on [We Want Miles] and I thought at the time ‘I want to do some of that and I want to do it with Al Foster‘.” On her 1998 tribute album I Remember Miles, Horn sang “My Man’s Gone Now,” using Miles’s 1981 arrangement and with Al Foster on drums.

Miles had perfect time and was very sensitive to tempo, so he took a great interest in how his drummers played. As Miles once put it: “No drummer; no band.” Foster was a phenomenal drummer with great time, groove and feel, but even that wasn’t enough for Miles. When Miles recorded his 1983 album Star People, he started experimenting with drum machines and click tracks, and Miles and Teo Macero even used studio processing to tweak the sound of Foster’s drums.

On the following album, Decoy, Miles went even further in combining a drum machine with acoustic drums. By the time Miles came to record his 1985 album You’re Under Arrest, he was looking for a different drum sound that Foster was not comfortable with. During the recording of the track “Human Nature,” Foster walked out and was replaced by Vince Wilburn Jr. Miles explained why Foster left, “I used to ask him to play that funky backbeat, but he just wouldn’t play it. I hated to see Al go because we were close, but music comes before everything.”

Ron Lorman, who engineered You’re Under Arrest, says, “Al loved Miles and they offered so much to each other musically. They were like brothers.” But that wasn’t the end of Foster’s association with Miles.

When Marcus Miller was recording the song “Mr Pastorius” for Miles’s 1989 album Amandla, initially, it was just him and Miles in the studio. When they played the tune together, Miller was surprised to find Miles playing it in a straight-ahead jazz form. When it came to adding drums to the track, Miller asked Foster to play on the track. Miller recalled Foster becoming quite emotional when he first heard Miles’s performance.

In July 1991, barely three months before Miles’s death, Foster was one of a number of past band members who were asked by Miles to join him in a celebratory concert in Paris called Miles and Friends. Foster played on five tunes including, “Out of the Blue/Dig” with Jackie McLean, Steve Grossman, Chick Corea and Dave Holland, and “It’s About That Time” with Kenny Garrett, Wayne Shorter, Bill Evans, Joe Zawinul, Deron Johnson, and Richard Patterson.

I was fortunate to see Al Foster twice with Miles’s band, in 1983, when the band included John Scofield and Mike Stern, and in 1984, with one of the best band line-ups of this era: John Scofield, Bob Berg, Darryl Jones, Robert Irving III and Steve Thornton. Apart from his solid drumming, the thing that struck me about Al Foster was how happy he always seemed to be when playing – there was a big, beaming smile on his face that hardly changed during the entire performance. His death marks the end of a superb musician who had such a close and lasting bond with Miles. As Miles said of Foster, “He was a real spiritual person, nice to be around.”

Marilyn Mazur (1955-2025)

Marilyn Mazur holds a unique position in music history, being the only woman member of a Miles Davis band. She was born in New York to a Polish mother and an African-American father, and moved to Denmark, when she was six.

She had lessons in dance, classical piano and percussion, and became well-known on the Danish jazz scene. In 1984, Danish trumpeter/composer/arranger Palle Mikkelborg created a musical suite called Aura, to celebrate Miles winning the prestigious Sonning Music Award. In late 1984, Miles attended the award ceremony, saw the Aura suite being performed and played on a couple of numbers.

In January 1985, Miles called Mikkelborg and informing him that he planned to be in Denmark in a couple of weeks to record Aura. The Danish musician hastily put together the Danish Radio Big Band and several guest musicians, including Mazur.

Mazur noted, “I was thrilled to be invited by Palle to play in Aura, as I wasn’t an actual member of the Danish Radio Big Band. I was seriously inspired by Miles’s music, which I had listened to from my early teens (such as Bitches Brew), and I would really have felt left out of something great if I hadn’t been a part of Aura!”

“I’m sure Miles was impressed by the way Marilyn plays and the way she looks when she plays, because she looks fantastic. She was also just one of two black people present and I think he was amazed to see her playing percussion,” recalled Mikkelborg.

She related to how she first met Miles, “In one of the first rehearsals, with Miles listening to the music from the concert hall, I was told that Miles wanted me to come down and say hello to him. I remember feeling rather shy but honoured. Of course all us Danes were in total awe of this incredible icon and did our best to play this heavenly music together.”

The Aura sessions finished in early February, and it was later that year, in July, where Mazur and Miles’s paths crossed again. “I went to Molde jazz festival with Pierre Dørge’s New Jungle Orchestra. I was airsick on the trip and we arrived just as Miles’s concert started,” she said. “It was sold out, so we were allowed to sit in front of the audience right beneath the edge of the stage. Suddenly Miles spotted me and talked to me through his trumpet microphone: ‘Marilyn, come on up here, don’t you want to play a song with us?’ I was too tired, but he came back again later in the concert and said: ‘Play this reggae with us.’

“So in spite of me being not well and also rather terrified by the circumstances, I felt that I had to get up and sit in, so I played along on Steve Thornton’s timbales.”

Back home in Denmark the next month, Mazur heard rumours that Miles wanted to talk to her. “I thought people were joking, but then Miles called me and said: ‘When can you be here? [in New York] Be here on Wednesday!’”

Mazur had never returned to her birthplace New York since leaving it at the age of six. She flew back and started rehearsals with Miles’s band. Two days later, on 17 August 1985, she made her debut at Hudson River Pier as part of an octet (which would soon grow into a nonet) that including another percussionist, Steve Thornton. “Miles sent me out to buy a more hip-looking costume and told me I could dance if I wanted to, which I did a bit – he must have heard about my wild dancing from Palle.”

Miles once explained why he had recruited Mazur: “I like pop rhythms and they’re buried in Marilyn. I like to hear undercurrents and rather than have one drummer play them, I like to have one drummer playing and another drummer playing another pattern. When she sees me look at her in a certain way, she knows what to do.”

Mazur played many instruments on-stage, which she described “I had a large set-up with lots of bells and gongs, mixed drums, congas and cowbells, temple blocks, water drum and a Prophet 2000 sampler with my own home-made sounds, which I played from a Roland Octapad. For my dance solo, I used a specially-made trigger-mat connected to the same sampler, and foot-bells and a talking drum. In a few tunes, the musical director would require some specific sound for, say, the tunes from the record Tutu. I would make my home-made versions of them in order to avoid stuff like standard synth-drum sounds, which I didn’t like!”

She was an exciting musician to watch and her dancing was captured in a German TV broadcast of a concert that took place in Berlin on 1 November 1985. During the tune “Hopscotch” Mazur walked from behind her kit at the back of the stage, to the front. Carrying an African talking drum, she began dancing wildly, before playing a percussion duet with Steve Thornton.

Miles gave Mazur little direction verbally, so she and Thornton would develop their own parts. “I would react to Miles’s look and vibe, and that was a wonderful way of playing together. The musicians didn’t really talk about how to share the roles in the rhythm-section – that was supposed to be Miles’s decision. But Steve and I would play as we each felt like.”

Mazur recalled her relationship with Miles, especially being the only female member of the band. “Miles might have been a little more gentle with me – he was always very nice and inspiring, but sometimes provocative! I had heard rumours about how he sometimes treated women, and had also heard him go off on some of the other musicians, so I mostly kept a certain distance.

“I regretted this later, because the times when we actually did talk were close. He was fantastic and he even invited me to compose some music for him, but I never really got it together, mainly because I’m not the type that writes on tour and also I wasn’t into making demos at that time, which he preferred.”

She added. “I remember once being furious after a concert where a speaker had fallen down and smashed my talking drum, and he heard me banging doors. He called me into his dressing room and we had a great discussion about the music in some abstract way. This seemed to be our form of communication.”

Marilyn Mazur left the band in April 1986, just after a gig in the Caribbean was cancelled. “We were supposed to go to Martinique and something happened about a missing contract, so that all the gear was sent ahead but the gig was cancelled. So it cost a fortune and someone had to go to save money!” recalled Mazur. “So after being kept in the U.S. between all the tours for about a year, I was sent home. This turned out to be very important for me, because I got to see my mother shortly before she died unexpectedly. To me it seemed to be another aspect of the magic intuition that Miles possessed.”

Mazur would go on to play with Wayne Shorter and Gil Evans, and was one of a select band of musicians who had a second stint in Miles’s 1980s bands (the others were Mike Stern, Darryl Jones and Mino Cinelu). In early 1988, Mazur had just completed a nine month tour with Wayne Shorter. “I was actually a bit tired of being far from home so much, when Miles called and wanted me back. How could I do anything but jump back to the U.S. again!”

The 1988 band was smaller than the nonet Mazur had played in 1985. “It made a difference being the only percussionist, giving me even more space and solos. The music wasn’t that different, I think, although Miles always was on top of the new influences of the time.’ One of the concert highlights was the tune “Heavy Metal Prelude” which was an extended percussion jam featuring Mazur and drummer Ricky Wellman, both of them playing over a bass/keyboard vamp.

In March 1989 Mazur left Miles’s band for the second and final time. “I simply decided that it was time for me to go back home, I didn’t have the desire to move to the U.S. I felt at home in Denmark and had received a grant for starting my band Future Song there. Of course I have since wondered why I didn’t stick around to the end! But I think I just needed to be at home.

“However, I was invited to play a couple of concerts in Italy with the band, where Miles couldn’t make it (I think he was ill). One was where Chick Corea was his substitute and the second was with Herbie Hancock playing sampled Miles on his keyboard! And the year after leaving Miles I had my son Fabian, so it again all seems to have its own logic,” she said.

Reflecting on her time with Miles, Mazur said, “When I think about him, I can feel his strength and the glow in his eyes. I feel like Miles taught me more patience, and a lot about grooving and musical flow and gathering a band’s energy.”

Michal Urbaniak (1943-2025)

Polish musician Michal Urbaniak was a multi-instrumentalist who played violin, alto sax and lyricon. He only ever recorded one song with Miles Davis, but his contribution to the album Tutu catapulted him to even greater prominence. Before recording with Miles, Urbaniak had played in various Polish jazz bands, before emigrating to the U.S. in 1973 and becoming an American citizen.

He also played with Larry Coryell, Billy Cobham and Michael Brecker. Urbaniak played an energetic violin solo on the track “Don’t Lose Your Mind,” a song composed, arranged and co-produced by Marcus Miller, who explained why he selected Urbaniak, “I said ‘Man, I need a solo but I don’t want it to be some guy with a tenor playing some traditional thing. So what’s an unusual thing? A violin.”

Miller had also known Urbaniak for some years and once told Urbaniak that he liked playing with him because he was the only producer at the time that gave him music to read during a session. Miller says: “I said ‘Michal, you got to come down here and give me something for Miles.’”

Michal Urbaniak started out as a sax player but health reasons forced him to switch to the violin. “Basically I play jazz violin like a saxophone,” he said. “I was always looking for attachments to make the violin not so sweet.” This included a vocoder, a voice-controlled synthesizer.

A recording Jermaine Jackson’s “Take Good Care of My Heart,” with pianist Horace Parlan resulted in an album that only sold a small number of copies. But one of them ended up being played on a Californian radio station.

Talk show host Johnny Carson heard “Take Good Care of My Heart,” and told his producer that he wanted Urbaniak on his show, The Tonight Show. Urbaniak performed three times on The Tonight Show. According to Urbaniak, before Miles had recorded Tutu, he saw the violinist on The Tonight Show and said to his producer Tommy Lipuma, “Get this fucking Polack, he’s got a great sound!”

In late 1985, Urbaniak moved from New York to California and in early 1986 called Tommy LiPuma’s office by chance. He recalled the conversation, “They said, ‘Oh it’s you, Michal. Tommy’s been looking for you. Give him a call.’ So I call Tommy and he asks ‘Where are you?’ and I say ‘In California,’ and he says, ‘Well, we’re here in New York and Miles wants you on his new record, so come on over.’ Then Marcus speaks to me. So my wife and I go back to New York and end up staying in a hotel next door to our old apartment!”

Urbaniak had met Miles prior to the Tutu sessions, although few words had passed between them. “I met Miles at the Montreux Jazz [Festival] and I said to him ‘I love you’ he replied ‘Yeah,’ and that was it!”

Waiting at Clinton Recording Studios was Marcus Miller and engineer Eric Calvi. Urbaniak’s musical se-up surprised Miller. “I figured a violin was unusual enough but he came in with a microphone strapped around his head and the violin was somehow shaped by the sounds he was making with his mouth through the microphone – it was kinda like a vocoder. There was weird stuff and it was perfect for the song. That’s what Miles does. He just makes musicians react and come up with something new.”

Urbaniak heard the backing track to “Don’t Lose Your Mind” and asked Miller, “What happens after me?” Marcus said ‘Miles will solo,’ so I thought about it and that was it.” Urbaniak’s solo was done in a single take. The resulting one-minute long violin solo is memorable, with long, sweeping lines and out-of-this-world electronic vocalisations courtesy of the vocoder-like device.

After recording his solo, Urbaniak met Miles again at the studio. “He said ‘How did you play?’ and I said ‘I think it’s exactly how you want it.’ Then he did an incredible thing: he went behind me and rubbed my neck and said ‘How does it feel?’ I had tears in my eyes.”

Wallace Roney (1960-2020)

Wallace Roney was one of the finest trumpeters of his generation. He was a huge talent, who had had lessons from trumpet giants Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie, and who Miles had personally mentored. The connection with Miles crystallised at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival, when Miles played his last concert at the event. Miles surprised and delighted many fans by deciding to play the classic Gil Evans arrangements from the late 1950s for albums such as Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain.

Wallace told me how he had been a member of the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band and was pleased to hear the band would be performing at Monteux, “I thought, ‘great, I’ll be able to catch Miles at the concert’. But when we got to Montreux, George informs us that we’re playing at the concert!” And Wallace was in for a bigger surprise once he arrived at Montreux. Miles was late for a rehearsal and so Wallace stepped in and played Miles’ parts. Hours into the session, Miles appeared and instructed Wallace to continue playing, and then joined him on the bandstand.

At the next day’s rehearsals, Miles gave Wallace more parts and began sharing solos with him. Then Wallace learnt that he would be playing alongside Miles at the concert. Miles was very sick at this time and had less than three months to live. Nevertheless, he gave it his all, and Wallace was there on hand to jump in if Miles was faltering. What is clear looking at the video footage of the concert is the respect and affection both men had for each other. “At the end of ‘Blues for Pablo,’ when he let me take over, it was the passing of the guard. Man, it was incredible,” Wallace told me. At the end of the concert, Miles smiled at Wallace and jokingly waved a towel over his face as if you say, “Man, you were hot!” He also gave Wallace one of his trumpets.

Following Miles’ death, Wallace played with Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter in the A Tribute to Miles band. Although Wallace had a strong connection with Miles, he also had his own voice, and produced an impressive body of work – his 2000 album No Room For Argument is one of my favourites. Wallace has left us far too soon, but he has left behind many remarkable musical memories.

Bucky Pizzarelli (1926-2020)

I’ve always been fascinated by the period when Miles began incorporating the electric guitar into his music. That was why I was thrilled to interview Bucky Pizzarelli, who was the second guitarist Miles used after Joe Beck. Bucky (who was born in the same year as Miles) played on a 1968 session for the track “Fun.” After Bucky, Miles tried out George Benson, who is often mistakenly credited as the first guitarist Miles used, because his playing appeared on the 1968 album Miles in the Sky. “Fun” finally appeared on the 1981 compilation album Directions.

Bucky had a 75-year career that spanned everything from big bands to television bands, and session work to solo guitar. He also pioneered the use of the seven-string guitar. I really enjoyed interviewing Bucky, in fact I would go as far as to say I have never interviewed a nicer person – and I’ve been lucky enough to speak to many lovely people during my writing career. I was not surprised to read that no one had a bad word to say about him. I feel grateful to have had the chance to speak to a true guitar legend. Bucky’s modesty shone through throughout our interview and I was delighted that one of things he said to me was used in a number of Bucky’s obituaries: “Every day I get up and I try to correct what I screwed up the night before!”

Ndugu Chancler (1952-2018)

Leon “Ndugu” Chancler didn’t play with Miles in the 1980s, but I chatted to him about his time with Miles, when he joined the band as a nineteen year-old drummer for the 1971 European tour. The tour wasn’t a happy one for Ndugu, who left the band at the end of it. But Ndugu had good memories of Miles, “I don’t regret it because it changed my direction and it set me up to be who I am now,” he told me. “I learned so much and it did so much for me. Miles taught me how to grow up. Forget I lost the gig: I learned more than I could have possibly learned on the gig. In the long run I learned more about Miles. Things worked out in the long run in that I went to Miles Davis school. Funnily enough, Miles and I became better friends later.” Miles used to say to musicians if that if things didn’t turn out, it didn’t mean that you couldn’t play – it just meant that he was looking for something different. And indeed, Ndugu’s talents were recognised by artists such as George Duke, George Benson, Stanley Clarke, Herbie Hancock and Frank Sinatra, although he’ll probably be remembered most of all for being the drummer on Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”

Tommy LiPuma (1936-2017)

Tommy LiPuma was a multi Grammy-winning producer, a big name in the music industry, who had worked with many artists including, George Benson, Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, Earl Klugh – and Miles. He was the sort of person you never expected to interview unless you were a well-connected journalist. So, when I contacted his PA with an interview request, I wasn’t optimistic about my chances. So, you can imagine my surprise when she replied that he would talk to me about Miles and gave me Tommy LiPuma’s home number.

This gives you the measure of the man and also shows the high regard he held for Miles. Tommy LiPuma had a reputation for smooth, polished productions, but he also had the vision and foresight to encourage Miles to go down a new route that would lead to the ground-breaking Tutu album.

The interview went well, even though he had builders in the house and every so often, would break off our chat to give them instructions! It was kind, gracious act to grant me an interview and I felt very fortunate to include Tommy LiPuma in my book.

Jim Rose (died 2014)

I was really pleased when I finally got to interview Jim Rose for this website, because he had been a key part of Miles’s professional life for fifteen years. Jim was Miles’s road manager from 1972 to 1987, and in his autobiography, Miles said he was, “The best road manager I ever had.” When I spoke to Jim, he revealed some of the qualities that made him a superb road manager – a sharp mind; an air of unflappability, an excellent memory for detail and a dry sense of humour. Even though Jim’s time with Miles ended on a sour note, Jim retained much affection for him and they still saw a fair bit of each other. When I asked Jim about his memories of Miles, he said: “I get a warm pleasant feeling because I really loved the guy, even though I got four stitches to show for it from another time when he hit me. He was a real bastard at times, but when he was good he was just great. He was one of the funniest and smartest human beings I ever met in my life.”

Paul Buckmaster (1946-2017)

Paul was one of the last people I interviewed before my Miles book went off to the publisher for production in early 2005. I was very lucky to include him, because he had so many interesting things to say about Miles. Quite often, when you interview someone, you soon lose contact afterwards, but Paul and I stayed in touch up until his death.

Paul was a remarkable man. A talented cellist, arranger and composer, the musicians he worked with – Miles, David Bowie and Elton John, to name but three – tells you all you need to know about how gifted he was. He was also probably the most intelligent man I have ever known – his intellect was astounding and I often marvelled at the width and breadth of his interests and knowledge – and sometimes struggled to keep up with his thought processes. But Paul was also a modest man and I was forever telling him that he ought to write his memoirs, as no one else had worked with Miles, Bowie and Elton.

We kept in touch by phone, email and Skype video, and Paul would often chat at what was the middle of the night in Los Angeles, where he lived. My biggest regret is that we never met face-to-face. Paul had many interests aside from music, including politics and the environment, and he would often send web links or news reports about an issue that was close to his heart. Paul worked with Miles on three occasions – in 1972 on the On The Corner album; in 1979 when Miles was considering a return to music, and in 1986, when Miles asked him to compose some music for his first Warner Bros album. Sadly, none of these collaborations turned out to be a fully satisfying experience for Paul musically – On The Corner didn’t turn out as Paul had anticipated, although many years later he was proud of the album and its subsequent influence on other musicians; Miles failed to turn up for the 1979 session, and Paul’s music was never used for what became the Tutu album.

But Paul had lots of warm thoughts about Miles and said that Bitches Brew was one of the greatest pieces of music ever released. He last saw Miles in 1989 in London, when he went backstage to meet him. Paul shared the same birthday as my wife and last year, he sent a music file of him playing a birthday tune for her, which we will treasure. It was a great shock to hear of Paul’s death and even now, I still can’t believe there won’t be an email or a call from him ever again.

Ricky Wellman (1955-2013)

Ricky “Sugarfoot” Wellman was one of three musicians who joined Miles’s band in 1987 and who stayed with him until his death in 1991 (the others were lead bassist Foley and saxophonist Kenny Garrett). The fact that Ricky remained with Miles for so long tells you how highly Miles thought of his playing. Ricky had been a member of Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers, based in Washington DC, and was one of the forces behind the Go-Go beat.

The story goes that Miles heard a tape of the band, fell in love with drumming and got hold of Ricky’s number. When Miles called Ricky’s home, Ricky was asleep and his wife answered the phone. She didn’t know who Miles was and told him that her husband was resting and that he should call back tomorrow! When Ricky heard what had happened, he couldn’t believe it! Fortunately, Miles’s management called the next day and Ricky was on his way. There was no audition – Ricky was sent a concert tape to learn.

Back in 2011, Ricky wrote a piece for this website in which he described the shaky start he had had with the band. But Ricky went onto become the rock of the group, who could lay down a groove, whip up a storm or play as delicately as a petal blowing in a light breeze. Miles would often give him long solos when playing “Carnival” in concerts.

Ricky’s career post-Miles was mixed: he recorded with Kenny Garrett; toured with Carlos Santana and played with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. He was also part of ESP2, a group that played tribute to the music of Miles Davis and included other Miles’ alumni, such as Randy Hall, Adam Holzman and Robert Irving III. But Ricky also for a time moved into the IT industry to better support his family. Miles’s youngest son Erin describes how close his father was to Ricky, “He and Ricky had a very special relationship for a long time. They really worked well together and they really enjoyed playing with each other. He really loved Ricky.”

George Duke (1946-2012)

I first spoke to George Duke in 1998. I emailed his website and he replied, giving me his studio number. When I called the number, his lovely wife Corine answered and then put George on the line. To say I found the situation overwhelming would be an understatement. George Duke was one of my musical heroes – in my late teens and twenties I had devoured his albums – Reach for It, Don’t Let Go, Follow The Rainbow, Master of the Game and A Brazilian Love Affair. When I listen back to the interview, I can hear how nervous I was, but what is also clear is how patient George was and how he quickly he put me at ease. I had hoped to write a feature about George for a jazz magazine, but the editor I approached turned it down, adding that George “Wasn’t really a jazz player.” That was the problem he faced: George could play anything – jazz, rock, pop, fusion, Latin. He even composed an opera. He was hard to pin down musically and had an open mind to music – this was a man who had played with both Frank Zappa and Cannonball Adderley. It is probably why he got on so well with Miles.

Five years after I first called George, I called him again, this time asking for an interview for my book. He readily agreed and was soon recalling a host of anecdotes about Miles, many of them hilarious. George was a fun person, with an infectious laugh. He was quite simply, one of the loveliest people I have ever known. You always felt better after speaking to George. I interviewed him several times and saw him play live a few times (including a memorable gig at Ronnie Scott’s in London). In 2012, Corine died and I didn’t know that George had leukaemia. A couple of months before George died, I emailed him with a query about Miles, which he helped me with. I ended my email by saying that I looked forward to seeing him again the next time he was in London, not knowing that this would never happen again.

Pete Cosey (1943-2012)

Pete Cosey was a phenomenal musician who never got the recognition he deserved. A superb guitarist who developed a unique tuning system, he also played keyboards and percussion. Pete joined Miles’s band in 1973 and stayed with him until 1979. Pete’s playing on albums such as 1975’s Agharta and Pangaea, sounds innovative, fresh and exciting today. When Miles dropped out of the music scene in mid-1975, Pete and the rest of the band played a number of sessions in 1976, but then the work dried up. Pete kept in close touch with Miles during this time, and was involved in a number of abandoned attempts to get Miles playing live or back in the studio.

I interviewed Pete several times – for my book, for this website and for a Jazzwise article I wrote about the On The Corner boxed set. The thing that stands out for me when I remember Pete is that he was a quietly spoken, modest man, with a ferocious memory – his power of recall was astounding. When I asked him about the time when he was recruited by Miles (an event that had occurred more than thirty years earlier), Pete not only recalled how he had been reluctant to join Miles’s band and had instead, recommended some guitar students he was teaching at the time, but he rattled off the students’ names as if it had happened yesterday!

After leaving Miles, Pete struggled to get work, partly because of music business politics, but also because as Pete admitted to me, he didn’t always make the right calls. He was also very difficult to contact, which didn’t help. But his talent and integrity were undiminished, and one of the last things Pete said to me still resonates today: “I wasn’t living an easy life. I went through a lot of great struggles but I kept true to the music. I never lost sight of that. I never stopped experimenting, improving and crystallising and creating and I still do that and I never lost sight of that. I realised a long time ago what my mission is and I’ve stayed true to that.” He most certainly did.

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