Rubberband

Before Miles Davis recorded Tutu as his debut offering for Warner Bros., he worked on a funky, jazz-pop-vocal project called Rubberband in North Hollywood over a three-month period in late 1985 and early 1986. While co-producers Randy Hall and Attala Zane Giles felt satisfied, Warner Jazz boss Tommy LiPuma was less enthusiastic. It was ultimately shelved. Davis performed some of its tunes live, and later, trumpet parts from the sessions were grafted onto "Fantasy" and "High Speed Chase" for the posthumously released Doo-Bop.
Rubberband is almost thoroughly reinvented from the original tapes with full cooperation from the Davis estate, and guided by Davis' nephew and drummer Vince Wilburn, Jr., who played on the original sessions. The bookend tracks are both high points: "Rubberband of Life" with Ledisi, and a remixed version of the title track (featuring a nasty Mike Stern guitar break), were previously issued on a limited five-track EP. Davis' trumpet playing is the album's real boon. He's quite active, delivering funky vamps, mysterious lyricism, and sometimes meaty solos; check his beguiling fills on "So Emotional," a fine modern soul ballad featuring vocalist Lalah Hathaway. On the punky funk of "Give It Up," he's mixed far above the band. The Prince-cum-James Brown-inspired jam is all the better for it. "Paradise" -- a funky calypso number complete with the sound of synthed steel drums -- finds him trilling against layers of percussion punctuated by swampy basslines and acoustic and electric lead guitar as Medina Johnson's vocal cascades in from the margins. The angular funk of "This Is It" (inspired by Scritti Politti) is all vamp; Miles' playing is casually slotted between synth layers and screaming guitar solos. "Carnival Time" is a mashup of fusion and smooth jazz punctuated by Latin percussion with a lovely harmonic sense. "See I See" smokes: co-written by keyboardist Adam Holzman, it's easily recognizable as the kind of swaggering funk Davis was playing live at the time. The long "Echoes in Time/The Wrinkle" atmospherically features Davis on dueling keyboards with Holzman playing distorted, jagged vamps supplemented by fills from his horn. It sets up "Rubberband" as the smoking closer and session highlight. There are some truly weighty grooves and a few hip tunes in this dense, hip-hop styled mix. ~ Thom Jurek