Miles Davis - Star People (2022 Remaster) (2022) [Hi-Res]

Star People is a 1983 album recorded by Miles Davis and issued by Columbia Records. It is the second studio recording released after the trumpeter's six-year hiatus, the first to feature electric guitarist John Scofield (who was recommended by saxophonist Bill Evans), and the last to be produced by long-standing producer Teo Macero. Bassist Marcus Miller (who would go on to produce future Davis sessions) plays on five of the tracks. Electric guitarist Mike Stern features on most of the pieces, and drummer Al Foster and percussionist Mino Cinelu round out the rhythm section. Davis played trumpet and Oberheim synthesizer simultaneously (without using overdubs), and also on separately recorded interludes for the over-18-minute-long blues "Star People".

Tom Barney temporarily replaced Marcus Miller, and John Scofield was called in to assist Mike Stern. A simple bass riff conveys the jam session spirit of “Come Get It.” But the two guitarists (and the discrete presence of Gil Evans in the recording booth) directed the music toward the angular and virtuoso melodic abstraction of chromatic funk. Gil Evans often took the melodic lines—developed but not reduced to the couplet-refrain schemas of pop—from the sessions’ solos, listening to them again in the evening, and choosing excerpts to transcribe for the guitar and saxophone. Thus, “Star On Cicely” was borrowed from Mike Stern, and “Speak” and “It Gets Better” from John Scofield. This last one is not far from Miles’ return to the blues in his repertoire, as his part in “It Gets Better” shows. This is the last time Teo Macero was producer, and the first time Miles’ drawings were used for the cover of the album.

"It's said that Miles has soloed better recently, and that the music relies on blues clichés. But like Agharta, this is the band's record, although unlike Agharta it works because Miles reins the band in--Mike Stern's blues duties keep him unfused, John Scofield gains needed muscle, Bill Evans hardly opens his embouchure. Anyway, blues is supposed to be a music of reinvented clichés." (Robert Christgau)

Miles Davis, trumpet, keyboards
John Scofield, electric guitar (on 2 & 3)
Mike Stern, electric guitar
Bill Evans, tenor & soprano saxophones
Marcus Miller, bass (except 3)
Tom Barney, bass (on 3)
Al Foster, drums
Mino Cinelu, percussion

Digitally remastered