Tutu (album)

Last updated
Tutu
Miles Davis-Tutu (album cover).jpg
Cover photograph by Irving Penn
Studio album by
Miles Davis
ReleasedSeptember 29, 1986 (1986-09-29) [1]
RecordedFebruary 6 – March 25, 1986
Studio
Genre
Length42:05
Label Warner Bros.
Producer
Miles Davis chronology
You're Under Arrest
(1985)		Tutu
(1986)		 Music from Siesta
(1987)
Audio sample
"Tutu"

Tutu is an album by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, released in 1986 by Warner Bros. Records. The album is Miles Davis' tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu who was a human rights and anti-apartheid activist. [5] It was recorded primarily at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and Clinton Recording in New York, except the song "Backyard Ritual", which was recorded at Le Gonks in West Hollywood. [6] Davis received the 1986 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist Grammy Award for his performance on the album. [7]

Contents

Background

Originally some tracks were planned as a collaboration with Prince. Prince later pulled out for undisclosed reasons, although the two remained firm friends and later collaborated on "Can I Play With U" as well. (Davis later covered "Movie Star" and "Penetration" by Prince.) Davis ultimately worked with bassist/multi-instrumentalist Marcus Miller. Miller wrote and arranged all the songs, except "Tomaas" (co-written by Davis), "Backyard Ritual" (by keyboardist George Duke), and "Perfect Way" (by pop group Scritti Politti). The music is strongly inspired by mid-1980s R&B and funk, with heavy use of synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines. Miller performed the bulk of instrumentation on the album, including bass guitar, synthesizers and drum machines, bass clarinet and soprano saxophone.

As indicated in the notes accompanying the album, Tutu was produced by Tommy LiPuma and Marcus Miller, with the exception of "Backyard Ritual", which was co-produced by Duke and LiPuma.

The cover was designed by Eiko Ishioka and photographed by Irving Penn. Eiko Ishioka received the 1987 Grammy Award for Best Album Package for her work as the art director. [8] The original vinyl album featured a colored inner sleeve printed with the album credits on one side and a photograph of Davis's left hand (with middle finger depressed) on the reverse.

Reception and legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [10]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [11]
Jazzwise Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [12]
MusicHound Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [13]
The New Zealand Herald 4/5 [14]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [15]
Record Collector Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [16]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [17]
The Village Voice B+ [18]

Tutu divided critics and listeners when it was released in 1986. [19] Like Davis's pivotal 1970 album Bitches Brew , Paul Tingen wrote, Tutu became one of the "defining jazz albums" of its decade and attracted a young, new audience while alienating many other jazz listeners because of its heavy reliance on the drum machine and synthesizers. A number of critics felt the music was ingratiatingly elegant, designed for casual listening, and largely a work by Miller. [20] In The New York Times that year, Robert Palmer said it "already sounds curiously dated" and unambitious, featuring synthesizers that "have glutinous textures so overly familiar from the mainstream of late-1970s pop jazz" and electronic rhythms lacking the innovation of contemporary hip hop records. [4]

Others believed the album gave a musical setting for Davis's improvisations to thrive in, comparable to his orchestral recordings with Gil Evans from the late 1950s and early 1960s. [20] The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau deemed it a marginal success but also Davis's "best in a decade". He contended that while Davis's 1970s fusion recordings for Columbia Records were purely improvised jazz-rock, Tutu sounded "more like pop-funk Sketches of Spain , with the starperson's trumpet glancing smartly off an up-to-date panoply of catchy little tunes, beats, and rhythm effects". [18] Jazz musician and writer Mike Zwerin was more enthusiastic, hailing it as "the best jazz record of the decade". [20]

In a retrospective piece, Christgau later wrote that with "shlock" like Tutu and Amandla , Davis was taking advantage of the fusion movement he helped develop while showing "gratifying groove and class". [21] In J. D. Considine's opinion, the album's compositions and improvisations endured well with the passage of time, even though its electronically processed and enigmatic music turned off jazz purists. [22] Writing for Something Else! in 2006, S. Victor Aaron said the best song from Tutu may have been Davis's own composition "Tomaas": "With a reggae beat married to repetitive single note underpinned by some very nifty bass work by Miller, Miles and Miller (also on soprano sax) trade fours and eights in a rare opportunity for Miles to stretch out. Overall, though, the trumpet playing is subdued, probably more constrained by production than declining abilities. Rarely does the mute come off his horn." [23] Reviewing the album for Jazzwise in 2011, Davis' biographer George Cole said, "Tutu was a product of the 80s, a decade where music was often in danger of becoming subservient to technology. But while much of the music from this era is now long forgotten; Tutu continues to thrive; artists such as George Benson, Al Jarreau and Cassandra Wilson have recorded cover versions of the title track." [24]

Between May and August 2010, Miller performed on the "Tutu Revisited" concert tour with a band comprising Christian Scott on trumpet with Alex Han on saxophone, Federico González Peña on keyboards and Louis Cato on drums. In an interview for JazzTimes , Miller said, "I'm finding that although the music mirrored the times in which it was created, there is so much in the music that still seems relevant today. Although we've replaced some of the super electro sounding elements, the melodies are still very cool. It feels like they have withstood the test of time. People seem to be feeling this music twenty years later." [25]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Marcus Miller except where indicated:

  1. "Tutu" – 5:15
  2. "Tomaas" – 5:38 (Davis, Marcus Miller)
  3. "Portia" – 6:18
  4. "Splatch" – 4:46
  5. "Backyard Ritual" – 4:49 (George Duke)
  6. "Perfect Way" – 4:35 (David Gamson, Green Gartside)
  7. "Don't Lose Your Mind" – 5:49
  8. "Full Nelson" – 5:06

Deluxe edition

Disc two (Live from Nice Festival, France, July 1986)

  1. "Opening Medley": 'Theme from Jack Johnson', 'Speak', 'That's What Happened' – 15:14
  2. "New Blues" – 5:20
  3. "The Maze" – 10:15
  4. "Human Nature" – 9:04
  5. "Portia" – 7:54
  6. "Splatch" – 17:10
  7. "Time After Time" (Cyndi Lauper, Rob Hyman) – 7:22
  8. "Carnival" – 4:20

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Charts

Chart performance for Tutu
Chart (1986)Peak
position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [26] 46
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [27] 33
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [28] 27
UK Albums (OCC) [29] 74
US Billboard 200 [30] 141

Certifications and sales

Certifications for Tutu
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
France (SNEP) [31] Gold100,000*

* Sales figures based on certification alone.

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References

  1. ↑ "FMQB" (PDF). p. 45.
  2. ↑ Hoffman, Frank, ed. (2004). Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, Volume 1 (2nd ed.). CRC Press. p. 616. ISBN   0203484274 . Retrieved June 26, 2013. ...Miles Davis's last pop-jazz albums for Warners Bros. (Tutu [1986], and Amandla [1987]).
  3. ↑ Freeman, Phil (2014). "Miles Davis Albums From Worst to Best". Stereogum . Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Palmer, Robert (October 1, 1986). "The Pop Life; In 'Tutu,' Miles Davis Goes Fully Electronic". The New York Times . Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ "The story of the musical tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu". knkx.org. 2021-12-27. Retrieved 2024-08-16.
  6. ↑ Tutu (deluxe edition reissue booklet). Miles Davis. Warner Jazz. 2011. 8122797687.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  7. ↑ "29th Annual GRAMMY Awards". GRAMMY.com. 2017-11-28. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  8. ↑ "Past Winners Search | GRAMMY.com". grammy.com. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  9. ↑ Yanow, Scott (2011). "Tutu - Miles Davis | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  10. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Miles Davis". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN   978-0857125958.
  11. ↑ Fordham, John (May 19, 2011). "Miles Davis – Tutu: Deluxe Edition – review". The Guardian . Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  12. ↑ Nicholson, Stuart (October 9, 2015). "Miles Davis – Tutu Deluxe Edition". Jazzwise . Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  13. ↑ Holtje, Steve; Lee, Nancy Ann, eds. (1998). "Miles Davis". MusicHound Jazz: The Essential Album Guide . Music Sales Corporation. ISBN   0825672538.
  14. ↑ Reid, Graham (June 4, 2011). "Album review: Miles Davis, Tutu: Special Edition". The New Zealand Herald . Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  15. ↑ Cook & Morton 1992, p. 273.
  16. ↑ Waring, Charles (June 2011). "Tutu Revisited". Record Collector (389): 97. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  17. ↑ Considine et al. 2004, p. 215.
  18. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (October 28, 1986). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice . Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  19. ↑ "Miles Davis – Tutu". Jazzwise. May 2011. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  20. 1 2 3 Tingen, Paul (March 2002). "Miles Davis: Miles on Target". JazzTimes . Retrieved May 22, 2016.
  21. ↑ Christgau 1990, p. 463.
  22. ↑ Considine et al. 2004, p. 219.
  23. ↑ S. Victor Aaron (2015-06-21). "Miles Davis - Tutu (1986) | Something Else!". Somethingelsereviews.com. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  24. ↑ "Jazzwise".
  25. ↑ "Jazz Columns: Marcus Miller Revisits Music of Tutu on Tour - By Lee Mergner — Jazz Articles". Jazztimes.com. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
  26. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Miles Davis – Tutu" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Miles Davis – Tutu". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  28. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Miles Davis – Tutu". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  29. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  30. ↑ "Miles Davis Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  31. ↑ "French album certifications – Miles Davis – Tutu" (in French). InfoDisc. Retrieved November 18, 2021.Select MILES DAVIS and click OK. 

Bibliography

Further reading

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