From the Heart

If you are a hardcore Miles Davis fan, you won’t get much satisfaction from this 12-track nostalgic tribute to Davis classics like “Round Midnight” and “Blue In Green.” Groundbreaking Kind of Blue is Davis’s milestone killer album and From the Heart pales in comparison.

It’s likely that each song in this album was chosen as part of a slick marketing scheme to create a compilation of Davis’ most accessible and romantic jazz classics. While it is clearly Miles Davis 101, From the Heart is also a reminder that Davis is the master of elegant understated post-bop smooth improvisation. Davis’ jazz is large because of his disciplined restraint and attention to small details, such as the gentle silences between blasts of pure crystal-clear trumpet notes tiptoeing gently into the air, exemplifying the credo that less is definitely more.

The bulk of the songs on From the Heart hail from Davis’ early collection of '50s and '60s classics, such as Gershwin’s “I Loves You Porgy” and “Bess, You Is my Woman Now.” As the album draws to a close, the listener is treated to Miles' super-smooth version of funky Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” followed by the inevitable standard “My Funny Valentine”.

Davis’ interpretation of Lauper’s contemporary hit is a delightful jazz gift from Miles and my personal favorite of the selections featured here. _ From the Heart_ is a tribute to Davis’ pre-acoustic jazz mastery and is a smooth, cool, terrific, and reasonably priced introduction to the work of Miles Davis.

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