JAZZ REVIEW : Miles Davis Octet Swings Solidly at Greek

Maybe it’s time to take a harder look at Miles Davis’ current band. Although the group has had neither the high visibility nor the critical approval of some of his past ensembles, it is a young and vigorous aggregation that deserves far better consideration than it’s received.

Sunday night at the Greek Theatre, the Davis octet--with Kenny Garrett on alto saxophone and flute, Adam Holzman and Robert Irving III on keyboards, Joseph (Foley) McCreary on lead bass, Benny Rietveld on low bass, Marilyn Mazur on percussion and Ricky Weldman on drums--played a set that was a model of modern jazz making. As an accurate expression of what Davis wants to communicate musically at this point in his career, it was as effective as any band he has ever had.

Typically, the music rose from the ensemble’s sturdy foundation of repetitive, but hard-driving, funk-based rhythms. Davis played considerably longer solos than he has in other recent appearances, and both his range, as well as his note selection, had the feel of a man fully in control of his musical materials.

On a slow, grooving 6/4 blues, his improvisation recalled the past and vitalized the present by juxtaposing long note lines against swift, piercing high-note accents. Even more interestingly, Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time,” a staple in the current Davis repertoire, triggered a long, strolling solo in which the trumpeter’s powerful dramatic instincts literally brought the audience’s shouts of encouragement into the flow of the music.

Lead bassist McCreary, stalking the stage side by side with Davis, playing a musical Damon to his leader’s Pythias, filled most of the remaining solo space with a soaring, B.B. King sound and a gutsy, blues-rooted line. Mazur’s percussion feature, a highlight of Davis’ recent performances was as vigorously energetic as ever.

But the centerpiece of the evening was the interaction between Davis and his increasingly fine young ensemble. It may lack the powerful soloists of past Davis groups, but his present band takes second place to none in reflecting the musical wishes of one of contemporary music’s most persistently productive minds.

Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento opened the show with a collection of highly charged rhythm songs.