Circuit Rider Ron Miles

• 1 Comma 09:07
• 2 Jive Five 06:56
• 3 The Flesh Is Weak 05:00
• 4 Dancing Close and Slow 08:50
• 5 Circuit Rider 04:55
• 6 Reincarnation of a Lovebird 07:07
• 7 Angelina 05:04
• 8 Two Kinds of Blues 09:41
• Total Runtime 56:40

Info for Circuit Rider

Cornetist Ron Miles leads guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Brian Blade in Circuit Rider, the group’s second album. A logical evolution from the Trio’s debut album Quiver (2012), Circuit Rider epitomizes Miles’ signature lyricism, deceptively simple yet fiendishly difficult to play and spiritually aware compositions. The scope of the album spans American folk traditions and vibrant gospel hope infused with progressive jazz forms. Confident, elegant, and never overstated, Miles provides just the right amount of grace and rhythm as he quietly makes his mark as an exemplary cornetist, composer, and storyteller.

“I like to think that musicians are the messengers of today,” explains Ron Miles. Known for writing songs that possess religious overtones, Miles embarked on this new album with the Circuit Riders of old serving as his inspiration. The 

Circuit Riders, traveling clergy who took the gospel to remote corners of America’s frontier on horseback beginning 250 years ago, were forerunners in their day. According to Miles, Circuit Rider is a post-­‐‑modern nod to these leaders who lived for a cause greater than themselves. “We, as musicians, are traveling Circuit Riders preaching every day at any place available and are always on the move.”

Comprising five original compositions on this eight-­‐‑track disc, Circuit Rider marks the first time Miles recorded an album with the same group twice. This time around, Miles could hear the band in the songwriting process. “We discovered songs together,” says Miles. “Their astounding capacity for playing impacted how I approached the music. When you have musicians as perceptive and responsive as Bill Frisell and Brian Blade, the music just takes off!”

Sharing a fondness for striking melody, musical economy, and the importance of individual timbre, these three genre-­‐‑defying musical masters are highly respected leaders with expansive discographies and projects covering a wide spectrum of contemporary music. Their collective playing reflects the landscape that is implicit in Circuit Rider; all three giving a certain folk-­‐‑like context to Ron’s original compositions. Denver-­‐‑based Ron Miles and Bill Frisell (a partnership that dates back to the mid-­‐‑90s) both exude the Old West, while Brian Blade’s breezy sophistication and jagged rhythms salute his native Louisiana.

Like its predecessor Quiver, Circuit Rider showcases a selection of carefully chosen cover songs. Synthesizing the past are rearrangements of Jimmy Giuffre’s “Two Kinds of Blues,” as well as both “Jive Five Floor Four,” and “Reincarnation Of A Lovebird” by the trio’s hero Charles Mingus. Producer Hans Wendl and engineer Colin Bricker ensure again that the recording quality do justice to the high level of the musical performances.

'Ron Miles is one of the finest trumpeters in jazz today. I can’t come up with a compelling reason why he should be anything other than a major name.' (JazzTimes)

'Miles plays brilliantly, singing the melodies with a tone bright and vocalized, tinged with melancholy...' (Down Beat)

Ron Miles, cornet
Bill Frisell, guitar
Brian Blade, drums

Ron Miles
was born on May 9, 1963, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and moved with his family to Denver when he was 11 years old. Soon after he began playing trumpet and studied both classical and jazz. He went on to study music at the University of Denver, University of Colorado Boulder, and the Manhattan School of Music. In 1987, Ron released Distance for Safety, the first of a dozen albums he would make over the next 35 years including such critically acclaimed works as Heaven (2002), Quiver (2012), and I Am A Man (2017). Ron received a GRAMMY nomination for his performance on Joshua Redman’s 2018 album Still Dreaming. Miles also led a distinguished and lengthy career in music education as a Professor of Music at the Metropolitan State University of Denver where he had taught since the late 1990s.

Miles’ final album was his Blue Note Records debut, Rainbow Sign, which was released in 2020 and featured an extraordinary quintet with Frisell, Moran, Blade, and bassist Thomas Morgan. Written in tribute to Ron’s father Fay Dooney Miles, who had passed away in 2018, DownBeat called it “a deeply touching album” and “by far Miles’ most impressive work as a bandleader.”

Bill Frisell
Bill’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 40 years and many celebrated recordings, whose catalog has been cited by Downbeat as "the best recorded output of the decade."

In recent years, Frisell has forged a distinctive and fruitful collaboration with the Blue Note label, releasing HARMONY, Valentine and FOUR to great acclaim.

"Frisell has had a lot of practice putting high concept into a humble package. Long hailed as one of the most distinctive and original improvising guitarists of our time, he has also earned a reputation for teasing out thematic connections with his music... There’s a reason that Jazz at Lincoln Center had him program a series called Roots of Americana." - New York Times

Recognized as one of America’s 21 most vital and productive performing artists, Frisell was named an inaugural Doris Duke Artist in 2012. He is also a recipient of grants from United States Artists, Meet the Composer among others. In 2016, he was a beneficiary of the first FreshGrass Composition commission to preserve and support innovative grassroots music. Upon San Francisco Jazz opening their doors in 2013, he served as one of their Resident Artistic Directors.

Bill is the subject of a documentary film by director Emma Franz, entitled Bill Frisell: A Portrait, which examines his creative process in depth, as well as an extensive biography by Philip Watson, Beautiful Dreamer: The Guitarist Who Changed The Sound of American Music.

Brian Blade
A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Brian Blade established himself as a versatile, accomplished drummer early in his career, appearing on albums by the likes of Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett, and Bob Dylan. Blade released his first album, Brian Blade Fellowship, at the age of 27 in 1998 and followed two years later with Perceptual, both on Blue Note. Always an in-demand sideman and collaborator, Blade continued to find work with a varied bevy of artists, including Joni Mitchell, Bill Frisell, and Wayne Shorter. Ten years after releasing his first album as the Brian Blade Fellowship, Blade returned with Season of Changes in 2008, this time on Verve. A year later he released the solo Americana, singer/songwriter effort Mama Rosa for the label.

At the beginning of 2014, the BBF band re-signed with Blue Note in a cooperative deal with the Shreveport, Louisiana-based Mid-City Records. Their fourth album together, Landmarks, was issued in April of 2014. The quintet was augmented by guitarists Marvin Sewell and Jeff Parker.

This album contains no booklet.