Cosmic Miles

G CALVIN WESTON With ELLIOTT LEVIN/DAVID DZUBINSKI/ROBERTO CERVI/MARIO MAZZENGA - Cosmic Miles (GCW; USA) G. Calvin Weston on percussion pads and trumpet, Elliott Levin on tenor & soprano saxes & flute, Roberto Cervi on guitars & keyboards, David Dzubinski on keyboards, Mario Mazzenga on bass and David Galleher on steel drums (two tracks). I caught both of Philly's finest, Calvin Weston & Elliott Levin, last night (8/14/12) at The Stone with Bob Musso. Calvin you should no doubt know from his work with Ornette Coleman, Blood Ulmer and the Lounge Lizards. Elliott Levin is a longtime sax legend from Philly who has played with a large array of heavies like Marshall Allen, Cecil Taylor, John Sinclair, besides co-leading New Ghost and the Interplay Ensemble. This disc is quite different from the other two discs mentioned today. Calvin Weston plays drums pads and trumpet instead of a regular drum set. I believe that this was inspired by Miles Davis, hence the title and surprisingly, Calvin does sound like Miles at times in spurts. The overall vibe does sound like some of those later electric Miles sessions when Miles was playing those brooding organ sounds. Calvin sets up some great, hypnotic rhythms on those pads and adds some of that Miles-like muted trumpet squirts. Each pieces deals with a different (and often) sly mood and/or groove. I like the way either Calvin on his pads or the keyboard player changes the vibe with different exotic samples like a gamelan, chimes, tablas or other shrewd, quirky sounds. The last few Miles records featured Marcus Miller creating all of the music for Miles to play on top of. This disc sounds like those sessions somewhat with the trumpet and sax added after the moods and grooves were recorded. There is a certain magical and mesmerizing about the way this sounds. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery.