Miles would sit in his New York apartment in the summer with the windows open,
listening. What he heard pouring in was the sound of the streets. Miles wanted
to record an album of music that captured those city noises, those street
sounds, those mixtures of natural and manmade waves that floated in his window.
Miles knew that these sounds were the future mainstream of music in America, and
he wanted to make a record that would be heard by the inner city people, the
kids who grew up with rap. He wanted his music played on urban radio, not just
on a few jazz stations.

He looked for other musicians who felt the street sound too. In early 1991, he
called his friend Russel Simmons who ran Def Jam Records, and asked Russel to
find some young producers who could help create the kind of music Miles was
feeling Hip Hop. So Russel and Francesca Spero sent Miles some young producers.
One of these people was a young man called Easy Mo Bee.
When young Easy and Miles the legend got into the studio and started working,
the feeling was wonderful. Easy would lay down the tracks; Miles would listen.
And when he was happy with what he heard, hed get out his horn, go to the mike
and kick out the melody like he had been practicing those lines for years. Miles
got it so right so fast that it was like a boxer with just a split second to
make a knockout punsch and landing it just right. They did six tracks that way.
It was magic.

The plans Miles had for this record were very ambitioous: in addition to his
collaboration with Easy Mo Bee there was the ongoing, important work-in-progress
with Prince. Miles had asked John Bigham to work on material, and, in addition,
there was another New York producer, Sid Reynolds, with whom Miles had started a
collaboration. Then there was the material from the late 80s that Miles called
the RubberBand Session. He wanted to rework and modernize some of the music from
that session and use it on this album. At one time, Miles had called Mo Ostin,
the chairman of Warner Bros. Records, and told him that he had enough material
for a double album!

Then in september 1991, Miles went in the hospital. For a tune-up, he said: just
routine, nothing major. Ill be right back. When Miles died on september 28,
1991, all that had been finished were the six tunes hed done with Easy Mo Bee.
And none of the other work was even close to ready.
We had the RubberBand tapes in New York and were listening to the fine trumpet
performances on them (no wonder Miles wanted those performances released!) when
Miless friend and management team member, Dorothy Weber, suggested the concept
that completed this record. It worked like this: we asked Easy Mo Bee to listen
to the trumpet playing and to build tracks around the trumpet that Miles would
have loved, and that artistically fit into the package of tunes they had already
done. The two posthumous tunes (can you guess from listening? I bet not) are
High Speed Chase and Fantasy.
So, here you have the last studio album by Sir Miles Davis. It was made out of a
powerful feeling between Miles and Easy Mo Bee. We hope it kicks you, too.