May 4, 2016 – New York, NY // “I’m Leaving You” is the latest track to be released from Everything's Beautiful—a visionary exploration of Miles Davis’ music, featuring reimagined interpretations of his music produced by Grammy-winning jazz/R&B/hip-hop musician Robert Glasper. The track features Grammy-nominated R&B singerLedisi and jazz guitarist John Scofield, who used to tour & record with Davis.
"With ‘I’m Leaving You,’ I found a clip of Miles saying ‘wait a minute’—just that simple phrase—and it had so much of his classic swag in it, and it had such a rhythm, I decided to build that whole track around that and that’s how it started,” notes Glasper. “After that it was a real group thing: (Ledisi) wrote the lyric, my man Black Milk took a Lenny White drum pattern and chopped it up for the beat, and that’s John Scofield—who is our direct link to Miles for this project, having been in his ’80s band. That brought it full circle. I love the R&B uplift this track gives the whole project!"
Everything's Beautiful will be available on Friday, May 27—the day after Miles' 90th birthday—and is part of Columbia/Legacy’s commemoration of the globally renowned music innovator milestone birthday. The album is beautifully crafted collection produced by Glasper, blending a diverse group of master takes and outtakes from across the incomparable Miles Davis Columbia catalog with an impressive lineup of contemporary artists and musicians to create original interpretations.
Some of the featured guest artists on Everything's Beautiful include Illa J, Erykah Badu, Hiatus Kaiyote, Laura Mvula, KING, Georgia Ann Muldrow, John Scofield, Ledisi and Stevie Wonder. Phonte is featured on recently released track “Violets,” co-produced by 9th Wonder and featuring a sample of Davis’ “Blue in Green” from his iconic 1959 album Kind of Blue.
Everything's Beautiful is unlike any other in Davis' discography. From the familiar (riffs and passages within the catalog) to the obscure (samples of Miles' in-studio instructions spoken after false starts), Glasper has built something unique but still unquestionably Miles. The cover art was created by Francine Turk and integrates elements of Miles Davis' artwork. With the cover, Turk creates a visual that is similar to the idea of Robert Glasper taking fragments of Miles music and reinterpreting in a unique and modern way.
