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Jason Miles - Keyboard, Producer.

2004 Grammy Nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Chasing Shadows"

Miles' recording projects consume his time these days, but he was once a programmer and keyboard player for Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Chaka Khan, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Kiss and many others. He created most of the synth sounds on Miles Davis' classic Tutu album, contributed to Michael Jackson's History and has recorded two solo CDs: 1994's World Tour (Lipstick) and 1996's Mr. X (Lightyear). He has also produced recent CDs for singers Freddy Cole and Cassandra Reed and trumpeter Herb Alpert. But it's Miles' themed compilations that have garnered the most critical and public acclaim-the Grover Washington Jr. tribute CD sold more than 100,000 copies, and "She Walks This Earth," a song sung by Sting on the Ivan Lins project, picked up a Grammy. (In all, Miles has been involved in more than 20 projects that have either been nominated for or received a Grammy.) 

"It will be a dangerous album, looking to how Miles influenced me on music," Miles says. "It's not smooth jazz. Now, I've got nothing against smooth jazz, no matter what anybody says. But jazz is something that is always supposed to be moving forward, and I don't see it moving forward. Everything is fragmented. When you turn on the radio, it's mostly retreads; it's mostly platinum-selling singing artists intertwined with some instrumentals and maybe two or three new songs an hour. That's what got to change if the format is going to keep growing. Somebody recently told me, 'My artist got killed because he tried something different on his new album.' Now I heard his new album, and the one before it, and trust me: it ain't so different. People are going to the same formula way too often, and it's getting stale."

Not to worry: Maximum Grooves and Coast to Coast are anything but stale. ~ Brian Soergel

Tracklist:

01. Everyday Music - Jeff Kashiwa [04:36]
02. Chasing Shadows - Herb Alpert [04:34]
03. Fabulicious - Wayman Tisdale [04:22]
04. Cactus - Howard "buzz" Feiten [05:27]
05. You Da Mann - Derek Trucks [04:26]
06. Krazy Eyez - Michael Brecker [05:41]
07. Hipnotize - Jeff Golub [04:33]
08. Attitude - Walter Beasley [04:31]
09. C'est La Vie - Jaared [04:07]
10. Karma Kanic - Jay Beckenstein [04:17]
11. Coming Home - Romero Lubambo [04:28]
12. When I Get There - Gerald Albright [04:07]