Ron Miles

Quiver Enja/Silverbird****

Ron Miles is quieter than your average trumpeter. Instead of charging in with flurries of notes, Miles hangs back in the silence, as though waiting for the right note to find him, favouring the lower registers of his instrument and patiently constructing phrases that build up in layers in a way reminiscent of Kenny Wheeler. Joining the Denver-based trumpeter on this trio recording are two gentle giants of jazz: guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Brian Blade, master musicians who know how to savour the spaces between the notes. Miles's original compositions read like explorations of the point where black and white music meet, by turns bluesy and folksy, funky and twangy, while the recording's three covers (pared down arrangements of tunes by Duke Ellington, Fred Fisher and Henry Mancini) accentuate the sense of a trio subtly exploring the inner space of American music. enjarecords.com