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Decoy
1984. Listen for Robert Irving III’s synthesizers on the title piece. They make a crisp setting for a trumpet part that can sound deliberately sparse, and point toward the programming Davis used more heavily later in the decade.
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You're Under Arrest
1985. Try the take on Human Nature for the way Davis uses a pop melody as the outline of a trumpet performance. It is an approachable example of his later use of electric instruments and modern pop material.
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Tutu (1986)
Released
1986. Marcus Miller’s bass and programmed parts shape a great deal of the album. Start with the title track for the space between Davis’s trumpet phrases and the crisply constructed rhythm underneath.
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Music from Siesta
1987. Davis and Marcus Miller build the score around trumpet, guitar, synthesizer, and programmed texture. The trumpet has room to phrase like a human voice over an impression of Spain, which connects the electric production to an earlier Davis sound.
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Amandla
1989. Try Mr. Pastorius to hear a jazz dedication shaped by the bass and keyboard vocabulary of the later band. It gives you a way into the album if Tutu’s precise studio production made you want to hear more group playing.
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Aura
1989. Palle Mikkelborg’s suite uses a large ensemble and electric instruments around the trumpet. Start with Indigo to hear how the surrounding colors work on a longer scale than a small-band bass figure.
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Doo-Bop
1992. Davis’s posthumously released sessions with Easy Mo Bee bring his electric-era interest in sustained rhythm into hip-hop. Start with The Doo-Bop Song for trumpet phrases set against the repeating beat and voices.
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Live Around the World
1996, from shows recorded between 1988 and 1991. Try Hannibal to hear how the touring group builds on a piece from Amandla. The changes in personnel and settings make this a good sampler of the final live band's sound.
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Rubberband (2019)
Released
2019, from sessions begun in 1985. Start with Rubberband of Life to hear the trumpet in a direct funk and soul setting, with Ledisi's vocal added for the finished album. The original sessions predate Tutu.
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Merci Miles! Live at Vienne (2021)
Released
2021, from a July 1991 show. Start with Hannibal for the rhythm this late touring group could sustain onstage, then try Penetration to hear how it handles a Prince composition. Choose it if you want one complete evening from Davis's final months of playing.
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