For artists many times there is a precursor. Something they dabbled in or explored and then got sidetracked and headed off in a different direction. But that precursor comes back. And this time that earlier experiment, that earlier spark or exploration becomes a driving force.

The idea for Miles Davis and Gil Evans to record with a large orchestra did not happen overnight. It was the evolutionary result of a musical partnership that began years earlier with the Davis and Evan’s work on the so called Birth Of The Cool sessions.

But that partnership lead to Miles Davis and Gil Evans working with a large orchestra yielding their landmark Columbia Records trilogy Miles Ahead in 1957, Porgy and Bess in 1959, and Sketches of Spain in 1960.

Although Miles Davis was known for always looking ahead and not back, Quincy Jones finally convinced him to revisit his orchestral work at the Montreux jazz festival in Switzerland on July 8th 1991. On this, the one hundredth birth year of Miles Davis we look at his ground breaking work with Gil Evans and a large orchestra.

When you think of a harmonica you might think of some lonesome cowpoke entertaining the other cowboys with "Home On The Range" sitting around the campfire in a cowboy movie. Or you might think of the blues greats bending notes on a harmonica, or what is also called a “blues harp.” The most common is the Hohrner Marine Band harmonica. It is known as a Diatonic harmonica. Ten notes in and ten notes out.

The other kind of harmonica is a Chromatic. It has 48 notes— it can play sharps and flats like a piano and therefore play full octaves. Stevie Wonder plays a Chromatic on Fingertips. In the end the two different kinds of harmonicas are as different as a ukulele and a guitar.

There are two harmonica greats that played with some of the biggest names in jazz and music. Toots Thielemans played his Chromatic on over 150 albums. Peter "Madcat" Ruth primarily plays the Diatonic harmonica — but he too has appeared on over 150 albums. They are the perfect harmonica virtuosos to explore the harmonica playing jazz, soul, pop, Bossa Nova and the blues. But also making a surprise musical appearance is Dave Brubeck along with his sons Darius, Chris and Danny. Yep, "Madcat" played with them as well.

If you know anything about popular music you most certainly have heard of Ray Charles. If you are a fan of jazz, R&B and the blues you probably know his R&B recordings. But during the 1960s he succeeded as a cross over artist and placed over a dozen albums and over sixty singles on the Billboard popular music and R&B charts. From there he became a master of Country Western music, expanding the genera and proving the mass appeal of Country music.

Ray Charles is experiencing a resurgence again in 2026, with his music and legacy appearing across streaming platforms and social media,. But if you read Downbeat, Jazzwise, or All About Jazz you probably are aware of Ray Charles and Tangerine.

Ray Charles did the almost unthinkable at the time for a musician — In 1962 he started his own record company called Tangerine Records. And the label is back; The Ray Charles Foundation has been releasing much of his catalog of albums as newly mastered reissues from that era in high quality tangerine colored vinyl. It is just one more direction his work has taken since Ray Charles first went into a recording studio in 1949.

This episode is dedicated to Ann-Marie Rose who started listening to Ray Charles and buying his albums while still a junior high school student.