FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES

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FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES 5 Saturdays... 5 Quintets... 5 Eras of Miles Davis... -- celebrating 100 years of Miles -- ---- Every Saturday in May 2026 -- 100 years after Miles Davis was born -- at Contxt in Toronto, multi-award winning trumpet player BROWNMAN ALI -- heralded as "Canada's preeminent jazz trumpet player" by New York's Village Voice -- will lead 5 different all-star ensembles through 5 historic eras of jazz which Miles Davis catalyzed & immortalized with his presence. ---- Week 1 - Sat. May 02: "Young Miles" - The Bird Years Week 2 - Sat. May 09: "Birth Of The Cool" - Post-Bop Miles Week 3 - Sat. May 16: "Plugged Nickel" - The Shorter Years Week 4 - Sat. May 23: "Bitches Brew to Tutu" - Electric Miles Week 5 - Sat. May 30: "Doo-bop" - Had He Lived…

Brownman, when asked about the tribute and the musicians behind the music, states, "For those who appreciate jazz as a true art form, FIVE WEEKS FOR MILES represents a rare opportunity to understand its greatest legend's career, where he could have gone and a reminder of what he might have meant to us today. I'm truly honoured to be fronting this sequential tribute and performing with such a monstrous cross-section of players." Brownman has put together a spectacular all-star cast for his production featuring everyone from award-winning Canadian jazz veterans Duncan Hopkins, Ross MacIntyre & Frank Botos, to luminaries in their own generation such as Nick Maclean, Jacob Wutzke & Bennett Young to the best of the youngest new breed of jazz modernists like James Griffith, Joel Bracken & Tymish Koznarsky (all 24 years old). This year will also feature in Week 5 acclaimed rapper N.I.Gel (from the POCKET DWELLERS), internationally acclaimed turntablist Erik Laar (Off Centre DJ School founder) teamed with the BROWNMAN ELECTRYC TRIO bass & drumset phenoms Sean Dennis & Adam Mansfield -- making the Week 5 ensemble an all-star jazz-hip-hop affair. "Whatever age, whatever background, whatever colour - we're all going to be giving all of ourselves over to Miles’ music… to try and do the man and his vision justice”, Brownman concludes.

====================== Week 3 - Sat-May-16, 2026 "Plugged Nickel" - The Shorter Years ====================== Two quintets in particular featuring 2 tenor saxophone giants dominated Miles' musical life almost exclusively from the mid 50's, right up until the 70's, one featuring John Coltrane and the other featuring Wayne Shorter. This period would feature an assortment of quintets and sextets all pushing the boundaries of improvisation within a simple modal framework, but the two teamings that would leave the world breathless would be those of Coltrane and Shorter. Of those two teamings it would be the Miles-Shorter pairing that would result in some of the most explosively creative & exploratory jazz in Miles' history. "Live at the Plugged Nickel" (Columbia / Legacy, '65) continues to be a paramount recording in the great Miles lineage and considered by many to be some of the most ground-breaking jazz in history. ---- :: Brownman Ali - trumpet (JUNO nominee) :: Joel Bracken - tenor sax (24 year old next gen monster) :: Nick Maclean - piano (JUNO nominee) :: Duncan Hopkins - upright bass (JUNO nominee) :: Jacob Wutzke - drums (JUNO winner - up from Montreal)