Lost 1980s Miles Davis Album Will Finally Be Released

"Rubberband" was originally recorded in 1985

Miles Davis in 1985 (Photo by Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Miles Davis in 1985 (Photo by Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Tom Copi

So much of the best music and the people who made it in the 20th century tends be defined by phases. The Beatles went from being a buzzy rock band at the Star-Club to redefining music with psychedelic masterpieces a few years later. Stevie Wonder went from a Motown child prodigy to that untouchable run of ’70s albums to some pretty sweet AM pop in the ’80s. David Bowie and Madonna both kept redefining themselves almost every other year for decades; it took the Grateful Dead decades just to write a song that could crack the Billboard charts, despite a massive live following.

But few evolutions stretch as fas as Miles Davis’s long run from bebop in the ’40s, to the birth of the cool and his funk-inspired work like Bitches Brew — and that’s just scratching the surface of a career that lasted nearly 50 years. Now, as Pitchfork reports, another phase of the trumpeter’s iconic career will finally see the light of day, more than 30 years after it was made.

Davis started working on the album Rubberband in 1985. It was supposed to be the first release after moving from Columbia to Warner Bros., but his new label put the 11-song record on the shelf. Now, thanks to original producers Randy Hall and Zane Giles, as well as Davis’s nephew, Vince Wilburn, Jr., Rubberband will finally be released on September 6 on Rhino. This, coupled with the recent release of Davis’s complete The Birth of the Cool sessions on vinyl can only lead us to hope that maybe there’s more to come.

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