Loading ...Bitches Brew – a jazz/fusion quintet formed in 2007, re-creates the sounds and music from Miles’ Electric Period, from
A Silent Way through the Jack Johnson sessions and on to the live shows in Montreaux. The band features Steven Branson on soprano and tenor sax, Patrick Battstone on Fender Rhodes, and Tony Betancourt on guitar. We use several different bass players, such as David Gold and Aaron Bellamy, and several drummers, such as Dave Fox, Gillian DeLear and Ian MacMillan. With luck, we are occaisionally joined by Nancy Loedy on alto, giving us two horns.
Also, for a more main stream session, we had Terkel Norgaard with us last summer at Church of Boston – check out the tunes and the photos! (and check out his other bands BTN Trio, DoerigHvidNoergaard Trio, and Trio Shades.)
Steven Branson, who is the leader because he had the idea to form this band and does the bookings, attended Berklee from 1972 to 1975 and has since played with bands in the Boston and New York areas. He continues to study sax with Berklee woodwind chair, has his own CDs out, and was a former Art Blakey and Tony Williams side man, Billy Pierce.
Patrick Battstone has played “just about everything” since 1968; attended Berklee in 1973 and later studied with Charlie Bonacos, Serge Conus and M. Chaloff, Joanne Brackeen, and Paul Bley. His band, with Grover Mooney and Jay Hoffman, was the first to open the 1369 Jazz club in 1975. Battstone also formed a band from playing the MIT Festival Jazz ensemble in 1995 and played weekly sessions at the Muddy Charles, an MIT pub.
Battstone and David Gold, our bass player, have played together “since last century, man.”
Tony Betancourt attended Berklee from 1979 to 1981, and studied with Charlie Banacos, Mike Stern, Mick Goodrich and Rick Danko. Currently, he plays with Baron Browne, Leo Blanco and Steve Langone in The Cuban Jazz Project. His recording projects have included Tony Levin, Jim Weider, Mavis Staples, Merl Saunders & Jerry Bergonzi. Check out his web page, Cuban Jazz Project
Ian McMillan, our drumer from the beginning to through 2008 and still plays with us from time to time, was part of the two year odyssey of the Midway Groove Thang and has since played with Carla Ryder and Clydesdale Cowboys.
Yusaku Yoshimura, our bass player from the beginning through 2008, attended Berklee and has enjoyed fame in Japan for his keyboard skills, and now has ventured to Boston playing bass.
We are fortunate to have people like Gillian Delear (drums), Jeremy Esposito (durms), Aaron Bellamy (bass), John Frazier (trumpet), and others sit in with us from time to time.
As the media has said: “Together, Bitches Brew forms an interesting and exciting chemistry that has to be seen as well as heard.” Translation: we can really get into a groove and be cooking!
About the Name.
Lyndon, the Manager of the Alchemist Lounge, dubbed us Bitches Brew after hearing us play tunes from the famous Miles Davis album Bitches Brew from his electric period.
The origin of the album’s title is unknown, but some believe Miles chose the title to pay tribute to the woman whose unique style and circle of friends had an impact on him – his wife of that time, Betty (Marby) Davis. Some say he originally wanted to call the album Witches’ Brew but that it was Betty who convinced him to change it.
Taking it further, Carlos Santana, in his essay “Remembering Miles,” says, “You could see how these ladies were affecting Miles. They changed the way he dressed, the places he went, and the music he listened to. I have always thought that Bitches Brew was, in its own way, a tribute to Miles’ language to those women who opened his eyes to a whole new world, and who encouraged and prodded him to take that next step.”