Loading ...Bitches Brew – a new jazz/fusion quintet re-creating sounds and music from Miles’ Electric Period, from In A Silent Way through the Jack Johnson days to the live shows in Montreaux. The band features Steven Branson on soprano and tenor, Patrick Battstone on Fender Rhodes, and Tony Betancourt on guitar. We use several different bass players, such as David Gold, and drummers, such as Dave Fox.
Steven Branson, the leader because he had the idea to put the band together, attended Berklee from 1972 to 1975 and has since played with bands in the Boston and New York areas.
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.
Tony Betancourt has been added on guitar. He 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.
Battstone and David Gold, our bass player, have played together “since last century, man.”
Ian McMillan, our drumer from the beginning to last spring, 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 to last spring, attended Berklee and has enjoyed fame in Japan for his keyboard skills, and now has ventured to Boston playing bass.
Battstone and Frazee met in 1995 while playing with the MIT Festival Jazz ensemble and formed the weekly sessions at the Muddy Charles, an MIT pub. Frazee, at that time, was attending Boston Conservatory, and has since gone on to form a number of bands. John is now concentrating on those bands, rather than Bitches Brew.
We are fortunate to have people like Dave Fox, David Gold, Gillian Delear, Jeremy Esposito, John Frazier 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 for the name of the album itself is not clearly known, but some have noted that it is Bitches Brew, not Bitch’s Brew, making brew a verb. Carlos Santana attributes it all to the cosmic women that were influences on Miles and his music ….