Children On the Corner Tour

Children On the Corner, a California-based band that celebrates Miles Davis’ electric years is hitting the road this month for a series of concerts to promote its debut recording Rebirth, a live disc cut at Yoshi’s in Oakland.

Call it an unfair advantage, but Children On The Corner have an edge over many other bands that try their hand at recreating Miles’ psychotropic late ’60s/early ’70s sound: most of these guys actually played with the Prince of Darkness himself. The group features bassist Michael Henderson (who’s responsible for much of that get-up groove on 1970’s Live-Evil), alto saxophonist Sonny Fortune (from the live 1975 albums Pangaea and Agharta), guitarist Barry Finnerty (heard on 1981’s The Man With The Horn, On the Corner tabla man Badal Roy and Leon “Ndugu” Chancler, who played drums in certain Davis live bands.

Surprisingly the odd man out is the group’s leader, keyboardist Michael Wolff, but five out of six ain’t bad. And Wolff has had his own brushes with fame. That was him, way back whenever, leading the band on the Arsenio Hall Show.

With the sounds of the Columbia/Legacy’s new Complete Jack Johnson Sessions Davis box set swirling around in your head, you may be itching to hear that kind of funk at a club, so here are Children On the Corner’s current tour dates. (You can keep checking childrenonthecorner.com for more dates as they’re announced.)

11/5 • Seattle WA • Earshot Jazz Festival

11/8 • Portland, OR • The Good Foot Lounge

11/9 • Denver, CO • The Kasbah

11/29 • New York, NY • Joe’s Pub

If you’re not local to any of the cities above, or if you’re just a homebody, but still want to check the band out, there’s always the album. And the band has been kind enough to put a couple of MP3s from Rebirth online at http://www.sonancerecords.com/cotc_downloads.html. And here’s the track list (some of the tunes aren’t Davis’ but Wolff originals):

1. Directions

2. New York Girl, Pt.1

3. Oakland Raga

4. New York Girl, Pt.2

5. Madimba

6. Tone Poem

7. BD Philly Funk

8. Black Satin

Originally Published November 5, 2003