My first exposure to Miles, even before I heard his fusion stuff. This is great traditional jazz music. A great introduction to pre-electric Miles. This covers the late 1950s to mid-1960s. Nothing from Kind Of Blue, although two songs from that album are here in live versions. I like to listen to this once or twice a year. I'm more of a "rock" guy, but I like to listen to some jazz, classical and avant-garde music occasionally just for variety. I prefer his proto-fusion and fusion stuff to this.

Here you will find some of the biggest names in the world of jazz: John Coltrane, "Cannonball" Adderly, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. Miles was born in the 1920s to a well-to-do dentist; the family owned a ranch.

I like the essay by George Frazier in the liner notes called "The War Lord Of The Weejuns." My CD copy has the back cover upside down; I assume this is a printing error but I like it that way. The music here deserves 4 stars at least.

Radiata 5tet is a project by tenor saxophonist Stefano Ferrian, cellist Cecilia Quinteros, vocalist Claudio Milano, trumpeter Vito Emanuelle Galante and double bassist Luca Pissavini. Pissavini wrote the lyrics and Ferrian came up with the concept. Ferrian, along with Pissavini and Galante act as conductors. This is great current avant-jazz music; basically composed but with a healthy dose of improvisation.

Claudio's vocals can sometimes be operatic, while other times can incorporate screeching, grunts and in short are just very diverse. He can make odd noises (sometimes even without his voice, like the paper in one track). There is no drums but the music can be rhythmic due to the combination of bass and cello. I love the sound of the bass here, which includes the occasional smacking of the body of the instrument. Generally the trumpet and saxophone are the most traditional jazzy sounding.

"Planula larvae" has the cello creating a drone-like atmosphere. "Diploblastic" contains a nice melodic build-up near the end which quickly turns into something else. "Spiralia" is hard to describe: it's just a whirlwind of sound. Mostly bass and cello creating a staccato hurricane to which Claudio and the brass breathe fire into. An incredible track, actually. "(c)tenophores" is probably the most interesting of the tracks. It starts off with hypnotic double bass thumping. After the other dissonant and atonal instruments and vocals join in, the music stops. After a brief silence a noisy crescendo builds up and Claudio sings; first melodically, then in a growling way. The music stops again and then returns again.

This is a great live-in-the-studio recording. Modern avant-jazz at its finest. This is a product of Italy, a country which has recently produced a lot of great music.

Claudio Milano is an avant-garde vocalist and conceptualist who tries to bring together different arts such as music, visuals, stage, etc. He is one of the few artists today who is trying to do something new with his different projects (the Nichelodeon release from 2010 probably being his most well known work to date). He uses his voice as an instrument and recites the words (of his own or others) in a peculiar yet musical way.

On Adython, he collaborates with Belgian artist Erna Frassens who wrote the words here (sung in Italian) and came up with the overall concept. Stefano Ferrian plays tenor saxophone while Attila Faravelli and Alfonso Santimone use computers and electronics to come up with weird, constantly changing background sounds. Ultimately the effect is that of improvised avant-garde electronic music with improvised singing and saxophone playing.

Claudio is equally at home in avant-rock, avant-jazz or any other avant-whatever. His musical and in general artistic vision knows no boundaries. Adython is an album that would appeal to avant-jazz fans and to those who enjoy improvisational music. I don't speak Italian but the way the vocals are used to recite the lyrics makes it seem that it doesn't matter what is being said to begin with; it's all in the delivery.

There are only two tracks on this album. To me the over 32 minute title track is the stronger of the two. Overall the whole album has a sound and feel of its own. I congratulate Claudio on this fine release and it is nice to know that there are still those artists who wish to push the envelope even if they know that not many will pay attention.