In my daily, inspired pursuit of music discovery – both new and old -, I am most grateful for the many online platforms built to help me discover and share music. New to my arsenal of music discovery tools is ColorHits, a rather unique way to discover and connect to music.

Shifting his web and graphic design talents to the music discovery space, ColorHits founder Matt Barrett has built a powerful discovery tool that provides the user a color search of album art for more than 2 million albums – with new titles added every week. Still in Beta, ColorHits is designed so users can preview tracks, download from iTunes and share on Facebook and Twitter.

I recently spoke with Barrett about his music discovery endeavor. He was also happy to use Miles Davis as an example of how ColorHits was designed to help explore new music by connecting color similarities in album art.

I mentioned that ColorHits is still in Beta, but early access is currently available. Definitely drop by ColorHits to sign up and request your invite to take a closer look at the music discovery tool.

Click HERE to sign-up!

Miles Davis Online: What is the story behind how – and why – you developed ColorHits?
Matt Barrett: ColorHits was actually not my first attempt at creating a new way to discover music. It started when the Beatles were first introduced on iTunes and all the fan-fare that came with it. It had its own press conference, it took over the apple website… it all seemed a bit much to me. I was first thinking of a way to mock such an extravagant music launch, creating oddly-named, fake bands that would be a ‘daily deal’ approach to new bands. Humor was the main purpose but another use was to connect people to real bands in iTunes based off the fake band name. It sounds ridiculous describing it now and, at the time, I realized it would require a lot of creative power on my part.

During this exploration period, I came across one piece of album art that ultimately lead me to continue with ColorHits as it exists today. The album was Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak. I noticed the color bar on the left side and thought, what if those colors were a summary of the colors in the album art. Of course for this example, that isn’t the case, but I thought to myself, ‘what other albums use those same colors?’ Rewind 2 years and I was actually working on code for a separate project that did just that. I mashed both of them together and ColorHits was born.

Why? ColorHits happened out of coincidence yet it mixes perfectly with my personal and professional life. I’m a developer by trade but have always looked at the world from a design point of view and appreciate all kinds of music, playing some myself. In the early stages of development, I was curious and when I saw the results and potential of color searching music albums, it turned into an obsession and I had to make it available to others.

Miles Davis Online: Do you think people will let the colors guide their music discovery, or stick to search by artist or genre? I imagine once they see the interesting connections via album art, they might want to allow the colors to be their guide.
Matt Barrett: Searching for music with color is an odd thing to do, it’s even harder to describe… I’ve tried many times! You’re not quite sure what to expect and that’s the beauty of ColorHits as it relates to music discovery.

I included both ways to search because I see two primary ways to begin. You might want to start with your favorite album, then branch out from there and see what other albums look like your favorites in the same genre or jump into other genres.

Someone might also be in complete discovery mode and want to check out pink and black alternative albums. You might love them, you might hate them. I leave that for the listeners to decide. Curiosity and discovering music on your own is a big driver for ColorHits. I see it as being ‘active discovery’ where other options like internet radio are more passive. With this site, it’s really effective when you’re on a search for something completely new, that none of your friends have probably heard or seen before.

We have over 2.5 million albums on the site so there is so much to discover. Music is meant to be shared and we try to make that easy too by allowing users to share on Facebook and Twitter with one click.

Miles Davis Online: Let’s use Miles Davis as an example how someone can use ColorHits for music discovery.
Matt Barrett: Miles Davis is a great example. Since we know who we like, start with the keyword search and click on any album. Miles Davis Sketches of Spain comes right up with a complete color profile, track list and similar jazz albums that use similar colors. If you click on ‘more jazz albums with these colors’, you’ll see that there are over 200 jazz albums with similar colors. Some you may have heard of, but hopefully some new albums to discover.

You can also do a general search by choosing the jazz genre, then choosing any color or combination of colors. Click on the results to preview, explore and share.

Miles Davis Online: When are you thinking about an official launch?
Matt Barrett: ColorHits is currently in beta and invites are being sent out in batches. Anyone interested in early access can sign up for an account at colorhits.com. We will email you when we’re ready. A full launch will be soon after we finish up some lingering bugs and any feedback from the initial users.

Miles Davis Online: Once you are out of beta and humming along, where would you like to take ColorHits, how would you like to see it evolve? Is it a matter of adding music, along with users?
Matt Barrett: Music is added every week so there will always be new music to discover. I have plans to get a mobile presence out soon that will include notifications of discovery so the site will discover specific albums based on a users’ musical and color. In the short-term, its more focused around what a useful to our members and how we can modify the core functionality to help them find things they love.

Click HERE to listen to the event, which featured folks like Jimmy Cobb, Wallace Roney and Bob Belden.

Featuring an all-star cast of hundreds of instrumentalists and vocalists, Wall to Wall Miles Davis touches on every aspect of Davis’ stunning career –from his early days as a bopper through his birth of the cool and modal jazz innovations, from his heart-wrenching ballads to his radical fusion experiments.

But now things are getting interesting.

What makes the competing projects so intriguing are the complete opposite approaches the filmmakers plan to tell the Miles Davis story. Raynes has said they are developing a traditional biopic, similar to “Ray.” This goes in total contrast to Cheadle’s plan, which is to construct an unconventional narrative that follows Davis over the course of one day.

‘Producer Nick Davis Raynes said they were aiming for a film in the same vein as the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line” and “Ray,” writes Andrew Pulver in The Guardian. Said Raynes: “We want to make a film that will do the same justice for Miles Davis.”

Safe to say the Tillman/Raynes biopic is in development with no start date for any kind of production. I doubt there’s even a script or screenwriter at this point. I also have no clue if any funds have been secured to pay for the movie endeavor. But they seem ready to make it happen.

My personal taste always leans towards a biopic like “Ray.” It tends to be an easy path to go down where following a story (especially a real-life story with lots to tell) is concerned, but most importantly the movie has to be good. And “Ray” is a good movie, so the biopic blueprint works.

I do want to add that I have been totally on board with whatever Cheadle has up his sleeve. It might not be traditional, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be entertaining, or serve Davis’ legacy properly – on film.

But for many Miles fans, no film of any kind could ever properly capture the life and music of Miles Davis.

I agree with that as well. But I will gladly watch a 2 1/2 hour movie about Miles Davis, even if I realize it’s almost impossible to tell the whole story, A to Z. A 6-hour, Ken Burn-style documentary is my vote.

The key connection for both biopics is the music. Without securing rights to the music, neither would be worth much at all. Becasue Cheadle has the backing of the Miles Davis Estate, they seemingly did not have much trouble securing rights with Sony Music, which owns just about all of Davis’ finest recordings.

An article in JazzTimes reports that Tillman Jr. and Raynes do have access ‘to much of Miles Davis’ music,’ but it’s primarily from 1963-1977.

That’s a key point, because that era does not include many of Davis’ most celebrated works. But we’ll see if their film will utilize work from Kind of Blue, Miles Ahead and so on.

The other key part here is the lead actor. Don Cheadle has been attached to star as Davis since 2007. And even though he has been busy playing War Machine in the “Iron Man” films, to go along with other acting and producing commitments, everyone still knows he is one day going to suit up as Miles Davis.

It will be interesting to see if Raynes/Tillman Jr. go the unknown actor way, or find an established name to play the jazz icon. My feeling is that a relative unknown might work best because Cheadle already fits the bill as Miles pretty darn well from the established Hollywood actor ranks. And I cannot even think of anyone else right now besides Cheadle who could work for the part.

There hasn’t been any comment from Cheadle or the Miles Davis Estate that I have seen regarding the other biopic, but it will be interesting to see how the news impacts Cheadle’s plans in getting his movie made.

Skrillex, dubstep’s first genuine superstar and perhaps the most divisive man in dance music right now, has collaborated with the remaining members of The Doors.

In what’s being billed as the first Doors track of the 21st century, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore have got in the studio with Skrillex to record a “variation” on Miles Davis’ ‘Milestones’, as part of a forthcoming music documentary titled RE:GENERATION, directed by Amir Bar-Lev.

via factmag.com

* Click ‘View In iTunes’ when you get to page to open iTunes/song file

Back in June, Eagle Rock released a highlights package of Miles Davis ‘Live At Montreux.’ But now they are ready to unveil a whopper of a DVD collection.

Eagle Rock have set an October 24, 2011 release date for The Definitive Miles Davis At Montreux DVD Collection 1973-1991, a massive 10 DVD box set with over 18 hours of performances!

This historically important 10 DVD set captures all of Miles Davis’ performances at the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival between 1973 and 1991, the last being less than three months before his death. It is an unparalleled archive of live Miles Davis performances and is now being released on a visual format for the first time ever.

The final concert from 1991 sees Miles Davis paying tribute to his collaborator and close friend Gil Evans who had died in 1988.

BBs Jazz, Blues & Soups and WSIE Jazz 88.7-FM is honoring Miles Davis with two jam sessions to celebrate the Miles Davis Festival’s 85th birthday tribute to East St. Louis’ native son: on Monday, August 29 and Monday, September 19.

The Miles Davis Festival will feature Delano Redmond’s “Miles To Go” Jazztet.

via stlamerican.com

Miles Davis Festival
700 South Broadway
St. Louis, MO 63102(314) 436-5222
www.bbsjazzbluessoups.com

7:00PM to 9:00PM
Miles Davis Festival
Miles Davis Festival featuring “MILES TO GO” 7-9 PM sponsored by WSIE FM

Dan Cohen scores again, this time with Miles Davis‘ classic “So What” getting the Animated Sheet Music treatment.

Very cool is an understatement.

BONUS:

Animated Sheet Music: “Bloomdido” by Charlie Parker

Miles Davis is on that list.

“Miles was a person who epitomized what it meant to be a jazz artist.

“He was uncompromising. He was a person who didn’t look back and didn’t let his decisions be swayed by anything other than his drive for creation, and you have to truly respect that.”

Along with Miles, Blanchard also chats about Spike Lee, Clifford Brown and Alvin Alcorn.