Celebrating the Audacity of Bob Belden

The visionary saxophonist-composer-bandleader-producer-raconteur always defied expectations with a mischievous grin and a subversive twinkle in his eye

Audacious. It’s the first word I would ascribe to Bob Belden. Just check the dictionary definitions:

1. showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.

2. showing an impudent lack of respect.

Spot-on!

Take surprisingly bold risks? How about Miles From India, his 2008 recording for Times Square Records that posited, “What if Miles Davis had been born in Mumbai?” It doesn’t get much bolder than that. And yet, to bring that thought to fruition with a recording, followed by a gala performance at New York’s Town Hall with a sprawling cast that included guitarist Pete Cosey (of Agharta and Pangaea fame), legendary bassist Ron Carter (a member of Miles’ second great quintet), drummer Lenny White (who played on Bitches Brew), trumpeter Wallace Roney (who stood alongside Miles on stage during his celebrated revisiting of Miles Ahead and Sketches of Spain at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival), as well as keyboardist Adam Holzman (who played on Tutu and latter day Miles recordings like Live Around the World), alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, Hindustani violinist Kala Ramnath and tabla master Badal Roy…I mean, it doesn’t get much more audacious than that.

Here’s my review of that show from 2008 in Jazz Times:

Miles From India

One of the most audacious and brilliantly crafted concept albums of the year became one of the most eagerly anticipated concert events of the year when Miles From India received its world premiere before an enthusiastic crowd at Town Hall on a rainy Friday night in May. Jointly conceived by producer Bob Belden and visionary record executive Yusuf Gandhi, the ambitious two-CD set on Gandhi’s Times Square Records is a wildly successful cross-cultural celebration of Miles’ music that brought together several of India’s foremost instrumentalists with various Miles alumni who appeared on such groundbreaking recordings as Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, On the Corner and Agharta, as well as latter-day outings like 1981’s The Man With the Horn and 1986’s Tutu. As Belden wrote in the album’s liner notes, which were also used as the program notes for this Town Hall gala: “I mused about what it would sound like if you could do Miles compositions with Indian musicians, and Yusuf turned to me, smiled and said, ‘Miles From India.’ That was the germination for this project-a simple thought and a smile.”

While the mixed crew on hand at Town Hall was a scaled-down version of the sprawling lineup that appears on the recording (noticeably missing from this live gig were such key Miles alumni as bassists Michael Henderson and Marcus Miller, saxophonists Dave Liebman and Gary Bartz, guitarists John McLaughlin and Mike Stern and pianist Chick Corea), the seamless arrangements by Belden and pianist Louiz Banks demonstrated how comfortably jazz and Carnatic music can co-exist.

The show was divided into an acoustic set and an electric set, though each generated equal sparks in the searing solos and disciplined interplay demonstrated among all the musicians. With Ron Carter on bass alongside a two-drummer tandem of Lenny White (who played on Bitches Brew) and his young Indian counterpart Gino Banks (who wasn’t even born yet when Bitches Brew was released in 1970), they opened with a provocative rendition of “So What,” performed in 9/4 time and underscored by the churning South Indian rhythms of Anantha Krishnan’s mridangam. Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa and pianist Vijay Iyer, both American-born musicians of Indian ancestry, contributed scorching solos on this extended romp as drummer Banks successfully incorporated South Indian rhythms onto the kit while percussionist Krishnan added konokol vocal phrasing (“taka dimi taka juna”) to the intricate mix.

“Blue in Green” was an exquisite feature for master Indian vocalist Shounak Abhisheki, who delivered with dramatic flair on this delicate number from Kind of Blue. With beautiful contributions by sitarist K.V. Mahabala, Carnatic violinist Kala Ramnath and pianist/arranger Louis Bankz, they used the evocative Bill Evans composition as a springboard into some elaborate call-and-response between singer and sitar. Violinist Ramnath also turned in a stunning solo here while drummer White playfully snuck in a swing beat on occasion with a Cheshire Cat grin on his face.

After an extended alap (meditative intro to a given raga), sitarist Mahabala carried the familiar melody on an entrancing 5/4 rendition of “All Blues,” which bassist Carter held down with typical low-end aplomb. Mahanthappa unleashed a particularly powerful solo here that rocked the house while Carter applied dazzling left-handed hammer-ons underneath. White’s loose shuffle-swing beat powered this extended jam while Louiz Banks supplied a relaxed, behind-the-beat solo that teemed with old-school soulfulness.

The electric set opened with a supercharged “Spanish Key” that featured some dazzling trumpet work from Miles disciple Wallace Roney. Vocalist Abhisheki doubled the familiar five-note motif on that driving number from Bitches Brew alongside Roney, while Hindustani violinist Ramnath contributed a gripping solo to the energized proceedings.Guitarist Pete Cosey, the notorious Chicago-based six-string shredder of Agharta/Pangaea fame, wailed with bluesy, psychedelic abandon on the slow-grooving meditation “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down,” while master tabla player Badal Roy (from 1972’s On the Corner) nearly stole the show with his virtuosic solo intro to “Ife,” which drew a standing ovation from the crowd of Miles aficionados. Keyboardist Adam Holzman (who appeared on Tutu and was a member of Davis’ late ’80s touring band) played a moving piano solo intro to “In a Silent Way” (the title track from Miles’s pivotal 1969 recording), before switching to Minimoog and blending beautifully with violinist Ramnath on that simple folkloric melody originally written by Joe Zawinul to capture the feeling of a snowy night in his native Austria.

Holzman later engaged in rapid-fire exchanges of eights with violinist Ramnath, trumpeter Roney and saxophonist Mahanthappa on a blazing rendition of the fusion classic “It’s About That Time” (from In a Silent Way), which was solidly anchored by hypnotic electric bass groove of Benny Rietveld. And the crew closed on a festive note with a swaggering rendition of Miles’ concert favorite from the ’80s, “Jean Pierre,” highlighted by another potent solo from alto saxophonist Mahanthappa.

Though it was apparent that this sprawling Indo-American aggregation could’ve used more rehearsal time to tighten up some of the transitions in the arrangements, Belden’s cross-cultural experiment was a highly successful marriage of East meets West that brought out the best of both worlds.

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I’ve been thinking about Belden lately because his birthday just happened. You can’t miss it. Bob was born on Halloween! And so, just last week he would’ve turned 70. Booooooo!

Let’s go back to that word ‘audacious.’ It not only defined the spirit behind Miles in India, it was also present in every Belden recording since his 1990 big band album Treasure Island (Sunnyside) and the slate of Blue Note releases that followed —1991’s Straight to My Heart: The Music of Sting, 1993’s Puccini’s Turandot, 1994’s When the Doves Cry: The Music of Prince and his 2001 masterwork Black Dahlia.

Take Turandot, for instance. So audacious was Belden’s orchestration of this opera, which premiered at the La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, on April 25, 1926, two years after the composer had died, that the Puccini estate suppressed its release in the States, calling the jazzy third stream interpretatation “sacrilege.” (It was subsequently issued only in Japan). Featuring a sprawling cast of over 60 musicians, including bassists Gary Peacock, Ira Coleman and Jay Anderson, drummers Tony Williams, Paul Motian and Bobby Previte, conguero Jerry Gonzalez, vibraphonist Joe Chambers, keyboardists Adam Holzman and Geoff Keezer, guitarists Fareed Haque and John Hart, organist Larry Goldings, pianist Joey Calderazzo and Marc Copland, saxophonists Dave Liebman and Tim Ries, trumpeters Wallace Roney and Tim Hagans and trombonist Bill Watrous, Belden’s take on Puccini’s famous opera was inspired and quintessentially audacious.

Audacious doesn’t even begin to describe Belden’s grand idea that came to fruition on February 20, 2015 when he became the first American musician to bring a band to perform in Iran in 35 years (since the 1979 Islamic Revolution). Belden’s band Animation performed a four-day tour that included a sold-out, ecstatic concert at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall during the Fajr Music Festival.

As reported in The New York Times: “Officials from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance sat in the front row, nodding their heads to renditions of tunes by Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Mr. Belden’s own compositions. The Iranians who filled the 1,200-seat theater clapped and cheered. They recorded video with their mobile phones of Mr. Belden and his four bandmates, who did little to suppress their own enthusiasm, waving, smiling and taking their own pictures of the audience. The Tehran gig was the end of a short, wild tour through a country that officially considers the United States its enemy, but where people go out of their way to please guests, especially when they are American. “We are very happy they are here,” said Farzin Piroozpay, an official with the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance, during one of the band’s rehearsals. “Iran wants to show there are no issues here for foreigners and we welcome culture and arts.”

Can you imagine that happening now? This kind of detente through the arts seems impossible now. Any such attempts at bridging cultures, as Belden did back in 2015 with his tour of Tehran, would be summarily squashed by the Trump-Hegseth war machine. It’s amazing that Bob was able to pull it off 11 years ago. And yet, if he were still around today (Belden died of a heart attack on May 20, 2015, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan) he might just find a way to do it…with that same mischievous grin and twinkle in his eye. He was just that audacious!