Doo-Bop

{{Infobox album

| name = Doo-Bop

| type = studio

| cover = Doo-Bop front.jpg

| released = June 30, 1992

| recorded = January 19 – February 1991

| studio = Unique Recording Studios, New York City

| genre = Acid jazz, jazz rap{{cite web |last1=Aldrich |first1=Steve |title=Doo-Bop |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/doo-bop-mw0000078184 |website=AllMusic |access-date=15 September 2018}}

| length = 40:02

| label = Warner Bros.

| producer = Easy Mo Bee

| prev_title = Dingo

| prev_year = 1991

| next_title = Miles! Miles! Miles!

| next_year = 1992

}}

Doo-Bop is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It was recorded with hip hop producer Easy Mo Bee and released posthumously on June 30, 1992, by Warner Bros. Records. The album was received unfavorably by most critics, although it won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance the following year.

Background

The project stemmed from Davis sitting in his New York City apartment in the summer with the windows open, listening to the sound of the streets. He wanted to record an album of music that captured these sounds. In early 1991, Davis called up his friend Russell Simmons and asked him to find some young producers who could help create this kind of music, leading to Davis's collaboration with Easy Mo Bee.

At the time of Davis's death in 1991, only six pieces for the album had been completed.[http://www.milesdavis.com/it/music/doo-bop Miles Davis Community at Sony Music Entertainment.] Easy Mo Bee was asked by Warner Bros. to take some of the unreleased trumpet performances (stemming from the unreleased 1985 album Rubberband, which was later released as an album in 2019), and build tracks that Davis "would have loved" around the recordings. The album's posthumous tracks (as stated in the liner notes) are "High Speed Chase" and "Fantasy". A reprise of the song "Mystery" rounded out the album's nine-track length.

Release and reception

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|2|5}}[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r137440|pure_url=yes}} AllMusic review]

| rev2 = DownBeat

| rev2Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}

| rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev3Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|year=2011|chapter=Miles Davis|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-0857125958|edition=5th|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}

| rev4 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev4Score = B−

| rev5 = Los Angeles Times

| rev5Score = {{Rating|2.5|4}}

| rev7 = Q

| rev7Score = {{Rating|4|5}}

| rev8 = (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev8Score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{cite book|last=Considine|first=J. D.|author-link=J. D. Considine|editor1-first=Nathan|editor1-last=Brackett|editor2-first=Christian|editor2-last=Hoard|chapter=Miles Davis|title=(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2004|isbn=0-7432-0169-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/215 215], 219|title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide}}

|rev6 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

|rev6score = {{Rating|3|4}} {{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=352}}

}}

The title is a play on words on the two musical genres doo-wop and bebop. Doo-Bop was released by Warner Bros. Records on June 30, 1992.{{cite news|last=Britt|first=Bruce|newspaper=Los Angeles Daily News|date=June 18, 1992|url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-06-18/features/9202240102_1_doo-bop-hip-hop-albums-miles-davis|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624062513/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-06-18/features/9202240102_1_doo-bop-hip-hop-albums-miles-davis|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 24, 2016|title=Miles Davis's 'Hip-bop' Disc Due June 30|access-date=May 22, 2016}} By May 1993, it had sold approximately 300,000 copies worldwide.{{cite book|editor1-last=Alkyer|editor1-first=Frank|editor2-last=Enright|editor2-first=Ed|editor3-last=Koransky|editor3-first=Jason|year=2007|title=The Miles Davis Reader|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-1-4234-3076-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/downbeathalloffa00fran/page/160 160, 310–11]|url=https://archive.org/details/downbeathalloffa00fran/page/160}} The album received negative reviews from most critics.{{cite web|last=Freeman|first=Phil|date=October 29, 2014|url=http://www.stereogum.com/1715261/miles-davis-albums-from-worst-to-best/franchises/counting-down/attachment/doobop/|title=Miles Davis Albums From Worst To Best|work=Stereogum|access-date=May 22, 2016}} Greg Tate called it an "inconsequential" jazz-rap record from Davis,{{cite book|last=Tate|first=Greg|author-link=Greg Tate|chapter=Tutu and Farewell 1986-1991|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j0r0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200|title=Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History|page=200|publisher=MBI Publishing Company|year=2012|isbn=9781610586825|access-date=May 22, 2016}} while Billboard found the R&B-based album to not be "quite cut as deeply" as his 1970s funk recordings.{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48|title=Album Reviews|editor1-last=Newman|editor1-first=Melinda|editor2-last=Morris|editor2-first=Chris|editor3-last=Morris|editor3-first=Edward|page=48|date=July 18, 1992|access-date=May 22, 2016|magazine=Billboard}} In Entertainment Weekly, Greg Sandow wrote that Davis's solos were performed with "impeccable logic and wistful finesse" but accompanied by hackneyed guest raps and unadventurous hip hop beats, which reduced Doo-Bop to "elegant aural wallpaper".{{cite magazine|last=Sandow|first=Greg|author-link=Greg Sandow|date=August 21, 1992|url=http://www.ew.com/article/1992/08/21/doo-bop|title=Doo-Bop|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=May 22, 2016}} Los Angeles Times critic Don Snowden believed the album "succeeded only in fits and starts" because of Davis's first time working with hip hop tracks, "the rigidity" of which Snowden felt often reduced his "muted-laced-with-echo trumpet to just another instrumental color in the mix".{{cite news|last=Snowden|first=Don|date=July 26, 1992|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-26-ca-5112-story.html|title=Miles Davis Leaves a Hip-Hop Finale|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=May 22, 2016}} Richard Williams from The Independent viewed the tracks as a regression from the ambient-inflected Tutu (1986) album as they inspired trumpet improvisations from Davis which displayed "a rhythmic banality that was never remotely discernible in Miles's pre-electric playing".{{cite news|last=Williams|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Williams (journalist)|date=July 25, 1992|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/records-jazz-miles-davis-doo-bop-warner-bros-7599-26938-1535726.html|title=Jazz: Miles Davis- Doo-Bop|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=May 22, 2016}}

In a positive review, Q called Doo-Bop "a collector's piece ... as hip, sexy, open and complex as the best of his work since he elected to turn to FM airplay music in the 1980s".{{cite journal|journal=Q|title=none|page=70|date=September 1992}} Musician considered it a pleasant hip hop album and an accessible introduction to Davis's music for "younger ears weaned on modern beats".{{cite journal|journal=Musician|page=96|title=June 1992}} In DownBeat, Robin Tolleson wrote that Davis sounded less timid than on previous few records as "his phrasing and concept adapt sharply from tune to tune". Doo-Bop won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-25-ca-734-story.html|title=THE 35TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS : Winners in Other Grammy Categories|date=February 25, 1993|access-date=May 22, 2016|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}

Track listing

All tracks written by Miles Davis/Easy Mo Bee, except where indicated:

{{tracklist

|headline= Side One

|title1= Mystery

|length1= 3:56

|title2= The Doo-Bop Song

|length2= 5:02

|title3= Chocolate Chip

|writer3= Davis, Easy Mo Bee, Donald Hepburn

|length3= 4:41

|title4= High Speed Chase

|writer4= Davis, Easy Mo Bee, Larry Mizell

|length4= 4:40

}}

{{tracklist

|headline= Side Two

|title5= Blow

|length5= 5:07

|title6= Sonya

|length6= 5:32

|title7= Fantasy

|length7= 4:38

|title8= Duke Booty

|length8= 4:56

|title9= Mystery (Reprise)

|length9= 1:26

}}

Personnel

Credits are adapted from The Last Miles (2007) by George Cole.{{cite book |author=George Cole |title=The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5r-mzXMJfEC&pg=PA314 |pages=313–314, 509|isbn=978-0472032600 }}

Musicians

Miles Davis – trumpet
Deron Johnson – keyboards
J.R – performer
A.B. Money – performer

Production

Easy Mo Bee – producer
Matt Pierson – associate producer
Gordon Meltzer – associate executive producer

Daniel Beroff – engineer
Reginald Dozier – engineer
Zane Giles – engineer
Randy Hall – engineer
John McGlain – engineer
Bruce Moore – engineer
Arthur Steuer – engineer
Kirk Yano – engineer
D'Anthony Johnson – engineer, mixing
Eric Lynch – engineer, mixing
Ted Jensen – mastering

Rodney Lucas – technical Services
Faith Newman – production services
Linda Burke – production services
Robin Lynch – art direction
Annie Leibovitz – photography
Michael Benabib – photography

Charts

class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
scope="col"\|Chart (1992){{cite web\|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/doo-bop-mw0000078184/awards\|title=Doo-Bop: Awards\|publisher=AllMusic\|access-date=May 22, 2016}} !scope="col"\|Peak position
scope="row"\|American Albums Chart \| style="text-align:center;"\|190
scope="row"\|American Jazz Albums Chart \| style="text-align:center;"\|1
scope="row"\|American R&B Albums Chart \| style="text-align:center;"\|28

class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

scope="col"|Chart (1992){{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/doo-bop-mw0000078184/awards|title=Doo-Bop: Awards|publisher=AllMusic|access-date=May 22, 2016}}

!scope="col"|Peak
position

scope="row"|American Albums Chart

| style="text-align:center;"|190

scope="row"|American Jazz Albums Chart

| style="text-align:center;"|1

scope="row"|American R&B Albums Chart

| style="text-align:center;"|28

Certifications and sales

{{certification Table Entry|type=jazz|region=Germany|artist=Miles Davis|title=Doo Bop|award=Gold|certyear=1994|relyear=1992}}

{{certification Table Entry|type=album|region=United States|artist=Miles Davis|title=Doo Bop|nocert=true|salesamount=276,000|certyear=1994|relyear=1992|salesref={{cite web|url=https://www.vulture.com/2015/09/miles-davis-lives-9-parts.html|title=Understanding Miles Davis, in 9 Parts|publisher=Vulture|date=September 25, 2015|first=Greg|last=Cwik|access-date=June 15, 2020}}}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=Worldwide|artist=Miles Davis|title=Doo Bop|relyear=1992|nocert=true|salesamount=300,000|salesref=|access-date=June 15, 2020}}