Kind of Blue: Tribute to Miles Davis Kicks Off Arsht Center’s Jazz Roots Season

The University of Miami Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra joins a stellar cadre of solo musicians for “Kind of Blue,” celebrating the music of Miles Davis at the Adrienne Arsht Center on Friday, Nov. 7.  (Photo by Daniel Azoulay, courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center) 

Trumpeter Miles Davis was the quintessence of cool. A musical icon as well as a cultural one, Davis took his place in the pantheon by ceaselessly seeking and often ushering in the “next thing” in jazz while steadfastly refusing to be anyone but himself.   

Finding his footing in the bebop world in the late 1940s and early 50s, Davis would go on to reinvent his sound many times—to the consternation of many of his followers and the delight of others. To Davis, what the audience might want never seemed to enter into the equation. Throughout his 65 years on the planet, he would set his course of discovery, a renegade in a restless search for new, uncharted places that the music could take him.  

With 2026 marking the centennial of Davis’s birth, the Adrienne Arsht Center is set to honor his legacy on Friday, Nov. 7 with “Kind of Blue.” Luminaries including trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and vocalist Veronica Swift join Shelly Berg on piano and the University of Miami’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra for a tribute designed to kick off the 18th annual Jazz Roots season in true Davis style: innovative, improvisational and unrepeatable.  (EDITOR’S NOTE: Days before the concert, artburstmiai.com learned that trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire is unable to perform in the Nov. 7 concert due to an injury; he will be replaced by Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles.)

It’s fitting that Ambrose Akinmusire would be playing at a tribute to the music of Miles Davis. Shelly Berg calls Akinmusire one of “the most innovative trumpet players in the world.”  (NOTE: Due to an injury, Akimusire will be replaced by Etienne Charles for the tribute show,) (Photo courtesy of artist’s management)

Swift says shows like these, with musicians who are all busy soloists in their own right, are once-in-a-lifetime events, “not just for the audience, but for us as the musicians. It’s really just like a shot in time.”  

In his nearly 20 years in Miami as dean of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and of all things jazz in this town, Berg has proven his knack for bringing unexpected combinations of great artists together under one roof. How does he go about assembling a line-up like the stellar ensemble he has put together for “Kind of Blue”?  

“When it comes to a show like this, it’s, you know, how can we create magic? Who would come in and just be so compelling and work so well with the others and just make a great experience for the audience? And then it’s easy.” 

Berg, whose talent on the ivories is matched only by his affable generosity of spirit, has 50 years’ worth of relationship-building to fall back on in this endeavor; he could create his own recording label just with his roster of award-winning former students. Players like Akinmusire, whom Berg taught when he was at the University of Southern California, and Swift, who graduated from U.M., would be high on that list. 

“They were brilliant to begin with,” says Berg. As a teacher, he claims his job is “pretty simple. My job is to help them discover and realize their best selves.”  

Shelly Berg, dean of the University of Miami School of music and all things jazz in Miami, will share the stage with two of his many brilliant former students: He taught Ambrose Akinmusire at the University of Southern California and Veronica Swift at the University of Miami. (Photo by Daniel Azoulay, courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center)

“A lot of it is just helping them to understand not just the ‘what’ but the ‘why’ in how we perform. Why we play a song, why we play a phrase, why certain notes against certain harmonies create a certain feeling. And so, if I can help students get in touch with the why, which is what I try to do every time I teach, then as they mine that, they will go deeper and deeper into their own artistry.”  

He encourages players to be expansive, to try out many styles, tempos and phrasings and, among the keepsakes and the discards, to find their own voice. Davis’s philosophy was not so dissimilar.  

“You know, [Miles] was never happy hearing something that sounded like the same solo on a different night,” says Berg.  

Davis spent his career sounding the depths of his protean creativity. An artist who once said, “It takes a long time to sound like yourself,” he wasted little energy looking in the rear-view mirror, but always had his eyes focused on the future.  

Berg says that Davis also kept reinventing the art form.  

“He started with Charlie Parker playing bebop in the 1940s, but by the 50s he was already helping usher in a whole different sound in jazz that was more cool, more modal, taking away the ornamentation and a lot of the virtuosity of bebop. He took that pretty far,” he says.  

During this period, “Kind of Blue” was released. That was 66 years ago.  

Berg calls it “lightning in a bottle.”  

The daughter of bebop artists Stephanie Nakasian and Hod O’Brien, Veronica Swift says, “I grew up on the road with my parents, so like, green rooms and jazz clubs were very much a home and the music was very much a language.” (Photo by Amy Pasquantonino, courtesy of artist’s management)

“You have what was at that time the greatest small jazz group that had ever been assembled, bar none. Miles had a way of inspiring everybody to be their best and most authentic self,” he says. “You don’t find John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley sounding like each other or Bill Evans. You find each of them contributing to this record as themselves.” In just two sessions, they recorded what is still the highest selling jazz record every year. 

But Davis never rested on his laurels.  

“From the ‘60s into the ‘70s, he started to usher in jazz fusion, which really hadn’t happened before.” Influenced by players like Jimi Hendrix, he released records like “Bitches Brew,” “bringing in electronics, electric trumpet and wah-wah pedals and effects…Then, you know, he continued on into more world influences with albums like ‘Tutu.’”  

Berg promises that “you’ll hear every era of Miles on this concert.” 

He is quick to point out, however, that Coltrane, who shares a centenary with Davis next year, will also be celebrated. In the tightknit jazz world of the 1960s, his status, too, was mythic. To saxophone players, it remains so to this day. His son, Ravi Coltrane, points to his father’s legacy as nothing short of transformative.  

“He was able to, in a very short span of time…change 20th century music. He died when he was 40 years old.” 

From 1955 to his death in 1967, Coltrane changed the course of Western music.  

“Not everyone does that,” says Coltrane. “It doesn’t happen every generation.” 

It was “the power of his own conviction,” says his son, that gave him his power as an artist and an innovator. And still, he was a regular man:  

“You know, he wasn’t from another planet…He was one of us.” “One of us” with an outsized talent and an unwavering faith in his own inner vision.  

“That’s what it’s really about in any creative pursuit: to really trust your instincts and have the courage to follow them,” says Coltrane. “That’s the biggest lesson that I think I’ve learned from him.” 

When performing a John Coltrane or a Miles Davis invention, “The goal is not to try to recreate something from the past…it’s not about nostalgia,” he says. “It’s about finding a personal way to express the music, something that’s unique to the players that you’ll see today. We are honoring them, but at the same time we have to kind of honor ourselves in the same way they did.” 

Ravi Coltrane is a phenomenal and innovative saxophone player in his own right, and as the son of John Coltrane, he provides a symbolic link to his father’s own tremendous musical legacy.  (Photo by Erin O’Brian, courtesy of artist’s management)

Instinct, combined with trust, plus a deep well of technique and experience to draw from, will all come into play as this group of performers appears together for the first time on Nov. 7. Having studied the charts and talked about the shape of each piece, the “magic” that Berg mentioned will be in the improvisation, which can sometimes feel telepathic:  

“You can’t make it happen; you just have to let it happen.” In that space, Berg maintains, the music “is more received than given.” 

For Coltrane, “the real goal is to try find the common ground and really connect as players, you know, and that’s very exciting when that happens.”  

Veronica Swift relishes the challenge.  

“The essence of jazz, I think, that sets it apart from most other genres is that improvisational nature, which for me stands for freedom,” she says.  

WHAT: “Kind of Blue: Celebrating the Music of Miles Davis,” the opening concert of Jazz Roots 2025-2026 featuring Ambrose Akinmusire, Shelly Berg, Ravi Coltrane, Veronica Swift and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. 

WHEN: 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 7.  

WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami 

COST: $52.65 – $152.10, inclusive of fees 

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722 or  arshtcenter.org/jazz  

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