Robben Ford was no rookie when Miles Davis drafted him for his band in 1986. When he was in his early twenties, Ford had played with Joni Mitchell, backing her onstage as part of the Tom Scott-led LA Express, playing on The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.
He had played with George Harrison – again, onstage and in the studio, tracking Dark Horse, playing on the title track, and enjoying the experience of awe at being in the mere presence of a Beatle, and then finding the work kinda easy, all things considered.
“When I first met him I was just speechless,” says Ford. “But when we started playing, he gave no direction, he liked the way I played, and I would just be myself.”
Those early experiences with the LA Express were formative; they put him on the map.
He would leave in ’76, forming Yellowjackets, and he would be a player in demand, one of many on-call guitarists who were invited into the studio to record a solo on Steely Dan’s 1977 hit Peg (his old pal Larry Carlton was there, too, but it was Jay Graydon’s take, six hours in the making, that made the record).
Such was the craziness of the ‘80s that Ford even entered KISS’s orbit, playing on Rock and Roll Hell and I Still Love You from 1982’s Creatures Of The Night. But if you were to ask him which gig was the making of him; the artist who changed him the most, it would be Davis.
He did not go into the gig as a jazz guitar expert. Far from it, Ford’s speciality was blues guitar, which is why one of his earliest gigs was playing with the ‘original blues brother’ Charles Musselwhite. Ford played and recorded with Jimmy Witherspoon, too.
For the Miles Davis gig, which came out of nowhere, he had to hit the books, learning a bunch of chords, and some scales he thought would come in handy – and he understood the basics. Speaking to Jazz Guitar Today on YouTube, Ford says the biggest challenge was playing over what were effectively single-chord jams.
“They were one-chord jams. You weren’t playing through chord changes so it’s even more challenging than playing through chord changes,” he said. “To a great extent… It’s like one chord – what can you do with it?”
Hopefully, something magical. Ford was not alone in being intimidated by Davis at first, as though the jazz legend was sizing him up. Those jams were a test – could he handle it? This was how Davis got the best out of his players, and more to the point, found players who were good enough to play alongside him and have the strength to put themselves into the music.
This was what Ford did, and speaking to MusicRadar, he says he still feels the rewards to this day. Not that he wasn’t a little terrified on the opening night.
“Well, let me say this. What I took away from the experience of playing with Miles was a tremendous, or I should say big boost to my self-confidence,” says Ford. “Because, I just was myself. I realised that, after being terrified on the first show with him, that I had to come to grips with that.”
That first night was something Ford put behind him. He speaks about Davis being a teacher, just learning to play in his company was an education. The next time he stepped onto the stage with Davis, Ford says he was just going to be himself. Furthermore, he was going to make that show his own.
“I wasn’t gonna go out there and be afraid,” he says. “There’s just no point in doing that. You’re not gonna do a good job. He won’t be happy. You won’t be happy. So I just really cleared the decks of my emotions that way, and I went out there and, the second show, you know!? Just, ‘All right! I’ve been here forever. This is my gig.’ And he dug it.”
Ford’s time with Davis presented a totally different side to him. For a start, he’s not a player whom we would first associate with the Fender Stratocaster. Indeed, to record his latest studio album, Two Shades Of Blue, a record that was made in tribute to the late Jeff Beck and Howard ‘Alexander’ Dumble, Ford had to go out and buy a Strat (how could you record anything in tribute to Beck without one).
But back in ’86, he was on the Strat. He was on a roll, playing Giant’s Stadium NYC, touring Europe. Davis was in his gold pants and shades, and here was Ford by his side. Check out Ford’s solo at Montreux for an example of how quickly he took to this new jazz beat.
If he looks confident, that’s because he was. Miles Davis liked him. That’s a shield you’d carry for ever.
“Throughout the whole time I knew that he liked me,” says Ford. “And he would call me on the phone. ‘Robben, what you doing!?’ And I’m like, ‘Miles Davis is calling me… to chat! [Laughs] You know? So I left that gig feeling like a sense of confidence that I hadn’t really known before. I think, ‘He likes me, I’m good. I don’t even care what anybody else thinks.’”
Two Shades Of Blue is available to pre-order via Provogue/Artone, out 17 April.
