World Stars at Budapest Jazz Club: Gregory Hutchinson Quintet w/ Aaron Parks & Seamus Blake „Kind of Now – The Pulse of Miles Davis”

Gregory Hutchinson has been one of the leading drummers on the international jazz scene for more than three decades. Throughout his career, he has performed with artists including Betty Carter, Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman and Roy Hargrove. Kind of Now – The Pulse of Miles Davis was also released as an album in 2026, marking the centenary of Miles Davis’s birth. The project, however, is not simply a commemorative tribute: it explores how Davis’s musical legacy can serve as a contemporary and still open framework for creative expression.

Gregory Hutchinson’s Kind of Now – The Pulse of Miles Davis approaches the music of Miles Davis from a highly original perspective: that of the drummer. Rather than reproducing the original recordings, Hutchinson examines the rhythmic and structural developments that shaped the different periods of Davis’s career, as well as the playing of the drummers who passed through his bands.

The repertoire draws on several periods of Davis’s career, from the acoustic jazz of the 1950s through the more open forms of the second half of the 1960s to the era surrounding Bitches Brew. For Hutchinson, Kenny Clarke, Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette and Al Foster – who also gave a memorable concert at the BJC – were far more than a succession of drummers in Davis’s bands. Their playing clearly reflects how approaches to rhythm and ensemble interaction evolved over the years and decades.

Kind of Now, however, is not a chronological retrospective, but a contemporary interpretation of Davis’s compositions and other pieces associated with his musical legacy. The original themes remain the starting point, while the arrangements, rhythmic ideas and improvisations reflect the individual musical language of the musicians involved. Under Hutchinson’s direction, the emphasis is on ensemble interaction, groove and constantly evolving rhythmic structures.

The album was released on April 3, 2026, and draws largely on Davis’s repertoire from approximately 1948 to 1970. As Hutchinson himself has explained, the aim was not to recreate Miles, but to continue the musical conversation he began.

Gregory Hutchinson – drums, Aaron Parks – keyboards, Seamus Blake – saxophone, Milena Casado – trumpet, Jasen Weaver – bass