Another day, another sold out show, another slice of Mr Miles Davis. Last week Ronnie Scott’s in Soho saw the impressively versatile multi-instrumentalist, beat mistress and producer Emma-Jean Thackray paying her own homage to the master. Unlike Theo, Leeds’ finest did speak to the audience, explaining that she came through a northern brass band tradition, where everyone everywhere played the piece of music memorably called Concerto de Orange Juice by Pete Postlethwaite in the film Brassed Off. As a young teenager E-J T was on Limewire, which was mostly used for illegal file-sharing. She wanted to download a classic version of Rodrigo’s piece to practice along to. Instead, she got the one from Miles/Gil Evans Sketches of Spain and a new passion was born.

      In fact, rather than being “Dear Miles – A Love Letter to Miles” as billed the evening was really Miles & Me, charting the ongoing relationship between the two trumpeters. Although Electric Miles is closest to her heart, we were treated to tunes from many stages of Miles’ career, all processed through Emma-Jean’s magpie mind and broken beat sensibilities. We had a tricksy, staccato Seven Steps to Heaven,  a So What welded to a monstrous jazz-rock groove, the bass heavy superfunk of One and One from On the Corner and a short, marvellously chaotic free section that suggested Miles channelling Lester Bowie or Don Cherry, But there were also moments of tenderness, notably from a Harmon mute and piano combo (kudos to Lyle Barton on keys for slipping into the Bill Evans’ shoes). For the finale she said “I had a dream about Miles. I dreamt he came up to me and whispered: I love jungle.” You can imagine what followed – a machine-like explosion of urban rhythms that sounded like Miles hanging out in a hip East London jazz/vinyl joint. The jazz police would probably say “you’re under arrest” and certainly baulked at this collision of cultures, but it certainly fired some electric London club vibes through Ronnie’s. Emma-Jean told us that the Guardian once described her as a “jazz chav”. Huh. “Jazz alchemist” more like. The next chance to catch her (although not this show; she has her own stuff to do) is at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival over the May Bank Holiday. See: https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/emma-jean-thackray. However she is performing the Miles show at EartH Hackney on November 13 as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival (tickets: https://efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk/events/emma-jean-thackray-dear-miles-a-love-letter ).