Miles Smiles: Wallace Roney

One of the so-called ‘young lions’ who blasted onto the ’80s jazz scene in the wake of Wynton Marsalis, Roney studied with Miles Davis and played with Art Blakey, so he has real pedigree. The thing is that he sounds so much like the early Davis (pre-wah-wah pedal) that he has often been dismissed as a mini-Miles. Still, he’s a beautiful ballad player who can also play with real fire, and here his Miles-cloning skills are put to good use as he and his band – organist Joey DeFrancesco, drummer Alphone Mouzon and bassist Ralphe Armstrong – pay homage to the trumpet icon.