Arthur Steuer - Engineer
Bruce Moore - Engineer
D'Anthony Johnson - Engineer, Mixing
Daniel Beroff - Engineer
Eric Lynch - Engineer, Mixing
Gordon Meltzer - Executive Producer, Associate Producer
John McGlain - Engineer
Kirk Yano - Engineer
Matt Pierson - Associate Producer
Michael Benabib - Photography
Randy Hall - Engineer
Reginald Dozier - Engineer
Robin Lynch - Art Direction
Ted Jensen - Mastering
Zane Giles - Engineer
If On the Corner suggested hip-hop beats as far back as two decades
ago, then consider Doo-Bop as offspring. Miles's teaming with producer
Easy Mo Bee is a natural - more in league with England's acid jazz
scene than anything in the trumpeter's recent canon. Those who've
howled over the post-Bitches' Brew work will find no solace here;
instead, chalk this up as one of Miles's most entertaining efforts.
Steve Aldrich, All-Music Guide
Toronto's Hayden (nee paul Hayden Dresser) made quite the splash in
1995 with Everything I Long For, a collection of spare, deeply personal
songs that he recorded on a four-track in his bedroom at his parents'
house. For his second album, The Closer I Get, Hayden recorded in six
different studios and played sixteen instruments, but the sparseness
remains. Hell, even his gravelly baritone is low-fi. The songs on The
Closer I Get, like those on its predecessor, are gentle, meditative
tunes about life's ordinary moments, but this go 'round is more
melodious and more varied. Most of the time, that is: "Memphis" drones
on interminably, and "The Hazards of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees"
(inexplicably the first single) chugs along monotonously before
petering out. Usually, however, when his songs start to go gray, Hayden
slips in some strings or harmonica or banjo to sweeten things up. The
melancholy "Nights Like These" is easily the album's standout track,
with its quiet, lovely melding of piano, strings and Hayden's moving
lyrics about loneliness, which effectively tap into the sadness in all
of us that's just a few beers away. "You Are All I Have" is another
beauty, a woeful, simple tune that sounds like a lullaby but has lyrics
like "You are all I have/If you go away, I don't think I will survive/
I'll wait outside the front door till you arrive." "Bullet" is also
appealingly bleak: "It makes sense to forget what it takes," sings
Hayden mournfully, reaching for the harmonica. Play The Closer I Get at
three in the morning while watching TV with the sound off. (RS 786)
JANCEE DUNN, Rolling Stone
"Miles goes HipHop. Wie schon so oft in seiner bewegten Karriere hielt
der 65jährige Jazztrompeter Ausschau nach neuen musikalischen
Ufern. HipHop, jener Sound der Straßen aus Eazys Heimat Brooklyn,
diktierte die Marschrichtung für das Album 'Doo Bop'. 'Chocolate
Chip', 'Fantasy' und 'Duke Booty' sind ohne Zweifel gelungene Mixturen
aus HipHop und Bebop. Hier donnert und bollert ein feister Groove, der
jede Tanzfläche füllt. Dieser Sound gehört auf die
Straße. Dort liegen seine Wurzeln."