The album is Miles Davis' tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu who was a human rights and anti-apartheid activist.
It was recorded primarily at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and Clinton Recording in New York, except the song "Backyard Ritual", which was recorded at Le Gonks in West Hollywood.
Davis received the 1986 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist Grammy Award for his performance on the album.
Originally some tracks were planned as a collaboration with Prince. Prince later pulled out for undisclosed reasons, although the two remained firm friends and later collaborated on "Can I Play With U" as well.
(Davis later covered "Movie Star" and "Penetration" by Prince.) Davis ultimately worked with bassist/multi-instrumentalist Marcus Miller. Miller wrote and arranged all the songs, except "Tomaas" (co-written by Davis), "Backyard Ritual" (by keyboardist George Duke), and "Perfect Way" (by pop group Scritti Politti).
The music is strongly inspired by mid-1980s R&B and funk, with heavy use of synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines. Miller performed the bulk of instrumentation on the album, including bass guitar, synthesizers and drum machines, bass clarinet and soprano saxophone.
As indicated in the notes accompanying the album, Tutu was produced by Tommy LiPuma and Marcus Miller, with the exception of "Backyard Ritual", which was co-produced by Duke and LiPuma.
The cover was designed by Eiko Ishioka and photographed by Irving Penn. Eiko Ishioka received the 1987 Grammy Award for Best Album Package for her work as the art director.
The original vinyl album featured a colored inner sleeve printed with the album credits on one side and a photograph of Davis's left hand (with middle finger depressed) on the reverse.
Track listing
- "Tutu" – 5:15
- "Tomaas" – 5:38 (Davis, Marcus Miller)
- "Portia" – 6:18
- "Splatch" – 4:46
- "Backyard Ritual" – 4:49 (George Duke)
- "Perfect Way" – 4:35 (David Gamson, Green Gartside)
- "Don't Lose Your Mind" – 5:49
- "Full Nelson" – 5:06
2011 Deluxe Edition
Disc two (Live from Nice Festival, France, July 1986)
- "Opening Medley": 'Theme from Jack Johnson', 'Speak', 'That's What Happened' – 15:14
- "New Blues" – 5:20
- "The Maze" – 10:15
- "Human Nature" – 9:04
- "Portia" – 7:54
- "Splatch" – 17:10
- "Time After Time" (Cyndi Lauper, Rob Hyman) – 7:22
- "Carnival" – 4:20
All tracks composed by Marcus Miller except where indicated:
Musicians
- Miles Davis – trumpet
- Marcus Miller – all other instruments (1–4, 6, 7, 8), additional synthesizer programming, bass guitar (5)
- Jason Miles – synthesizer programming
- Adam Holzman – additional synthesizer programming, synthesizer solo (4)
- Bernard Wright – additional synthesizers (2, 7)
- George Duke – all other instruments (5)
- Omar Hakim – drums (2), percussion (2)
- Paulinho da Costa – percussion (1, 3, 4, 5)
- Steve Reid – additional percussion (4)
- Michał Urbaniak – electric violin (7)
Production
- Tommy LiPuma – executive producer, producer
- Marcus Miller – producer (1–4, 6, 7, 8), musical arrangements (1–4, 6, 7, 8)
- George Duke – producer (5), musical arrangements (5)
- Eric Calvi – engineer (1–4, 6, 7, 8), mixing (2, 6, 7, 8)
- Peter Doell – engineer (1–4, 6, 7, 8)
- Bill Schnee – mixing (1, 3, 4)
- Erik Zobler – engineer (5), mixing (5)
- Maureen Thompson – assistant engineer (1, 3, 4)
- Eddie Garcia – assistant engineer (2, 6, 7, 8)
- Doug Sax – mastering at The Mastering Lab (Hollywood, California)
- Larry Fishman – production assistant
- Irving Penn – photography
- Eiko Ishioka – art direction
- Susan Welt – design
Notes
Released: September 29, 1986
Recorded: February 6 – March 25, 1986
Studio: Capitol Studios and Ocean Way Recording (Hollywood, CA) ·
Le Gonks (West Hollywood, CA) ·
Clinton Recording Studios and Atlantic Studios (New York, NY)
Genre: Pop jazz, funk
Length: 1:59:04
Producer(s): Marcus Miller, Tommy LiPuma
Label - Warner Bros. Records
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