According to local jazz disc jockey Scott McLaren, Nick "The Brownman" Ali was "born on the small Caribbean island of Trinidad, schooled in New York" and is "now based in Toronto." At 25, he is "one of the most in demand, young jazz studio trumpet players" in Canada today. Every Friday night in September 2005 the Brownman is also serving as impresario front-man for a musical retrospective called "Five Weeks for Miles." It's at the Trane Studio on Bathurst Street in Toronto, a few blocks north of the Bloor subway line.

As the promo blurb says, "multi-award winning trumpeter/composer Nick ‘Brownman' Ali will lead 5 different all-star ensembles through 5 historic eras of jazz which Miles Davis catalyzed & immortalized with his presence." This is the "2nd Annual Edition" of "Five Weeks for Miles."  And if this year's first week of "Young Miles — The Bird Years" on Friday, September 2 was any indication, the 2005 version of the show is going to be just as big a blast as in 2004.

With the Brownman for the Bird Years this time were seasoned Toronto native Bobby Brough on alto, the younger Dave Restivo on piano, the younger Ross Macintyre on bass, and seasoned Toronto native Archie Alleyne hanging it all together on drums. The group played two crowd-grabbing sets of Charlie Parker tunes (with one exception). This was the music the very young Miles Davis cut his teeth on, as the increasingly troubled apprentice in Charlie "Bird" Parker's classic bop quintets of 1945-1948. (The one non-Parker tune this year was Miles's own early composition Donna Lee, still often mistakenly attributed to Parker — which "wasn't Bird's fault," as explained in Miles's 1989 autobiography.)

Nick "Brownman" Ali himself is far from an exact match for Miles Davis on trumpet: "His sound has been called Freddie Hubbard meets Randy Brecker and Clifford Brown with hints of Woody Shaw." Bobby Brough on alto usually plays tenor, and confessed between sets that he wished he had more opportunity to play Bird's music. But the two horn men neatly cut the heads to such great Parker tunes as Confirmation, Little Suede Shoes, Marmeduke, and Yardbird Suite (sometimes in fresh and imaginative arrangements), and then offered their own energetic variations on the changes.

Restivo, Macintyre, and Alleyne in the rhythm section laid adroit foundations for the talents of the traditional bop horn line. And they interjected their own intermittent and intriguing piano, bass, and drum solos and related stunning effects. The way the group generally filled out "Young Miles — The Bird Years" was just here's our version of some great old material from "that era." No one was vainly trying to imitate the original giants of modern jazz. But both the band and the audience were visibly pleased. And the band showed that you don't have to be as gigantic as Charlie Parker to offer engaging versions of his tunes.

This Friday, September 9 the Brownman and a different group of four partners will explore the "Birth of the Cool & Kind of Blue" phases of a somewhat more mature Miles Davis. This will be followed by "The Shorter Years" on September 16, "Electric Miles" on September 23, and a mysterious final session called "Doo-bop — Had he lived ..." on September 30. If you're going to be in Toronto on any of these dates the group at the Trane Studio (which also serves "kick-ass soul food") will almost certainly be worth checking out. [ The Brownman's website address is www.brownman.com/. And the parameters for the Trane Studio are: 964 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Canada, 416.913.8197. ]