In honor of Miles Davis’ 100th birthday, we welcome GET UP WITH IT, the longstanding project of The War On Drugs drummer and Wilton native Charlie Hall. With its roots going back to San Francisco in the late ‘90s, GET UP WITH IT came together as a means to explore the groundbreaking and iconic 1969-1975 era of Miles Davis’ electric music.

Now in its third decade, the adventurous ensemble will focus on three of Miles’ most revered and influential albums for this show – 1969’s visionary and transcendental In a Silent Way, the 1970 magnum opus Bitches Brew, and 1971’s Jack Johnson.

Dense, thorny and uncompromising, the Miles’ “electric period” of 1969-75 was initially controversial with his longtime fans, who felt the trumpeter was shrugging off the well-worn trappings of Birth of the Cool and his classic quintets in favor of a musical stew that was equal parts James Brown and Sly Stone, Stockhausen and Jimi Hendrix. Listening to these albums more than 50 years later though, it’s hard not to be struck by how astonishingly ahead of their time they all were – it’s no wonder that Pitchfork, in a typically effusive retrospective of Jack Johnson, called it “a beacon of uncanny originality and visionary foresight.”

GET UP WITH IT IS: Ross Bellenoit — guitar; DMHotep — guitar; Nazir Ebo — drums; Yesseh Furaha-Ali — woodwinds; Ezra Gale — bass; Charlie Hall — drums, percussion; Mitch Marcus — saxophone, Fender Rhodes; Luke O’Reilly — organ; Bobby Spellman — trumpet; Daniel Villarreal — percussion

Charlie Hall is a drummer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer based in Philadelphia, PA. In addition to playing drums in Grammy Award winning rock band The War On Drugs, Charlie releases music of his own, including 2023’s Invisible Ink, and produces records for others, including 2022, 2023, and 2024’s A Philly Special Christmas LPs with members of the Philadelphia Eagles, Patti LaBelle, Stevie Nicks and many others. Music has always been the connective tissue running through his life, defining his relationships with others and how he lives in his own head. “Drumming is our first language”, says Hall. “And music itself is a language that we use to communicate with one another. When we make music, we take rhythm and harmony and create something new. In that way, it is an analog to life itself – a process of organizing our experiences and learnings into something that feels authentic and true.” And it’s about collaboration.

“More than any other instrument, drums expose the personality of the player”, says Dave Hartley, bass player of The War On Drugs. “Ultra-busy drummers are usually motormouths, light hitters are usually quiet or passive and bashers are usually alpha dogs. As both a human and a drummer, Charlie is a master conversationalist. Lots of drummers will tell you that listening is as important as playing, and that what you don’t play is more important than what you do – but few can implement it as well as Charlie Hall has in his career with The War On Drugs, Tommy Guerrero, Jet Black Crayon, Jens Lekman, Feist, Windsor for the Derby, Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons, Get Up With It, and countless others.”