One of Denver’s unassuming jazz treasures, trumpeter/cornetist Ron Miles left a huge void when he died at 58 in March 2022. His long association with guitarist Bill Frisell gave us resplendent duets on Heaven, as well as trio explorations with drummer Brian Blade on Circuit Rider and Quiver. Expanding that group to a quintet with pianist Jason Moran and bassist Thomas Morgan, Miles made his pièce de résistance, I Am a Man, in 2017, garnering next-level acclaim. The 2020 follow-up, Rainbow Sign, marked his debut on the storied Blue Note label, another sign that this limelight-resistant composer and leader was getting his due and headed for higher visibility. Miles’ sideman work with Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret, Wayne Horvitz’s Gravitas Quartet and others was just as essential. His lyrical, elliptical horn stands as one of the great original sounds of early-21st-century jazz.