Miles Davis Collection (Sketches Of Spain/Kind Of Blue/In A Silent Way) CD

Also available as three separate albums: SKETCHES OF SPAIN, KIND OF BLUE and IN A SILENT WAY. See individual albums for more information.

This box combines three of Miles Davis's best releases, but the comparisons end there. While SKETCHES OF SPAIN, KIND OF BLUE, and IN A SILENT WAY are masterpieces, three less similar records would be hard to find in Davis's prolific catalogue.

SKETCHES OF SPAIN is the last of Davis's collaborations with the great composer/arranger Gil Evans, and it is as much Evans's album as it is Davis's, as Evans composed three of the album's five tracks and selected the other two. The sound is pure Evans--rich and orchestral even when featuring comparatively few instruments--and features that peculiarly weightless feel of his best work. By comparison, the improvised KIND OF BLUE--featuring "So What," probably Davis's best-known composition--is Spartan where SKETCHES is lush. Even more different is the electric, rock-influenced IN A SILENT WAY, whose side-long "Ssh/Peaceful" became the blueprint for nearly all '70s fusion experiments.

3 LPS on 3 CDs: SKETCHES OF SPAIN (1960)/KIND OF BLUE (1959)/IN A SILENT WAY (1969).

Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet, flugelhorn); John McLaughlin (electric guitar); Wayne Shorter (soprano saxophone); Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto saxophone); John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans (piano); Joe Zawinul (organ); Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock (electric keyboard); Dave Holland , Paul Chambers (bass instrument); Elvin Jones, Jimmy Cobb , Tony Williams (drums).

Liner Note Authors: Nat Hentoff; Phil Schaap.