Miles Davis Milestones CD

This CD is a compilation of early Miles Davis tracks and is NOT the Columbia album called MILESTONES released in 1958.
Personnel includes: Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet); Charlie Parker (alto saxophone); Lucky Thompson (tenor saxophone); J.J. Johnson (trombone); Bud Powell, John Lewis (piano); Max Roach (drums).
Recorded between 1945 and 1947.
Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone); John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Red Garland (piano); Philly Joe Jones (drums).
Audio Mixer: Mark Wilder.
Audio Remasterer: Mark Wilder.
Audio Remixers: Teo Macero; Tim Geelan.
Liner Note Authors: Charles Edward Smith; Bob Blumenthal.
Recording information: Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York, NY (04/02/1958-04/03/1958).
Photographers: Don Hunstein; Dennis Stock; Aram Avakian; Chuck Stewart.
Unknown Contributor Roles: John Coltrane; Paul Chambers; Philly Joe Jones; Red Garland; Cannonball Adderley.
Not to be confused with the classic Columbia album, Miles Stones is simply a budget-priced three-CD collection of Miles Davis material form his years with as a sideman with Charlie Parker, the birth of the New Cool sessions and his days as a leader on the Prestige label, all tolled, these discs offer a nice, informal look at Davis as developing not only as soloist but as a bandleader, first in the company of bebop greats like Parker, Bud Powell, Al McKibbon, and Tommy Potter, and later with Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Philly Joe Jones, Lee Konitz and many more -- all between the years of 1949-1956, just before he signed with Columbia. Don't look for great sound reproduction here, or authoritative liner notes, but there is plenty of fine music for the non-discriminating listener. ~ Thom Jurek
What is immediately noticeable upon listening to this delicately and superbly remastered version of Miles Davis classic first -- and only -- album with his original sextet is how deep the blues presence is on it. Though it is true that the album's title cut is rightfully credited with introducing modalism into jazz, and defining Davis' music for years to come, it is the sole selection of its kind on the record. The rest is all blues in any flavor you wish you call your own. For starters, there's the steaming bebop blues of "Dr. Jackie" -- recorded in 1955 for a Prestige session with Jackie McLean. Davis is still in his role as a trumpet master, showing a muscularity of tone that reveals something more akin to Roy Eldridge or Louis Armstrong than Dizzy or Fats Navarro. The tempo is furious as all the members of the sextet solo except for Jones. The saxophonists trade choruses and come off sounding like mirrored images of one another in the slower, post-bop blues that is "Sid's Ahead." With a slippery melody line that quotes two harmonic lines from early New Orleans-styled blues, Davis drives the band into the rhythm section's garage. It's Cannonball first with his stuttered, angular lines, hiccuping halfway through the interval before continuing on with a squeak here and the slightest squawk there. Next up is Davis, blowing fluid and straightened lines, ribbons through the rhythm section's center as Red Garland lays out and leaves it to Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones to provide the earnest, time-keeping 4/4 that Davis sidles to in the tune. When Coltrane solos, all best are off as he plays as pure a blues as he was capable at the time. Nonetheless, there are the long lines of slurred notes, smattered against Garland's harmonies and he slips into quoting "Skip to my Lou" before knotting it back down to the basics and even then not for long. Coltrane was already exploring the edges of mode and harmony; he used an intervallic invention in the choruses to juxtapose his solo against the rhythm section and it worked -- but it must have made Davis raise an eyebrow. Chambers' solo is as tasteful and as breezy and free as only he could be. His contrapuntal soloing rides the rhythm out, Garland