Search - Miles Davis :: Forever Miles Davis (Coll) (Tin)

Bargain price for some of Miles' best work...

William E. Adams | Midland, Texas USA | 03/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I paid about $20 for this tin box containing three 1957 LP's issued on the Prestige label. The sessions were actually recorded in New Jersey at extended visits in May and October, 1956 to Rudy van Gelder's studio. Some years ago, RVG remastered these and they were issued on individual CD's. The records, called "Cookin'" and "Relaxin" and "Workin'" feature Miles on trumpet, John Coltrane on sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Great players all, and sensational in the two years they were together. This is before Miles became fully committed to the Columbia label, and before Coltrane made it big as the leader on his Atlantic releases. Of the 15 or so Davis albums I have owned, these three would be in my top six, along with the double set called "Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk" on Columbia, with different band members. Some of the tracks are Great American Songbook classics such as "My Funny Valentine" and "I Could Write a Book" and "It Could Happen to You" and "It Never Entered My Mind." Some are jazz "compositions" such as "Airegin" by Sonny Rollins, "Blues by Five" created by Red Garland, "Oleo", again by Rollins, Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way", "Trane's Blues" by John Coltrane and even "Ahmad's Blues" put together by the then very young Ahmad Jamal. I think my favorite single track on the three discs is the eight-minute "If I Were a Bell" from Frank Loesser's Broadway hit "Guys and Dolls." If you purchase this you won't regret it. The main booklet is just a mini-biography of Davis, but each disc has its own extended liner notes about the contents of each release. Davis has never been my favorite jazzman, but his early work, say up to about 1962, does please me. I saw him in concert in 1971 at Madison Square Garden, when his then-current assemblage "opened" for "Blood, Sweat and Tears" but watching him live was disappointing. By that time, he was caught up in cocaine, infatuated with funk and electronic instruments, and not interested in even facing the audience while he was playing. I don't think he said two words to the packed house at the Felt Forum that night, unless it was a mumbled "Thank you" at the end. Ah, but the Davis of the entire '50's and the early '60's made some jazz records which give increasing pleasure with repeated plays. The three in this box represent him at his best.

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