The 17 extraordinary sessions led by Miles for Prestige from 1951 to 1956, sessions frequented by such legends as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins and, of course, the original Davis Quintet of Coltrane, Garland, Chambers and Jones.
The expanse of Miles Davis's recordings for Prestige Records, the California analogue to New York's Blue Note, is huge. In terms of artistic development, the eight CDs in this box span Davis's development from tentative searching through the full bloom of his first great quintet, whose frontline boasted Davis and a young John Coltrane. The sessions captured on Chronicle begin in 1951, with Davis's grainy debut for the label in a sextet with Sonny Rollins, and continue with the fascinating Lee Konitz-led quintet that Davis was eminently adaptable to, even with the kind of angular sounds Konitz's band drummed up. Listing the remaining sessions would be an exercise in boasting, given the presence of so many virtuoso bop and postbop giants. Given that Davis may well have piqued Prestige founder Bob Weinstock's interest through his playing with Charlie Parker, Bird shows up on a 1953 date, doubling tenor saxes with Rollins. Some have remarked that the pre-1954 Davis dates don't show nearly the smarts of the 1954 and after works, but for all that huff, there's some deep stuff in the early sessions, from the twined tenor saxes of Al Cohn and Zoot Sims to Davis's own uneasily fragile tone that hadn't taken on the full heft of its later precision. Then there are the quintet recordings, which carve out a secure spot for Davis in the annals of ultracreative jazz. Recorded in three marathon 1956 sessions, the quintet works came out on several LPs, all of which remain in print today in their exact form. The group sculpts a liquid groove that's got sharp teeth, what with Philly Joe Jones's crackling drums, and immeasurable tonic depth. Davis stays active in the midregister, blasting off lines that do indeed sound slow and methodical but also emit unmistakable impressionistic qualities that would wow fans for decades. Coltrane, himself still in a developing phase, drops lots of hints that knew bebop's architectonics so thoroughly as to be on the brink of deconstructing them definitively (which he later did on Giant Steps). Given the full trajectory of the music and the artists on these sessions, this is a majestic collection.
Miles Davis (trumpet, piano); Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, David Schildkraut (alto saxophone); Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Lucky Thompson, John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Bennie Green, Sonny Truitt, J.J. Johnson (trombone); Milt Jackson (vibraphone); John Lewis, Sal Mosca, Walter Bishop Jr., Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Red Garland, Ray Bryant, Tommy Flanagan (piano); Billy Bauer (guitar); Percy Heath, Arnold Fishkin, Tommy Potter, Leonard Gaskin, Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers (bass); Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Kenny Clarke, Art Taylor (drums) and more others...
CD1 - 01:13:47
01. Morpheus 2:21
02. Down 2:51
03. Blue Room (Take 1) 2:49
04. Blue Room (Take 2) 3:01
05. Whispering 3:03
06. I Know 2:33
07. Odjenar 2:51
08. Ezz-thetic 2:55
09. Hibeck 3:05
10. Yesterdays 4:59
11. Conception 4:03
12. Out Of The Blue 6:10
13. Denial 5:35
14. Bluing 9:40
15. Dig 7:35
16. My Old Flame 6:33
17. It's Only A Paper Moon 6:25
CD2 - 01:13:58
01. Compulsion 5:45
02. The Serpent's Tooth (Take 1) 7:00
03. The Serpent's Tooth (Take 2) 6:18
04. 'Round About Midnight 7:08
05. Tasty Pudding 3:20
06. Willie The Wailer 4:26
07. Floppy 6:00
08. For Adults Only 5:33
09. When Lights Are Low 3:26
10. Tune-Up 3:54
11. Miles Ahead 4:25
12. Smooch 3:05
13. Four 4:04
14. Old Devil Moon 3:23
15. Blue Haze 6:05
CD3 - 01:11:14
01. Solar 4:46
02. You Don't Know What Love Is 4:22
03. Love Me Or Leave Me 3:00
04. I'll Remember April 7:53
05. Blue 'n' Boogie 8:15
06. Walkin' 5:24
07. Airegin 5:00
08. Oleo 5:13
09. But Not For Me (Take 1) 4:37
10. But Not For Me (Take 2) 5:44
11. Doxy 4:56
CD4 - 01:09:22
01. Bags' Groove (Take 1) 11:15
02. Bags' Groove (Take 2) 9:22
03. Bemsha Swing 9:30
04. Swing Spring 10:43
05. The Man I Love (Take 1) 8:30
06. The Man I Love (Take 2) 7:58
07. I Didn't 6:02
08. Will You Still Be Mine? 6:23
CD5 - 01:11:31
01. Green Haze 5:50
02. I See Your Face Before Me 4:45
03. A Night In Tunisia 7:22
04. A Gal In Calico 5:16
05. Dr. Jackle 8:47
06. Bitty Ditty 5:12
07. Minor March 8:12
08. Changes 7:08
09. In Your Own Sweet Way 4:34
10. No Line 5:39
11. Vierd Blues 6:55
CD6 - 01:02:13
01. Stablemates 5:25
02. How Am I To Know? 4:38
03. Just Squeeze Me 7:27
04. There Is No Greater Love 3:39
05. The Theme 5:45
06. S'Posin 6:09
07. In Your Own Sweet Way 5:42
08. Diane 7:49
09. Trane's Blues 8:33
10. Something I Dreamed Last Night 10:48
CD7 - 01:09:02
01. It Could Happen To You 6:40
02. Woody'n You 5:01
03. Ahmad's Blues 7:24
04. Surrey With The Fringe On Top 9:04
05. It Never Entered My Mind 5:22
06. When I Fall In Love 4:21
07. Salt Peanuts 6:07
08. Four 7:14
09. The Theme (Take 1) 5:45
10. The Theme (Take 2) 5:45
11. If I Were A Bell 8:15
12. Well, You Needn't 6:18
CD8 - 00:59:49
01. 'Round Midnight 5:25
02. Half Nelson 4:45
03. You're My Everything 5:18
04. I Could Write A Book 5:11
05. Oleo 6:22
06. Airegin 4:24
07. Tune Up 5:41
08. When Lights Are Low 7:30
09. Blues By Five 10:23
10. My Funny Valentine 6:04
