Milestones

Read About This Recording

Miles Davis was famous for never looking backwards-the trumpeter was an innovator in bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal music, the avant-garde and fusion. He was also a masterful talent scout.

On Milestones, a classic from 1958, Davis' sidemen are tenor-saxophonist John Coltrane, altoist Cannonball Adderley, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. While each of those players was relatively obscure when they first joined Davis' band, they developed into all-time greats who influenced jazz during the next 40 years. The very serious-sounding Coltrane was a perfect contrast for the exuberant alto solos of Adderley and the melancholy trumpet of the leader. Propelled by a swinging rhythm section (which is showcased on "Billy Boy"), Davis' sextet can be heard on such numbers as "Dr. Jackle," "Two Bass Hit" (which has a fiery tradeoff by Coltrane and Adderley), "Milestones" and "Straight, No Chaser." In addition, this CD reissue is augmented by three alternate takes including a second lengthy workout on "Straight, No Chaser." Recorded a year before the famous Kind of Blue album, Milestones is its equal.

—Scott Yanow

Extended Article

The aptly title Milestones collected the initial recordings of a superlative sextet led by Miles Davis (1926-91). Although the trumpeter's 1959 album Kind of Blue is generally seen as a watershed in modal jazz, Milestones, the composition, was every bit as important and influential in placing modality on equal footing with hard bop as jazz's lingua franca of the late 1950s. But Milestones, the LP, also established Davis' group (to which the expansive alto saxophonist Julian Cannonball Adderley had recently been added, joining trumpeter Davis and rapidly developing tenorist John Coltrane on the front line) as masters of all they surveyed.

Taking a more aggressive, less cool stance than Davis' quintet of 1955-56, the sextet heard here specialized in medium to up-tempo classic bebop, the newer hard bop and beyond, stretching out to especially strong effect on the blues Sid's Ahead and on a version of Thelonious Monk's Straight, No Chaser that features Red Garland reharmonizing, via his hallmark block chords, Davis' 1945 solo on Charlie Parker's Now's The Time. (The pianist also is spotlighted on a trio reading of Billy Boy, which came to be a signature.) And the bass-drums team of Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, with Chambers in particularly fine form as a soloist, was matchless.

Taken from the much-praised boxed set Miles Davis & John Coltrance: The Complete Columbia Recordings, 1955-61, and annotated by Grammy-winner Bob Blumenthal, this expanded edition of Milestones (including three alternate takes) has been beautifully remixed and remastered. Milestones remains on of jazz's crowning achievements.

Contents

Dr. Jackle; Sid's Ahead; Two Bass Hit*; Milestones*; Billy Boy; Straight, No Chaser*.

(*Includes alternate takes.)

Miles Davis, Trumpet; Cannonball Adderley, Alto Sax; John Coltrane, Tenor Sax; Red Garland, Piano; Paul Chambers, Bass; Philly Joe Jones, Drums.

CD Special Features

Jazz Masterpiece!

• Miles' 2nd LP for Columbia

• 3 Bonus Tracks!

• Features John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones

• New liner notes by Bob Blumenthal with Rare Photos

• 24-Bit Digitally Remastered