An essential collection of early Miles Davis, from when he was newly cleaned-up and sounding fresh and vital. This album paired two earlier 10" mini-LPs, recorded at two sessions in April 1954 with slightly different lineups. The first two sextet tracks are bold, confident settings-out of his hard bop stall that would lead to milestone albums like, er, Milestones. The title track might have been taken at increasingly breakneck speeds in concert, but here's it's at a perfect swagger, leaving the fast tempos for Dizzy Gillespie's Blue & Boogie.
The three quintet tracks from the other EP are both a throwback to cool jazz and a sign of things to come in Miles' mellower records. The trumpet mute goes in, and an absolute Miles classic, Solar, is first up before the group relax into two great standards. Early Miles Davis, just before the First Great Quintet, doesn't get much better than this.
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pw: sgtg
Previously posted at SGTG:
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead
Sketches Of Spain
On The Corner
Agharta
