Track Listing

1. Dr. Jackle
2. Sid's Ahead
3. Two Bass Hit
4. Milestones
5. Billy Boy
6. Straight, No Chaser
7. Two Bass Hit (Alternate Take)
8. Milestones (Alternate Take)
9. Straight, No Chaser (Alternate Take)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46781 in Music
• Released on: 2001-04-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
This 1958 date finds Davis with his first super group: alto and tenor saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, drummer Philly Joe Jones, bassist Paul Chambers, and pianist Red Garland. It looks to the past with the bebop and blues likes of Jackie McLean's "Dr. Jackle," John Lewis and Dizzy Gillespie's "Two Bass Hit," and Thelonious Monk's "Straight No Chaser." The band points solidly to the future with the modal masterpiece "Milestones," which set the stage for the historic Kind of Blue. Davis's own tune, "Sid's Ahead" has a melodic line like Benny Golson's "Killer Joe," and "Billy Boy" features Garland, Chambers, and Jones and is a stylistic shout to Ahmad Jamal. This superbly remastered edition of Milestones contains three alternate takes. "Two Bass Hit" snaps, crackles, and pops with Jones's rope-a-dope rhythms. The title track rings with an even more lyrical statement by Davis, and on "Straight, No Chaser" Coltrane delivers an even more harmonically daring solo, while Adderley takes on Trane's supersonic scalar style, capped by Chambers's grooving solo. A classic recording from a classic group. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Customer Reviews

Miles takes hard bop as far as he wanted to go with it
Miles Davis' 1958 album MILESTONES is his last testament in the hard bop sound of the Fifties. Besides Davis on trumpet, it features Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on double bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

MILESTONES has often been overshadowed by the album released after it, KIND OF BLUE, which is often held up as the greatest jazz album of all time. However, MILESTONES features some strong performances. John Coltrane often steals the show, as the great saxophonist was here in the middle of his "sheets of sound" era where every solo came as a flurry of 16th notes. I have to admit, though, I never found Red Garland's piano playing as tight as that of other pianists who have worked with Davis, namely Herbie Hancock and Bill Evans. The album succeeds musically as well. The title track "Milestones" was Davis' first foray into the modal genre. The sextet's take on Thelonius Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" brings the jazz staple far beyond its origins. "Sid's Ahead" is probably the catchiest song Davis had written to date. Only "Billy Boy", a trio for piano, bass and drums, seems out of place among so much brilliance.

It's a pity that Columbia reissued this with a few rejected takes, which breaks the flow of the album as originally conceived and which is obviously just advertising for Columbia's expensive box set of the complete sessions.

Personally, I prefer Miles' output of the '60s and '70s and rarely return to this. However, fans of more traditional jazz will probably find MILESTONES one of the best hard bop albums.

The bridge between "round about midnight" and "kind of blue"
To start, I am not very addicted to jazz, but I love this record ..could not provide valuable information to justify buying this record,but I say something.. is great!!!!! the fluidity of the notes, silences ... .... only what happens to me is that I can not stop listening ... I was also thinking ... this is the bridge between "round about midnight" and "kind of blue" ...we can not mistake the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Solid Miles....
I bought this album because it was the album before his ground breaking "Kind of Blue." I wanted to listed to the contrast and progression of his musical thinking. Its good, but I'm glad Miles Davis reinvented his narcissistic self - musically any way.