Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Now's the Time
2. Jeru
3. Compulsion
4. Tempus Fugit
5. Walkin'
6. 'Round About Midnight
7. Bye Bye Blackbird
8. New Rhumba
9. Generique
10. Summertime
11. So What
12. The Pan Piper
13. Someday My Prince Will Come

Disc 2:

1. My Funny Valentine
2. E.S.P.
3. Nefertiti
4. Petits Machins
5. Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
6. Little Church
7. Black Satin
8. Jean Pierre
9. Time After Time
10. Portia

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13431 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2001-05-15
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .27 pounds

Amazon.com
Trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis was a major catalyst for the evolution of modern music. This two-CD set--with tracks from the Savoy, Capitol, Blue Note, Prestige, Columbia, and Warner Bros. labels from 1945 to 1986--is an excellent sampler of his limitless creative genius. It features a who's who of the greatest names in the music: drummers Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones, and Jimmy Cobb; bassists Paul Chambers and Ron Carter; pianists Red Garland, Bill Evans, and Herbie Hancock; and alto and tenor saxophonists Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter. Davis's middle-register trumpet accommodated a myriad of styles, from the bebop classic "Now's the Time" to the Snow White waltz "Someday My Prince Will Come" to the modal masterpiece "So What" (from Kind of Blue).

Just as Duke Ellington had Billy Strayhorn, Davis had the gifted arranger Gil Evans. Evans created ingenious stringless orchestral soundscapes around Davis's pithy and personal sound on Ahmad Jamal's "New Rhumba" from Miles Ahead, the in-the-pocket swing of Gershwin's "Summertime" from Porgy & Bess, and the Moorish melodies of "The Pan Piper" from Sketches of Spain. Other classic tracks include the sophisticated classicism of "Jeru" from the 1949-50 Birth of the Cool nonets, the spectral and spare "Générique" from the soundtrack to the 1957 French film Ascenseur pour L'Echafaud, and his romantic rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time." Simply put, Miles lives. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Customer Reviews

A compact career overview for those on a tight budget
ESSENTIAL's first disc takes the listener from the first session in which Davis was prominently featured (1945's NOW'S THE TIME) through 1961's SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME. In between these bookends are one or more examples of the late-1940s BIRTH OF THE COOL nonet sides, his early-1950s small group sessions (including the landmark blues WALKIN' from 1954), the late-1950s first great combo with John Coltrane (three tracks chosen), and the Gil Evans-arranged trio of classic albums (one track from each of the three key albums Evans and Davis collaborated on). By the end of disc one Davis was at a crossroads...whether to become a mainstream jazz artist who recycles his past, or an innovator who takes steps forward and continues to challenge himself.

As even casual listeners know, Davis opted for the latter, a bold and risky decision that some would debate but many fans are elated by. The first three tracks on disc two offer live and studio examples of Davis' second great mid-1960's combo. 1968's PETITS MACHINS offers a logical bridge between that combo and Davis' soon-to-follow electric-era music. That 1969-75 period is represented by three tracks, including BLACK SATIN from the 1972's ON THE CORNER. In late-1975, Miles left the music scene for a few years...the last three tracks sample his last decade of musical activity, ending with his death in 1991. Davis remained capable of brilliant, emotively-deep solos throughout his life, as the final track PORTIA (1986) indicates.

One can quibble about the choices: I would have liked to have seen Miles' brilliant solo from RIGHT OFF (1970/JACK JOHNSON) included. Furthermore, one or two more discs are needed to really create a 3-D overview of Davis' career. Unlike most artists--who are lucky to come up with a CD's worth of memorable material over their lifetime--Miles Davis' career gets shortchanged even by a two-CD set. Nonetheless, all of the music contained here is outstanding. I see ESSENTIAL benefiting listeners who just don't have the time to investigate Davis' career in detail, yet who want to touch bases on every stage of his eclectic career. Highly recommended: spend a few extra dollars and buy this set rather than the one-disc KEN BURNS overview.

satisfactory "intro to Miles," but dig deeper...
The last thing I would want to do is put anyone off of getting into Miles, so if you're checking out this compilation as someplace to start, you could do worse, especially for the price. From the 1940s through the 1980s there's a lot of ground to cover, a lot of styles. The problem though is that you miss the depth on every one of them. So here are some recommendations as an alternative or as a follow-up to the compilation:

KIND OF BLUE (1959) goes without saying. The compilation gives you only the opening cut, "So What." I wonder how many people have never heard anything by Miles but this one record? Also from the Fifties, COOKIN' WITH THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET (1956) is one of several records with his first great quintet, the one with John Coltrane. For the Sixties, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PLUGGED NICKEL (1965) captures his second great quintet live in Chicago -- amazing! (This is the one with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams.) And for the electric period, most would say start with BITCHES BREW (1969), but I prefer the last record he made before his temporary retirement, PANGAEA (1975), which is 2 discs of jazz-funk fusion, live in Japan.

I saw Miles at the Chicago Auditorium on his comeback tour in 1981 -- it was a great show, but on record most of his Eighties stuff was "Miles lite." Unfortunately, even on this brief sampler, you've got some of this late Miles at the expense of more of his magnificent earlier work.

DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY
To be quite honest...dont waste your money on this 2 cd set. But dont get me wrong, I love Miles Davis, and anything this man ever did was amazing. But to just have 20 some tracks of his work is a crime to yourself. Instead go and buy some of his classic albums to really get the "ESSENTIAL" Miles Davis. But if you want to be stingy buy this.