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Miles Davis fans- recommendations?

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Miles Davis fans- recommendations?

Old 01-15-02, 10:49 PM
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Miles Davis fans- recommendations?

Lately I've been getting into jazz, and Miles Davis has of course come up in my interests. But one thing I've noticed is that his music varies.....a lot. I based my two MD album purchases off of listening to the samples at amazon.com, and the only two that I could find that I could tell I for sure wouldn't be disappointed with were Kinda Blue and Round about Midnight. On the other hand, I've listened to some of his late 60s-and-beyond work, and quite frankly it doesn't interest me at all. If I love those two albums (which I do) and don't care at all for his later 'electric jazz' era, what other albums would recommend me trying out?
Old 01-16-02, 12:03 AM
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Well it doesn't get any better than Kind of Blue. If you have a Columbia House membership you can pick up "Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-1961" at a great price. It's these sessions that Kind of Blue and a couple of other albums came from. I highly recommend this set for the music and the most beautiful packaging I have seen for a CD set.

Other than that I recommend...

Sketches of Spain - Recorded the same year as Kind of Blue but didn't come from the Columbia sessions.

Miles Ahead - This is with Gil Evans and was done around the time of Kind of Blue

Bitches Brew - Not for everyone, but as a Miles fan it is essential...lots of experimentation of this album...I can listen to it and just get lost in the music, it is mind-blowing.

Birth of the Cool - Gil Evans again influencing this album. Evans was just a visionary, it's one of Miles' very first albums(1949 I think) and no miles set is complete without it.

Amandala - This is an absolutely amazing album that was actually conceived by Marcus Miller. It's in Miles' later years but the music is just incredible.


The thing about Miles Davis is that over the years he put some incredible bands together for his albums. He always used the best of the best for musicians. IMO though nothing came close to the band assembled for Kind of Blue. Kind of Blue is an album that comes along very rarely. I swear I have listened to that album a million times and I never get tired of it.
Old 01-16-02, 12:39 AM
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Hard to argue with palebluedot...those are some of the best Miles Davis albums. For something a little different, try Panthalassa. It's an album of Miles' remixes from his electric period by Bill Laswell. Not necessarily as good as some of his own stuff, but very interesting nonetheless...
Old 01-16-02, 02:07 AM
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i too shall toss out sketches of spain - but i started out with the essential miles davis - a two disc set spanning his early stuff to his recordings in the 80s - also - the complete birth of the cool is amazing - if th above mentioned coltrane/davis collection is too pricey get the one disc selections from just called 'miles davis and john coltrane' - the ken burns miles davis disc might be a good starter as well - either way you go this guy is amazing and you cannot go wrong
Old 01-16-02, 07:57 AM
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I wholeheartedly agree with support of 'Kind of Blue' and 'Miles & Coltrane'.
However, I stop at 'bitches brew'. I can't stand fusion, it makes my head hurt. This album represents everything evil about bad jazz, to me.
Oh course, I'm just an overopinionated jazzbo
Old 01-16-02, 09:29 AM
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tha_dvd_man, it sounds like your taste in jazz may be similar to mine -- that is, not a big fan of most jazz made between, say, 1963 and 1993. (I also don't have that many jazz albums -- perhaps just 20 or so, so while I enjoy jazz, I could hardly consider myself an expert.) So, even though I know Bitches Brew is widely considered a groundbreaking album, I just don't like it at all. You may want to work your way *back* from 1959 before heading too much into Miles' later work. The Birth of the Cool might be a good place to start.

I'd recommend against purchasing any Miles Davis compilations, especially the Ken Burns disc, unless they're very narrowly focused, time-wise. The Ken Burns disc was so stylistically varied (because Miles was so stylistically varied) that it was a lousy album to listen to, especially multiple times. But if you can check it out from the library (like I did), it's a great album to listen to his stuff and figure out what full-length CDs you want to buy.
Old 01-16-02, 10:40 AM
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If you're not into the adventurous-Miles, I'd start w/ Birth of the Cool and Kind of Blue. Pretty much impossible to go wrong w/ those two.
Old 01-16-02, 02:16 PM
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Everyone has already listed the great ones. I also like Miles Davis Ballads & Blues on Blue Note.

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