Miles Davis - The Essential Miles Davis (2 LP)

Davis spent the most groundbreaking years of his career on Columbia; volume eight of that label's "This Is Jazz" series offers a survey, however inherently limited, of his work from 1955 to 1965, a period that covers his two classic quintets, the recording of KIND OF BLUE and his first work with Gil Evans. What THE BEST OF MILES DAVIS includes is material from BIRTH OF THE COOL, represented by three cuts from that LP, and from sessions done between 1952 and 1954 that featured musicians like J.J. Johnson, Jackie McLean, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath and Art Blakey. It's an interesting period, in that neither Blue Note nor Davis had quite developed into the icons they were about to become. Ironically, with the final two cuts on this collection (from 1959's SOMETHING ELSE), both the label and Miles can be heard doing precisely what they became best known for: the album, released under Cannonball Adderly's name, imparts the smoky, noir atmosphere that characterized Blue Note's reputation as the