Milestones (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Milestones
Type = studio
Artist = Miles Davis


Released = 1958
Recorded = February 4 and March 4, 1958
Genre = Jazz
Length = 47:36
Label = Columbia
CL-1193
Producer = George Avakian
Reviews =
*"All About Jazz" (favorable) [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=7554 link]
*Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:5zhqoarayijr link]
*PopMatters (favorable) [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/d/davismiles-milestones.shtml link]
Last album = "Miles Ahead" (1957)
This album = "Milestones" (1958)
Next album = "Porgy and Bess" (1958)

"Milestones" is an album recorded in February and March 1958 by Miles Davis. It is renowned for including Miles' first forays into the developing modal jazz experiments, as noticed on the piece "Miles" (renamed 'Milestones'), which would be followed to its logical conclusion on Kind of Blue. Furthermore, the playing of his sextet, which featured Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane contributing on such tracks as "Straight No Chaser", have induced it to be highly regarded by jazz musicians, fans and critics alike. It was also the last time the rhythm section of Jones, Garland and Chambers would ever play with Miles on record.

Coltrane returned to Davis’s group in 1958, contributing to the “modal phase” albums Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959), both considered essential examples of 1950s modern jazz. Davis at this point was experimenting with modes—i.e., scale patterns other than major and minor. [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1286546/Milestones Encyclopedia - Britannica Online EncyclopediaProvides complete text of Encyclopaedia Britannica with search capabilities, related...]

Track listing

#"Dr. Jackle" - 5:47 "(Jackie McLean)"
#"Sid's Ahead" - 12:59 "(Miles Davis)"
#"Two Bass Hit" - 5:13 "(John Lewis - Dizzy Gillespie)"
#"Milestones" - 5:45 "(Miles Davis)" [Referred to as "Milestones" on Davis' later recordings, and is not to be confused with the earlier "Milestones," a bebop melody written by John Lewis, credited to Davis, first recorded in 1947. ]
#"Billy Boy" - 7:14 "(Traditional, arr. Ahmad Jamal)"
#"Straight, No Chaser" - 10:41 "(Thelonious Monk)"

"Billy Boy" is a trio performance by Garland, Chambers and Jones. CD reissues include alternate takes of "Two Bass Hit", "Milestones" and "Straight, No Chaser".

Performers

*Miles Davis - Trumpet, Piano (on "Sid's Ahead")
*Cannonball Adderley - Alto saxophone
*John Coltrane - Tenor saxophone
*Red Garland - Piano
*Paul Chambers - Double bass
*Philly Joe Jones - drums

Notes