Miles Davis & Gil Evans – The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings

I’ve never really been much into the whole big band thing to be honest. Too structured. This was how many felt about these albums after Miles left Prestige to work with Columbia. Where small bebop groups give everyone their own voice in a big band this is sacrificed in favour of a grander sound. The only real individual voice across most of this work is Miles’, the only exception being Quiet Nights, for all intents and purposes a fine bebop album in its own right.

The set has four albums, Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain and Quiet Nights along with a couple of discs of session material. The best album is Sketches by a long shot. The session material is kind of interesting, built more like a documentary so as to explain how this music was made. To be honest, I don’t see myself listening to the extra material more than once. Each album also has plenty of bonus material at the end, including a complete alternate version of Miles Ahead.

This isn’t my favourite of the metal spine series, because its music is probably the least interesting. It’s well packaged though and does contain the definitive version of Miles Ahead by a long shot. In my opinion you may as well start off with Sketches of Spain and go from there.