10 More Essential Dave Brubeck Albums

A collage of 9 of the 10 more essential Dave Brubeck albums. I left out Paper Moon, because it has a pretty ridiculous cover.

Jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck made a lot of incredible music during his long lifetime. In 2015, I wrote a post covering 10 of my favorite Dave Brubeck albums. Since Brubeck’s discography is so deep, I decided to write this sequel and focus on 10 more essential Dave Brubeck albums. I was lucky enough to work on a documentary about Dave Brubeck and meet him a couple of times and hear him live in concert several times, so his music has a special place in my heart. The albums are listed in the order they were recorded. 

The Dave Brubeck Trio: Distinctive Rhythm Instrumentals (Recorded between 1949 and 1951) The CD has all 24 songs this group recorded together. Featuring Ron Crotty on bass and Cal Tjader on drums and vibes, Brubeck’s trio could swing like no other. Highlights include a great version of “Indiana” that starts out very slow, as though Brubeck is going to play it as a ballad. Then, suddenly, Brubeck starts playing it fast, and Crotty and Tjader jump in, making the old tune swing. There’s also a fun version of “Avalon” that starts out in ragtime before it starts to really cook. 

Jazz Goes to College (1954) After a 1951 diving accident which injured vertebrae in his neck, Brubeck was looking for someone to share the soloing duties with in his group. He turned to alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. Desmond had played in Brubeck’s Octet in the late 1940’s, but had earned Brubeck’s enmity when was playing in a group with Brubeck. Desmond was offered another gig, and took the rest of the group with him, but hired another piano player instead of Brubeck. Fortunately for music lovers, Brubeck and Desmond were able to patch things up. Jazz Goes to College was Brubeck’s first album for Columbia Records, and it followed in the steps of Brubeck’s 1953 album Jazz at Oberlin, which was recorded live on campus. Bob Bates on bass and Joe Dodge on drums made up the rest of the quartet. Jazz Goes to College starts out with the slow blues “Balcony Rock,” and both Brubeck and Desmond take excellent solos. Brubeck’s solo on “Le Souk” is awesome. At the end of the year, Brubeck was featured on the cover of Time magazine. He was the second jazz musician to ever be on the cover of Time—Louis Armstrong was the first. Brubeck actually felt some embarrassment about the cover, as he felt that part of the reason he was getting the cover was because Time didn’t want to put a black jazz musician on the cover. Duke Ellington was the first person to show Brubeck the cover and Brubeck said, “It should have been you.” 

Jazz: Red Hot and Cool (1955) Recorded live at Basin Street East in New York City, the album featured a cover photograph by Richard Avedon, showing 1950’s supermodel Suzy Parker gazing longingly at Brubeck while a blurry Desmond holds his sax in the background. The album was cross-marketed with Helena Rubenstein lipstick, as they had just introduced a “jazz” shade. The music inside the album sleeve was excellent, as listeners heard the exquisite interplay between Brubeck and Desmond, who were again backed by Bob Bates on bass and Joe Dodge on drums. A highlight of the album was the first recording of Brubeck’s composition “The Duke.” Brubeck said that the initial inspiration for the song was his car’s windshield wipers. He later said, “When I first wrote it, I didn’t really understand how complex it was. It goes through all twelve keys in its first eight bars.” (It’s About Time: The Dave Brubeck Story, by Fred M. Hall, p.58) Something that’s so striking about Brubeck and Desmond is how they could take the oddest songs, like “Fare Thee Well, Annabelle,” a 1935 hit for the Boswell Sisters, and make them interesting vehicles for their improvisations. Brubeck recorded “Indiana” again on this album, and this version features an excellent, complicated solo from him. 

Dave Digs Disney (1957) Featuring songs from Walt Disney’s cartoons, Brubeck helped introduce these songs into the jazz repertoire with this album. “Someday My Prince Will Come,” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, quickly became a jazz standard, as it was soon recorded by Bill Evans on his 1960 album Portrait in Jazz, and Miles Davis made it the title track of his 1961 album. Other highlights of the album include “Heigh-Ho (The Dwarf’s Marching Song),” and “When You Wish Upon a Star.” The lineup of the Brubeck Quartet was changing with this album, as the unfortunately named Norman Bates, brother of Bob, played bass, and Joe Morello was on drums. Morello gave Brubeck’s Quartet much more rhythmic drive, and Morello was a drummer who could play the complex polyrhythms that Brubeck was interested in. The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s most famous lineup would form the following year, as Eugene Wright took over on bass. 

Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein (1960) This album was a fascinating experiment, as the Quartet played “Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra” alongside the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The piece was written by Dave’s brother Howard Brubeck and took up all of side one of the album. Side two was comprised of the Quartet’s versions of songs written by Leonard Bernstein. Unfortunately, this album wasn’t reissued on CD until it was issued in the EU in 2011. It finally made its US debut on CD in 2012, as part of the Complete Columbia Studio Albums box set, but it isn’t available separately. I was able to gather the whole album before this because the Bernstein songs on side two were reissued in 1986 as Dave Brubeck Plays Music from West Side Story, along with other tracks from the Quartet’s albums Anything Goes and My Favorite Things. The orchestral tracks were harder to track down, as they weren’t issued under Brubeck’s name, but as part of Sony Classical’s Leonard Bernstein series, surfacing on the 1998 CD Bernstein on Jazz. Fortunately, you can now listen to the album as intended on Spotify and other streaming services. “Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra” is a successful pairing of jazz and classical styles, and the Brubeck Quartet does a superb job of handling the material. Section one, “Allegro,” has sudden twists and turns, but the Quartet was used to playing material that often shifted—think of Brubeck’s twisty “Blue Rondo a la Turk.” Sections two and three, “Andante” and “Adagio,” are lovely without ever sounding like easy-listening “jazz plus strings.” Section four, “Allegro: Blues” is sprightly and swinging, with Brubeck’s solo at the end upping the tension until the final climax. 

Countdown: Time in Outer Space (1962) The third in Brubeck’s series of “Time” albums, Countdown features more Brubeck originals written in unusual time signatures. Desmond wrote “Eleven Four,” one of his rare contributions as a songwriter—although he did write the Quartet’s most famous song, “Take Five.” When Brubeck began his explorations of different time signatures, there were many nay-sayers among jazz critics. Like many cultural sub-groups, the jazz world has a way of arbitrarily deciding who is “in” or “out” of jazz. But those critics who dismissed what Brubeck and the Quartet were doing missed out on some fantastic music. For this album Brubeck re-recorded “Someday My Prince Will Come,” taking a more adventurous piano solo. Another highlight is “Castilian Drums,” which gives Morello an opportunity to stretch out and solo, and it reminds the listener that one of the reasons Brubeck was able to be so successful in his time experiments was because he had Joe Morello on drums. The album was dedicated to astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. 

Jazz Impressions of New York (1964) Released the same year as the wonderful Jazz Impressions of Japan, this album featured some of the songs that Brubeck wrote for the TV show Mr. Broadway. While the show only lasted 13 episodes, Brubeck’s theme for the show remains a classic. My favorite song on the album is the rollicking “Summer on the Sound.” Other highlights include “Broadway Bossa Nova,” and “Autumn in Washington Square,” which features a wonderful, yearning solo from Paul Desmond. 

Paper Moon (1982) Brubeck broke up the classic lineup of his Quartet at the end of 1967. He wanted a break from touring and time to work on longer compositions. A few months later, he was back out on the road. In 1976 the classic Quartet reunited for a 25^th anniversary concert tour. It’s fortunate that they did, because Paul Desmond died of lung cancer in 1977. Brubeck formed a touring band with his sons Chris, Darius, and Dan, and they performed together throughout much of the 1970’s. The lineup on 1982’s Paper Moon found Brubeck backed by Jerry Bergonzi on tenor saxophone, Chris Brubeck on bass and bass trombone, and Randy Jones on drums. The songs on the album are mostly jazz standards. There’s an excellent, bluesy solo by Dave on “Music, Maestro, Please!” Another highlight is the song “Symphony,” by Alex Alstone. It’s a bit unconventional, as it finds Brubeck playing super high on the keyboard at the beginning. Bergonzi’s tone and sound is totally different from Desmond’s, so there’s no sense in comparing them. Paper Moon also includes a nice solo version of “St. Louis Blues,” a song which was long a staple of Brubeck’s live concerts. 

Private Brubeck Remembers (2004) A rare solo piano disc from Brubeck, this title finds him playing songs associated with World War II. There’s a wistful, poignant feeling to much of the album as Brubeck plays these songs that he’s known for so long. A limited edition included an extra disc of Walter Cronkite interviewing Brubeck about his experiences in the war, which is a fascinating listen. 

London Flat, London Sharp (2005) Recorded in 2004, this was the last quartet recording by Brubeck. The album featured his excellent group of Bobby Militello on alto sax and flute, Michael Moore on bass, and Randy Jones on drums. The title track shows Brubeck’s vibrant, swinging style still fully intact. Another highlight is the groovy “Mr. Fats,” a tribute to Fats Waller. This record really shows that Randy Jones was definitely up to the task of following in Joe Morello’s footsteps. It also shows that Bobby Militello is an excellent saxophone player whose sound is so different from Paul Desmond’s that he doesn’t invite comparisons. The pieces on London Flat, London Sharp come from throughout Brubeck’s long career, ranging from new pieces, like the title song, to one written sixty years before—“Ballad of the Rhine,” written in 1945 as Brubeck watched his Army unit cross the Rhine River. Taken together, they show Brubeck’s relentless spirit of innovation and his quest to keep creating, which lasted throughout his career.

10 Underrated Miles Davis Albums

Miles Davis in concert, using his Harmon trumpet mute, 1960's.

Miles Davis live in Copenhagen, 1964.

Collage of the album covers for 9 of the 10 albums I wrote about in the post. Sorry "Ascenseur pour l’echafaud," I decided your album cover was the most boring and didn't include it-mainly because it didn't have Miles on the cover. Miles' first wife Frances Taylor is on the covers of "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk." His second wife Betty Mabry is on the cover of "Filles de Kilimanjaro."

In my last post, I wrote about 10 Essential Miles Davis albums. I’ve been a fan of Miles Davis’ music for a long time now, ever since 1998-99, when I first started getting into jazz. I keep returning to Davis’ music. There’s so much depth in what he recorded that I can go back and listen to his albums time and again and still hear something new. While I was writing my 10 Essential albums list, I was thinking about all of the great music that I was leaving off that list. Miles Davis recorded 48 studio albums and 36 live albums, and there are also 17 box sets of Davis’ work. So the idea came to me to create a list of 10 Underrated Miles Davis albums. These are albums that might not get mentioned with Davis’ finest work, but are still full of incredible music. The albums are listed in the order they were recorded. 

“Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet,” recorded 1955. This was the first full album that Miles Davis recorded with his “First Classic Quintet,” which featured John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. In 1955 Davis had kicked his drug habit, and his triumphant comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival spurred interest in him from major record labels. Davis got a new group together, and it was full of talent that would shape jazz for decades to come, even if few people at the time had heard of John Coltrane. The album demonstrated that these five musicians worked very well together, and it marked the first appearance on record of “The Theme,” a song that would become Davis’ regular set-closer for many years to come. The cover photo of a stream is usually tinted blue, but it’s also tinted green on some releases of the album. 

“Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet,” recorded 1956. Davis and his “First Classic Quintet” recorded enough material for four albums over two days in 1956 in order to fulfill Davis’ contract with Prestige Records. “Relaxin’” is another excellent album, and features “If I Were a Bell,” which was a staple of Davis’ concert repertoire. I singled out “Cookin’” one of other albums Davis recorded for Prestige in 1956, as one of the “10 Essential Miles Davis Albums.” The other two 1956 Prestige albums, “Workin’” and “Steamin’” are classics as well.

Soundtrack to “Ascenseur pour l’echafaud,” also known as “Lift to the Scaffold,” or “Elevator to the Gallows,” recorded 1957. This one is pretty obscure. In Paris in late 1957 Davis recorded the soundtrack to a Louis Malle film, known by the three titles listed above. Davis wrote out only the barest sketches before the recording session, and most of the music was improvised in the studio. The music is spare and haunting, pointing the way towards the modal jazz of “Kind of Blue.” 

“’58 Sessions,” also known as “1958 Miles,” recorded, obviously, in 1958. Davis recorded four songs at one session in May 1958: “On Green Dolphin Street,” “Fran Dance,” “Stella By Starlight,” and “Love For Sale.” It wasn’t enough material for an entire album, and these songs were eventually collected together along with some live tracks from 1958 featuring the same band. The band on “’58 Sessions” is the same group that would record the classic “Kind of Blue” the next year. Bill Evans had replaced Red Garland on piano, and Evans was the perfect choice as Davis started to explore modal jazz. “On Green Dolphin Street,” “Fran Dance,” and “Stella By Starlight” are all beautiful songs, delicately and exquisitely performed, while “Love For Sale” swings mightily. These recordings are superb, and proof that Davis should have taken this group into the recording studio more often.

“Someday My Prince Will Come,” 1961. I wrote a long piece about this album as part of my series on the albums that Hank Mobley recorded with Miles Davis’ band in 1961. Mobley is one of my favorite jazz musicians, a tenor saxophonist who recorded many classic hard bop albums for the Blue Note label. Mobley and Davis didn’t quite gel, but the music they created together sounds fantastic. “Someday My Prince Will Come” was Davis’ small-group follow-up to “Kind of Blue,” and as such it’s a vastly overlooked album in Davis’ catalogue. Highlights include a cameo by John Coltrane on the title song and the Spanish-tinged “Teo,” and the lovely ballad “I Thought About You.” 

“In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk,” recorded 1961. I also wrote a long piece about this album as part of my series on Hank Mobley’s albums with Miles Davis. Expanded to 4 discs in 2003, these live dates feature one of Miles’ best bands, with Mobley on tenor sax, and one of the greatest rhythm sections in the history of jazz, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb. The band really cooks together, and Davis takes some great solos. This is hard bop at its finest.

“Seven Steps to Heaven,” 1963. This album found Davis in transition between groups. 1962 had been a difficult year for the trumpeter, as he struggled with health problems. The only recordings he made were the desultory sessions for the “Quiet Nights” album with Gil Evans, which both men were dissatisfied with. Davis was irate when Columbia put out “Quiet Nights” in 1964, and he didn’t speak to his producer Teo Macero for two years afterwards. In early 1963, Davis’ rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb left to form their own group. Davis was starting over from scratch, and half the “Seven Steps to Heaven” album was recorded in Los Angeles, with the other half being recorded in New York City. Bassist Ron Carter was the only person besides Miles who played on all the songs. The songs recorded in LA were all lovely ballads, beautifully performed by Miles, while the New York City songs were all swingers. The group that performed the New York City songs was George Coleman on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and 17-year-old prodigy Tony Williams on drums. Davis knew he had something great with that rhythm section, and when Wayne Shorter replaced Coleman in 1964, Davis’ “Second Classic Quintet” would be in place. The title song is a highlight, and it shows how amazing a drummer Williams was.

“The Complete Concert 1964: My Funny Valentine plus Four and More,” recorded 1964. This two-disc set was recorded at a benefit concert at Philharmonic Hall in February, 1964. Davis was at the top of his game, as he handled ballads and swingers with equal skill. When these recordings were originally issued, the decision was made to put all of the ballads on one album and all of the swinging songs on another album, thus the music was not in the order it was actually performed in. When the “Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis, 1963-1964” box set was issued in 2004, the concert was presented in the correct order, with the previously unreleased “Autumn Leaves” opening the show. Oddly enough, the concert wasn’t re-released as a stand-alone two-disc set, so you can only get the concert in the correct running order on the box set. (Or you can program your CD.) The concert is excellent, featuring great work by Davis, Coleman, Hancock, Carter, and Williams. This would prove to be George Coleman’s last recording with Miles. 

“Filles de Kilimanjaro,” 1968. If you look up “transition album” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of the album cover of “Filles de Kilimanjaro.” (Although really, isn’t every album a transition between one thing and another?) “Filles” features the last recordings of Davis’ “Second Classic Quintet,” before Ron Carter left the group. The music has one foot rooted in the previous work of the Quintet, and one foot in the electric fusion future to come with Miles’ next album, “In a Silent Way.” But don’t overlook “Filles” just because it’s tough to classify. The album still features excellent music, with solid grooves and exemplary work by all the musicians.  

“Get Up With It,” 1974. This was Davis’ last album before his 5 year retirement, which lasted from 1975-1980. (Davis was lucky he survived his retirement, as he spent most of those 5 years consuming copious amounts of drugs.) The music on “Get Up With It” was recorded at various sessions from 1970-1974. It’s an extremely eclectic album, ranging from the bluesy, harmonica-led “Red China Blues,” to the frenetic fusion blur of “Calypso Frelimo.” Davis plays organ on several of the songs, and he doesn’t play the trumpet at all on “Rated X.” The highlight of the album is unquestionably the haunting, melancholy “He Loved Him Madly,” a 32-minute tribute to the recently deceased Duke Ellington. "He Loved Him Madly" is a fascinating piece of music, and Brian Eno has said that it was an influence on the ambient music he was recording at the time. 

There you have it, another ten fascinating albums from one of the geniuses of jazz, Miles Davis.

10 Essential Miles Davis Albums

Miles Davis, 1960.

Miles Davis backstage, 1971.

Collage of the album covers for 9 of the 10 Essential Miles Davis albums I wrote about in this post. Sorry "Live in Europe 1967," your album cover was the one I decided was most boring.

Miles Davis is one of the towering figures in the history of jazz. I’ve written about some aspects of his music before, like a review of Ashley Kahn’s excellent book about Davis’ classic 1959 album “Kind of Blue,” and a general overview of his music in the 1950’s and 1960’s. I also wrote in-depth reviews of the three albums Davis recorded in 1961, when tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was in his band: “Someday My Prince Will Come,” “In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk,” and “Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall.” Because Davis’ discography is so vast, it can be difficult to know where to start with his music. Davis played many different styles of jazz throughout his career, and just because you like one of his styles is no guarantee that you’ll like all of his music. Here’s a list of what I consider to be 10 of Miles Davis’ greatest albums. This list is subjective, and there are many excellent albums I’ve left off, but I’ve tried to pick the best of Davis’ various styles. No matter which style of Miles Davis you prefer, you should find something you’ll enjoy here. The albums are listed in the order they were recorded. 

“Bags’ Groove,” recorded 1954. Davis started recording with the great alto saxophonist Charlie Parker in November 1945, when he was just 19 years old. After several years in Parker’s group, Davis left to begin a solo career. In 1949 and 1950, Davis was the leader for the influential “Birth of the Cool” album, which helped to usher in a quieter, more subdued style of jazz called "cool jazz" or "West Coast jazz." Miles was heavily influenced by classical music, and the "Birth of the Cool" sessions were the antithesis of frenzied bebop soloing. One of the featured members of the "Birth of the Cool" band was Gerry Mulligan, who formed a group with the trumpeter Chet Baker that achieved great success in the early 1950's. Unfortunately, like many other jazz musicians of the period, Davis had developed a crippling heroin addiction. Once he finally got clean in early 1954, Davis began making an excellent series of recordings for Prestige Records. These records pointed the way towards hard bop, which was in some ways a reaction to the prevailing West Coast “cool” style that Davis himself had helped to usher in. “Bags’ Groove” is a killer set of hard bop, recorded when Miles was finding his own voice as a leader. The band Miles worked with on this record was insanely talented. On the song “Bags’ Groove” the band was Davis, Milt Jackson on vibes, Thelonious Monk on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. On the other tracks it was Davis, Heath, Clarke, Sonny Rollins on tenor sax, and Horace Silver on piano. The album features three songs by Sonny Rollins that would become jazz standards: “Airegin,” “Oleo,” and “Doxy.” 

“Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet,” recorded 1956. After his triumphant comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, Davis put together a band of his own. He found one of the greatest rhythm sections in jazz history; pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. And he took a chance on a journeyman tenor sax man from Philadelphia: John Coltrane. Miles and Trane's partnership would change the course of jazz history. This band was known as Miles's first "Classic Quintet," and the recordings they made together set the standard for hard bop playing. Davis was being courted by major record labels, and he worked out a deal with Columbia Records where he could record for Columbia during 1956 while he fulfilled his remaining obligations to Prestige Records. “Cookin’” was one of four albums he and the quintet recorded over two days for Prestige, and it features Miles’ famous recording of “My Funny Valentine,” one of his signature songs. Davis was crafting his trademark sound on the trumpet, and part of that was his use of the Harmon mute on ballads, which gave his sound an intimate, late-night feeling. 

 “Milestones,” 1958. Davis released his first album for Columbia Records, “’Round About Midnight,” in 1957, and it proved to be the beginning of a relationship that would last until 1985. At the end of 1956, Davis had actually fired Coltrane because of his drug problem, and had disbanded his quintet. Coltrane got clean and spent most of 1957 playing with Thelonious Monk. By the end of 1957, Davis had re-formed his quintet, with the addition of alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, making it a sextet. It is this group that recorded the classic album “Milestones.” “Milestones” is inevitably overshadowed by the much more famous “Kind of Blue,” but it is a fantastic album in its own right. Miles plays piano on “Sid’s Ahead,” as Red Garland had left the studio in a huff. “Milestones” features some great hard bop playing on the title song and “Straight, No Chaser.” The music on “Milestones” points the way forward to the modal structures of “Kind of Blue.”

“Kind of Blue,” 1959. It’s not really a surprise this album would make the list. “Kind of Blue” is a classic album that is actually worthy of all the acclaim it has received. Regularly hailed as “the greatest jazz album ever,” “Kind of Blue” found Davis and his entire group at a peak of creativity. Davis’ band on “Kind of Blue” was Coltrane on tenor sax, Cannonball Adderley on alto, Bill Evans on piano, (Wynton Kelly plays piano on “Freddie Freeloader”) Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Evans had actually already left Davis’ group by the time “Kind of Blue” was recorded, but he returned for the album sessions, and he played a key role in helping Davis shape the music and sound of “Kind of Blue.” Evans claimed that he co-wrote “Blue in Green” and “Flamenco Sketches” with Davis, although he isn’t given co-writing credit. There was no way that Davis could keep a group full of so many jazz superstars together for very long, and within a year both Coltrane and Adderley had left to lead their own groups. Miles never made another album exactly like this one. One of the things I admire the most about Miles Davis is how he kept changing his music. He never stood still; his sound was always shifting and evolving. He could have taken the easy way out and tried to recapture the sound and magic of “Kind of Blue,” but he didn’t. Davis’ sound on the trumpet was so gorgeous that he could have made a ton of money by churning out smooth jazz albums where he just played pretty ballads, but he never did that, and I admire that about him. 

“Sketches of Spain,” 1960. Miles’ third collaboration on Columbia with arranger Gil Evans produced this album that featured some of Davis’ most beautiful playing. Davis’ albums with Evans are some of the most successful albums pairing a jazz performer with a large orchestral ensemble. Their previous collaborations were the highly esteemed “Miles Ahead” and “Porgy and Bess.” I like Davis’ small group albums more than his work with Evans, but “Sketches of Spain” is my favorite of their albums together. 

 “Miles Smiles,” 1967. In the early and mid-1960’s Davis had a number of health problems, including undergoing a hip replacement in 1965. When he entered the studio in October 1966 to record “Miles Smiles,” it was his first recording session since January 1965. The group he was recording “Miles Smiles” with was his “Second Classic Quintet” featuring Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. “Miles Smiles” was their second album together, and it showcased this group at the peak of their powers. Miles was musically rejuvenated by his young sidemen, and “Miles Smiles” highlights Shorter’s gifts as a composer, as he wrote “Orbits,” “Footprints,” and “Dolores.” “Circle” is a beautiful song, and one of Miles’ last great ballads. 

“Live in Europe, 1967: The Bootleg Series Volume 1,” recorded 1967. Not released until 2011, this three disc set features Davis’ “Second Classic Quintet” live in concert and shows all of them stretching the boundaries of jazz. The sets flow seamlessly, and the group has great chemistry together. As usual with Davis’ groups, all of these players are excellent soloists. The young, hyperkinetic drummer Tony Williams pushed the band to new heights on uptempo songs. We’re fortunate these performances were recorded, and in such good quality.

“In a Silent Way,” 1969. Miles Davis’ music changed very quickly in the late 1960’s. His “Second Classic Quintet” made their last recording together in 1968, as bassist Ron Carter left the group. Davis began to record with electric instruments and experiment with more open song structures. He was also starting to play music that was influenced by funk and soul. All of these new developments would eventually lead to the “fusion” style of jazz. Davis also started recording with larger groups, and the band on “In a Silent Way” features three keyboardists. “In a Silent Way” was the first record of Davis’ featuring British guitarist John McLaughlin, who would be an integral part of the sound of Davis’ music over the next few years. The music on “In a Silent Way” is unlike anything else Davis ever attempted. It’s moody, ethereal music that floats in the air. It’s an excellent late night album that slowly works its spell on you. 

“Bitches Brew,” 1970. You’ll either love it or hate it. But whatever you think of “Bitches Brew,” it’s definitely one of Davis’ key albums. “Bitches Brew,” Davis’ most famous jazz fusion album, may have alienated jazz purists, but also appealed to fans of rock and roll. I resisted fusion for a long time, not hearing anything but clutter in it. But a few years ago I finally decided, “I need to buy this album and really listen to it.” I enjoyed “Bitches Brew” more than I thought I would. It’s not my favorite Miles Davis album, but it was a landmark album, and helped change the direction of jazz, for better or worse. 

“Jack Johnson,” also known as “A Tribute to Jack Johnson,” 1971. Recorded as the soundtrack to a documentary film about Jack Johnson, the African-American heavyweight boxer, “Jack Johnson” is a rocking album that is full of heavy funk. It’s a groovier ride than “Bitches Brew,” and I prefer it to “Bitches Brew.” At the time it was not very successful commercially, but its reputation has grown over the years. Filled with two side-long jams that feature great guitar work from John McLaughlin, it’s perhaps Davis’ best fusion album. Herbie Hancock’s appearance on the album was serendipitous, as he just happened to be passing through the Columbia studios building and was recruited by Davis to play organ.

There you have it, 10 essential albums by Miles Davis. Yes, there are many classic albums not represented here. But these 10 albums will give you a good idea of why Miles Davis was so important to music.