Investigation

As the jazz world celebrates Miles Davis’ centenary, Ken Kessler brings you 20 recent vinyl releases that showcase him at his best – and the artists that he influenced

It will not go unnoticed by the jazz community nor the record industry that 2026 marks Miles Davis’ centenary. Leading up to it, Mobile Fidelity, Craft and other labels have been rewarding audiophiles with beautifully remastered LPs from all points in his career, among them stunning box sets from 1950s sessions, major albums reissued in One Step form, live recordings, Davis’ forays into rock/fusion and much more. He produced – according to the best sources – over 60 studio albums and at least 35 live albums. The actual amount of his output is a conundrum, like the man himself. But that’s only part of the story. To give some shape to his influence and the mark he left on jazz and rock, also included here are newly issued (and reissued) albums from his contemporaries, friends and even (indirectly) enemies, as well as those he admired and one or two he didn’t.

Driven to distraction

I was once fortunate enough to meet Claude Nobs, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival. When asked who was the most difficult artist he ever worked with, he immediately said ‘Miles Davis’, recounting how one year Davis refused to perform unless he had a Ferrari at his disposal. Claude implored a Ferrari-owning friend to loan his to him. Deal done, Davis looked at the car and still refused to play. Why? ‘Wrong colour, man.’ And my own connection? I saw Miles Davis at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1967. This was my introduction to live jazz, and it’s a memory that still lingers.

Sun Ra
Excelsior Mill
Modern Harmonic MH-8269 violet vinyl

Let’s start with an example of Miles Davis’ lack of a filter and regard for jazz conventions despite his own constant experimentation. Listening to Sun Ra in a blindfold test, Davis apparently said, ‘We wouldn’t play no s*** like that. It’s so sad… You mean there’s somebody around here that feels like that?’. This odd set contains one track per side, featuring the cosmically inclined musician playing on the massive pipe organ at Excelsior Mill in Atlanta, Georgia in 1984. A shocking Sun Ra sonic experience, ‘Beyond Hiroshima’ sounds like a nuclear attack – and probably wouldn’t have altered Davis’ opinion.

Miles Davis
Black Beauty – At Fillmore West
Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-568 2LPs 180g vinyl

Davis recorded a trio of live LPs at Fillmores East (NYC) and West (San Francisco). This April 1970 gig, opening for the Grateful Dead, was the first to be released, although it took place after the March 1970 concert that was issued as It’s About That Time and before another at Fillmore East in June that year. His group was comprised of keyboardist Chick Corea, drummer Jack DeJohnette and percussionist Airto Moreira, performing one long suite over four LP sides. Produced by Teo Macero, and initially a Japan-only album until an international release in 1997, this is an early look into Davis’ jazz/rock fusion period.

Miles Davis
Bitches Brew
Mobile Fidelity UD1S 2-039 2x33rpm One-Step LPs

This 1970 masterpiece – recorded in August 1969 – is one of the cornerstones of Davis’ jazz/rock fusion phase [HFN Oct ’12]. Following In A Silent Way, it’s a perfect companion to Black Beauty in that it shares some personnel with the group playing the Fillmores; Chick Corea is present here on all tracks. As well as showcasing guitarist John McLaughlin in an eponymous track on Side 3, the album blends improvisation with hands-on studio crafting, so it’s also ideal for audiophile purposes. A perfect introduction for rock fans curious about jazz, this remains Davis’ second best-selling album after 1959’s Kind Of Blue.

Ben Webster
At The Renaissance
Craft Records/Contemporary CR00388 180g vinyl

Davis described saxophonist Webster as a ‘great Ellingtonian tenorman’, their paths crossing in 1958 when both appeared on Michel Legrand’s Legrand Jazz. For savouring some superbly played (and recorded!) sax, with a top-flight quartet behind the underappreciated Webster, this is a must as Bernie Grundman remastered it from the original tapes. Captured live at The Renaissance in Hollywood in October 1960, it wasn’t released until 1985.

Sonny Rollins
Way Out West
Craft Records/Contemporary CR00434 180g vinyl

This legendary saxophonist worked with Davis in the early 1950s, notably releasing Miles Davis With Sonny Rollins in 1954 for Prestige. 1957’s Way Out West, frequently reissued (and this time cut from the original AAA master tapes), ranks as one of Rollins’ finest efforts. Recorded with Shelly Manne on drums and Ray Brown on bass – Rollins hadn’t worked with either before – it is an exemplar of minimalist 1950s jazz, establishing the sax/bass/drums lineup.

Miles Davis
Dark Magus
Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-566 2LPs

This live set dates to four years on from the 1970 Fillmore gigs but was not released until 1977, when Columbia needed to satisfy demand for albums during Davis’ 1975-’80 retirement. Initially only released in Japan, it took 20 years for a US version. Again, Davis would influence the rock crowd, experimenting here with funk over four two-part compositions. Regarded as one of his most extreme efforts, this is more like Sun Ra than Davis would ever admit.

John McLaughlin
Music For Abandoned Heights
Impex IMP6065 180g vinyl

Yorkshireman McLaughlin was only 27 when he joined Davis in creating electric jazz fusion, now a genre of its own. Here is the peerless guitarist – Jeff Beck called him ‘the best guitarist alive’ – 57 years later, with a soundtrack for a new film inspired by the 1958 French crime thriller Ascenseur Pour L’échafaud. The original score? By no less than a pre-Milestones Miles Davis. McLaughlin and four fellow musicians have created not just an atmospheric album but a timely tribute.

Miles Davis
The Musings Of Miles
Craft/Prestige CR00854 180g vinyl

From the 1955 sessions and included in the Miles ’55 box set [p37], this is a perfect choice if you want to get just one early Davis LP. The Musings Of Miles was the musician’s first 12in LP, this deluxe reissue released as part of the Craft label’s ‘Original Jazz Classics’ series. Pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, with all-analogue mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and a sturdy, thick sleeve, it’s among the most important albums in this round-up.

Miles Davis
Agharta
Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-567 2x180g LPs

Recorded in February 1975 and released in August that year, the live double album Agharta found Davis still touring in fusion mode but with a different band. This septet featured saxophonist Sonny Fortune, bassist Michael Henderson, guitarists Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas, drummer Al Foster and percussionist James Mtume. Captured from an afternoon set at Osaka’s Festival Hall, the completely different evening show was released as Pangaea.

Wes Montgomery
The Incredible Jazz Guitar Of...
Craft/Riverside CR00850 180g vinyl

Montgomery – this writer’s favourite jazz guitarist – recorded Full House in 1962 and Smokin’ At The Half Note in 1965 with Davis’ 1959-1963 rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb (aka Wynton Kelly Trio). This 1960 album, his second and the one that made him a jazz star, opens with Sonny Rollins’ ‘Airegin’, first recorded in 1954 by the Miles Davis Quintet. So you could say that Davis had a subtle but distinct influence. Utterly essential.

Miles Davis
Sketches Of Spain
Mobile Fidelity UD1S 2-038

This may be Davis’ most beautiful LP. So arresting was the performance on this 1960 release that, when I took a copy to the SME Music Room, I had to leave it with a visibly moved MD Alastair Robertson-Aikman. Here Davis was inspired by Spanish folk music, yet another of the many fusions he devised. The first of a slate of albums produced with Teo Macero and an audiophile favourite, when told it was something other than jazz, Davis retorted, ‘It’s music, and I like it’.

Bobby Bradford
‘Freddie Ain’t Ready!’
Intervention IR-036 180g vinyl

This wonderful live-to-two-track session, recorded in 2023, embodies Davis’ centenary. Veteran cornet player and nonagenarian Bradford is abetted by fellow ‘CuZn’ William Roper on tuba, harmonica and myriad other instruments, plus drummer Garth Powell and Brian Walsh on clarinets and saxes. The Davis link? Bradford worked with his contemporary Ornette Coleman, while Walsh played with Wayne Shorter, part of Davis’ late-’60s Quintet.

Bill Evans Trio
Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings
Craft CR00902 5LPs 180g vinyl

Pianist Evans is so essential a part of the Miles Davis saga that his role in 1959’s Kind Of Blue alone is enough to earn his place here. Leaving the Sextet, he formed one of the genre’s legendary trios, along with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, recording but two albums. This incredible box set was mastered by Grammy Award-winning engineer Paul Blakemore at Cohearent Audio with lacquers cut by Kevin Gray. It contains their entire output for Riverside: Portrait In Jazz (1960), Explorations (1961), and three extra LPs with 26 alternate takes and outtakes, 17 of which have never been released.

Miles Davis
Sorcerer
Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-519 180g vinyl

From 1967, long past bop but pre-jazz/rock fusion, Sorcerer was the third of six albums Davis produced with his 1960s Quintet. This was the lineup I saw at the Newport Jazz Festival a mere six weeks after it was recorded, so forgive me if I feel both blessed and biased: Davis, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. Unusually, one track is from 1962 (‘Nothing Like You’) and features vocals from Bob Dorough. Blissful, cool jazz.

Miles Davis
Miles ’55: The Prestige Recordings
Craft CR00691 3LPs 180g vinyl

A sequel to Miles ’54: The Prestige Recordings [Craft Recordings CR00689], this triple LP contains the June, August and November 1955 sessions, with Davis and his first great quintet: John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. The 16 tracks in stunning mono comprise the three albums Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Davis And Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet and The Musings Of Miles. Like Craft’s magnificent Bill Evans box set, this was remastered from the original analogue tapes by engineer Paul Blakemore, and the lacquers cut by Kevin Gray. I gulped it down in one sitting. Absolutely mind-blowing.

Miles Davis
On The Corner
Mobile Fidelity MFSV 1-518 180g vinyl

Mobile Fidelity must love this LP because it keeps on reissuing it. The colourful cartoon sleeve art wouldn’t be out of place on a late Stax LP or even a Funkadelic record because, by this time – 1972 – Davis had embraced jazz/funk so much that he was channelling Sly Stone and foreshadowing Prince. With Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and Lonnie Liston Smith among the players, this remains state-of-the-art jazz fusion.

Miles Davis All Stars
Walkin’
Craft/Prestige CR00853 180g vinyl

For an early slice of Davis, this 1957 compilation combined two 10in records from 1954, recorded in April of that year, including all of the Miles Davis All-Star Sextet and most of the Miles Davis Quintet recordings. Both groups included Horace Silver (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums), the Sextet knocking out two bluesy jams, including the now-standard title track, the Quintet side featuring Miles with a mute. Ira Gitler’s liner notes read like a thriller.

Joe Henderson
Multiple
Craft/Milestone CR00845 180g vinyl

Tenor saxophonist Henderson had ‘a brief association’ with Miles Davis’ 1967 quintet, though no recordings were made. Here he featured Jack DeJohnette on drums – DeJohnette having also played on Davis’ Bitches Brew [see above], Live-Evil (1971), Jack Johnson (1971) and On The Corner [above]. This superb set, out of print until now, is a riot of hard bop – a throwback to early Davis and arguably something of an anachronism considering it was recorded in 1973.

Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Himself
Craft/Riverside CR00852 180g vinyl

Monk went way back with Davis, the pair recording the classic album Bags Groove in 1954, first released in 1957 by Prestige. Also in 1957, Monk commanded this incredible session with John Coltrane, who worked with both musicians during this period. The pianist’s fourth LP for Riverside, it also featured Wilbur Ware on bass, the trio delivering sublime versions of ‘Monk’s Mood’, an unaccompanied ‘’Round Midnight’ and five from the Great American Songbook.

Ornette Coleman
Ornette On Tenor
Speakers Corner/Atlantic 1394 180g vinyl

Another jazz musician who puzzled Davis, although with Ornette Coleman, Miles ‘doubted his sanity’ but agreed a piece could be played multiple ways. Coleman swapped alto sax for tenor for this album from 1962 and it is actually less bizarre than some of his others, eg, 1961’s Free Jazz, if still eccentric enough to support Davis’ qualms. Still, he did say, ‘I like Ornette, because he doesn’t play clichés. Hell, just listen to what he writes and how he plays’.