The Essential Miles Davis
Trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis was a major catalyst for the  evolution of modern music. This two-CD set--with tracks from the Savoy,  Capitol, Blue Note, Prestige, Columbia, and Warner Bros. labels from 1945 to 1986--is an excellent sampler of his limitless creative genius. It features a who's who of the greatest names in the music: drummersMax Roach,Philly Joe Jones, and Jimmy Cobb; bassistsPaul ChambersandRon Carter; pianistsRed Garland,Bill Evans, andHerbie Hancock; and alto and tenor  saxophonistsCannonball Adderley,John Coltrane, andWayne Shorter. Davis's middle-register trumpet accommodated a myriad of styles, from the bebop classic "Now's the Time" to theSnow Whitewaltz "Someday My Prince Will Come" to the modal masterpiece "So What"  (fromKind of Blue).Just asDuke EllingtonhadBilly Strayhorn, Davis had the gifted arrangerGil Evans. Evans created ingenious stringless orchestral soundscapes around Davis's pithy and personal sound onAhmad Jamal's "New Rhumba" fromMiles Ahead, the in-the-pocket swing of Gershwin's "Summertime" fromPorgy & Bess, and the Moorish melodies of "The Pan Piper" fromSketches of Spain. Other classic tracks include the sophisticated classicism of "Jeru" from the 1949-50Birth of the Coolnonets, the spectral and spare "Générique" fromthe soundtrackto the 1957 French filmAscenseur pour L'Echafaud, and his romantic rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time." Simply put, Miles lives.--Eugene Holley Jr.