Miles Davis, Volume 1 and 2 — Blue Note 1501 and 1502

Miles Davis didn’t record much for Blue Note Records, just three sessions in three years. So it’s odd that the very first two CDs in Blue Note’s classic 1500 series – the 100 albums from the 1950s that made Blue Note the top label in hard bop – are from Miles Davis.

They’re not bad records, but they’re not essential Miles Davis. This isn’t classic muted Miles, or modal Miles, or Miles with orchestra. And, of course, it’s many years before classic fusion Miles. AllMusic.com lists six definitive Miles Davis CDs, which you probably know by heart, and this isn’t one of them.

Still, these are melodic and occasionally rocking recordings. They document three sessions, one each from 1952, ’53 and ’54 – just a year or two before the classic quintets with John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. So the sound is familiar, and some of the sidemen are top-notch, including Horace Silver, Art Blakey and J.J. Johnson on some cuts. Other sidemen are less essential, including pianist Gil Coggins and a young Jackie McLean.

This is hard bop in its infancy, the best of which feature Blakey as the propulsive backbeat. Yes, there are ballads that presage the moody, languid Miles of the mid-‘50s. One relaxed tune, “It Never Entered My Mind,” even features the muted trumpet that would later become Davis’ trademark.

But it’s the bop that makes these discs worthwhile. Of the three recording sessions, the best is a 1953 sextet with Davis, Johnson and tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath on horns, and Blakey on drums. The six powerful cuts from that sessions include two originals by Johnson (“Kelo” and “Enigma”), Heath’s “CTA” and Bud Powell’s iconic “Tempus Fugit.” Unfortunately, the sextet recorded only six short tunes, so Blue Note offers an alternate take for each – not exactly twice the music, depending on your taste for alternate takes.

One notable cut is “The Leap” on Volume 1, a 1954 recording, with Silver quoting liberally from Thelonious Monk… followed immediately by the Monk tune “Well You Needn’t.”

So, not the all-time best Miles Davis, but also not a bad start for Blue Note’s justly famous 1500 series. And not a bad introduction to early Miles, just a short time before he became (arguably) the most famous jazz trumpeter of all time.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Many copies on Amazon, new and used

Cost: Under $2 each used

A Ridiculous Quest Begins

Two years ago, I bought 31 Agatha Christie novels – all at once. Then I wanted more.

It didn’t seem nutty at the time. My local library sells used books. One day I was in the store and there they were: a set of blue-covered, leatherette books. It was the Agatha Christie Mystery Collection by Bantam Books. I like Agatha Christie; I used to like her a whole lot. I had a notion that someday I would read all her novels. So a matching set of 31 Agatha Christies – at the ridiculous price of $1 a book – was something I could not pass up. I bought them all.

But as any mystery fan knows, Agatha Christie wrote many more than 31 books. Thirty-one isn’t even half. Oh no. And having bought 31, I was sure I needed all the rest. And not just any Christies but the complete, 81-book, blue-covered leatherette Bantam set.

And then, I was sure, I would read them all.

This is the collector’s mentality. It’s not enough to have a book. It’s not enough to read the book. A collector must own every book in the series, preferably in the same hard-covered matching set.

It’s not an investment. It’s not even about reading and enjoying them all. It’s about the pride of having.

It’s a psychological thing, and I don’t pretend to understand why. It just is.

All collectors are like this. For some, it’s about stamps, or baseball cards, or Beatles records. As a kid, I collected all those things, plus Hardy Boy mystery books. I didn’t want just the star baseball cards – the Willie Mayses, the Tom Seavers. I wanted the whole series, including the scrubs. (Topps, the baseball card company, made it very easy to know whether you had every single card. They printed one or two special cards in every series that contained checklists of all the other cards you needed to own. How thoughtful.)

And so I now begin another collecting quest. I want to own every Blue Note jazz CD from the 1950s and ‘60s. As a jazz fan for 40 years, this is my favorite genre, on my favorite label, in my favorite era. I want to hear all this music, sure. But more than that, I want to own it. All of it.

I know. There’s a ton of great music on other labels. RCA Victor is older. (Check out the 9-CD 80^th anniversary box set. Mama mia!) Impulse is more avant garde. (Check out The House That Trane Built. A most excellent read.) And the Wynton Marsalis catalog is practically a label unto itself. (Did he really release eight single albums in 1999 and then a 7-CD box set of live recordings at the Village Vanguard? Jeez.)

So yeah – Blue Note, a singularly boppish choice. My goal is to pick up every CD in the 1500 series, in order (that’s 100 albums), then move on to the 4000 series, then 4100 and so on. I see lots of familiar names: Thelonious Monk, J.J. Johnson, Bud Powell, Jimmy Smith, Lou Donaldson. But also plenty of unfamiliar names: Thad Jones, Jutta Hipp, J.R. Monterose, Sabu, the Three Sounds.

Discovery – that’s the whole point. Great, familiar hard bop seasoned with enough new tunes and bands to make the whole enterprise comforting yet intriguing.

Ambitious? Yeah. Overly ambitious? Probably.

But the collector is excited. We shall see.