Brooklyn Vegan tipped me off to the fact that yesterday would've been Miles Davis's 79th birthday. I love Miles. I haven't listened to much jazz in a while, but 4-5 years ago I went through a serious phase. I had just taken a great jazz class, and the Ken Burns series fueled things further. I didn't get too obscure or comprehensive, and I'm still very much an amateur, but I threw a wide net over the basics - Coltrane, Mingus, Armstrong, Rollins, Monk, Parker, etc. And the one I kept on coming back to was Miles.

What I love about Miles Davis is how often and relentlessly he reinvented himself. His tireless innovation yielded a discography in which my four or five favorites sound little like each other except that they are each unmistakeably Miles. Kind of Blue kicked things off for me, as it should have, when I saw it cheap and was told it was required listening. Of course, it is, and it's still one of my favorites - the original late night album. In A Silent Way is the other landmark, when his band went electric. The lineup on both records is staggering, filled with guys that could (and would) carry albums on their own. By contrast Miles is very much the focus of his orchestral work with Gil Evans, and his playing and solos are more than up to the task. I never thought I'd dig those albums but then I heard them, and now two of my favorites come from that phase - Sketches of Spain and Porgy and Bess. To be in the studio for those sessions, to see the band jamming with an orchestra behind them, would have been amazing.

Here are a couple tunes to celebrate the man's birthday:

Miles Davis - "Gone" (MP3)

"Gone" is from the orchestral Porgy and Bess, in fact it's the only song on the album that's not a Gershwin. Instead Gil Evans wrote it, and it blends in perfectly. Philly Joe Jones tears it up on drums for pretty much all of the song. I love his intro parts, and how easily Miles slides out of them on flugelhorn.

Miles Davis - "Shhh/Peaceful" (unedited) (MP3)

Miles is on his usual trumpet on the 19-minute unedited "Shhh/Peaceful," which is taken from The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions. In A Silent Way was very much a studio creation, painstakingly stitched together by producer Teo Macero. "Shhhh/Peaceful" was never played as it was initially released; the unedited version didn't come out until this box set, and it's fascinating to hear the differences. Full sections and themes were excised, others (like the familiar intro) were completely transplanted, and both versions stand tall on their own.

(There's a bit of noise on both these rips, especially the second one, but they're still worth hearing. Apologies - my laptop is being testy today. I'll try to get something cleaner up later.)