100 Sideway Miles

A beautiful way to experience the early work of Miles Davis - all 14 of his 50s albums for Prestige Records, presented in a special box that contains each album in a tiny replica LP-styled sleeve. The music here is the stuff of legend - trumpet material that really transformed the way the instrument was used in jazz - as Davis really comes into his own as a leader, after time spent recording with Charlie Parker, and doing a bit for Blue Note - then really taking off in the full length space offered by the album format on Prestige. Some of these sets feature classic collaborations with the young John Coltrane, and others include work with Sonny Rollins on tenor, Milt Jackson on vibes, and JJ Johnson on trombone - as well as the famous rhythm section of Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums…

Miles Davis was one of the greatest and most important musical figures of the 20th century, he, along with a few others, was at the forefront of those developing Jazz throughout the 50s through to the 70s. We include here many of his most memorable studio recordings from the 40s, 50s and early 60s.

Best known for his worldwide instrumental hit "Children," Italian dance producer Robert Miles was responsible for kick-starting the subgenre of dream-trance, a blissfully chilled-out fusion of Vangelis-style neo-classical music and progressive house beats, which helped him to bag a Brit Award and several Top Ten singles in the mid-'90s. Since his last commercial success, the Kathy Sledge-featuring "Freedom," 14 years ago, he's abandoned his celestial piano-based roots in favor of experimental trip-hop on 2001's Organik and ethnic jazz on 2004's Miles_Gurtu, a collaboration with Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu. Seven years on, he returns from the musical wilderness with his fifth studio album, Th1Rt3En, and another new sound that further distances himself from his Euro-dance beginnings.

Avid Jazz continues with its Three Classic Albums plus series with a re-mastered 2CD release from Miles Davis complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details. "'Round About Midnight", "Milestones", "Kind Of Blue" and plus two live versions of "So What".

The Classic Prestige Sessions 1951-1956 collects all of the sides recorded by trumpeter Miles Davis and tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins for Prestige during their time together as young players in New York City. Both musicians were just past their formative years during this period, having broken free from the heavy sway of their bop elders – especially alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, who appears here in several classic cuts originally released on Collector's Items. Both Davis and Rollins were expanding the bop mold and beginning to discover their own sound. Davis had already made his mark with the innovative West Coast jazz masterpiece Birth of the Cool and was further developing his romantic and cerebral minimalism. Similarly, Rollins was quickly becoming the heir to Parker's throne as the most searching and muscular saxophonist on the scene. The dichotomy of their sounds made Davis and Rollins a perfect rub as jazz partners and these recordings helped foreshadow and define such future jazz movements as hard bop, post-bop, and even free jazz.

Cookin' is the first of four albums derived from the Miles Davis Quintet's fabled extended recording session on October 26, 1956; the concept being that the band would document its vast live-performance catalog in a studio environment, rather than preparing all new tracks for its upcoming long-player…

Miles Davis' recordings of 1951-1954 tend to be overlooked because of his erratic lifestyle of the period and because they predated his first classic quintet. Although he rarely recorded during this era, what he did document was often quite classic. The two sessions included on this CD (which includes three alternate takes) are among the earliest hard bop recordings and would indirectly influence the modern mainstream music of the 1960s. The first session features Davis in a sextet with trombonist J.J. Johnson, altoist Jackie McLean, pianist Gil Coggins, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Kenny Clarke; highlights include "Dear Old Stockholm," "Woody 'n You," and interpretations of "Yesterdays" and "How Deep Is the Ocean"…