Best Miles Davis Album 1949-1974

"and then we took a meeting"

I think Bitches Brew is a much more difficult and forbidding listen to modern ears not already used to jazz.

I don't really think of BB as jazz

When I ranked Davis albums for Stereogum, keeping IASW out of the top ten (it was #12) pissed off even more commenters than putting On The Corner at #1.

― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Friday, October 18, 2019 3:24 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I recall enjoying this list despite the rankings, which were imo ludicrous. No offense - I thought the writing was terrific. But can't see how any non-trolling person who's heard more than five Miles albums from literally any part of his discography would ever put OTC at #1. I don't even know how anyone tells the songs on that record apart.

any non-trolling person

Reads like trolling tbh.

SO why aren't we discussing Sorcerer or Nefertiti?

"Pee Wee"? "Prince of Darkness"? And Miles in the Sky has "Stuff," c'mon now.

I always thought Miles in the Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro were very underrated. Also, it's ridiculous that both of these, Nefertiti, and Miles Smiles were released in the same year. I like this period, the sorta sweet spot between two very distinct eras...

It's so easy to lapse into hyperbole when you talk about this dude, but jesus what a towering goddamn body of work.

not exactly the same year since Miles Smiles is early '67 and Filles de Kilimanjaro is late '68, but I agree that those first two you mention are underrated

But can't see how any non-trolling person who's heard more than five Miles albums from literally any part of his discography would ever put OTC at #1. I don't even know how anyone tells the songs on that record apart.

― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, October 19, 2019 9:26 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i try to abandon incredulity in the face of any aspect of peoples' tastes so i dont mean to echo your own here but i dont know man, the release itself is not my personal #1 but if you enjoy miles' electric work in any respect i struggle to think how you could hear the music spread across the complete OTC sessions that produced OTC, BF and GUWI and think that people who really dig that music and that band are 'trolling'

like dude maybe step back and consider that this band miles assembled is killer and the funk is harder than anything in the universe of funk, maybe people might like that? lol

Like, if someone ranked The Musings of Miles at #1 I'd be a tad bemused but On the Corner is an inaugural album for so many genres and subgenres, it's not hard to see what makes it a credible contender.

"On the Corner" would definitely win this poll if run again. Don't like it much personally tbh.

I don't even know how anyone tells the songs on that record apart.

i'm sure you can work it out

since when does it matter

the correct album won this

where has the last 12 years gone since I ran this poll

between digital & LPs I have a lot of miles- when I play mp3s, streaming etc I listen to the stuff off the various Complete Sessions boxes- all the stuff that had gone uncollected prior. But is it my favorite or his best? Not necessarily but it's all interesting. When I put on records, I listen to Ascensur/Jazz Track, Miles Smiles, & Big Fun the most. I suspect my trajectory with Miles was like many people- Started with BB & Silent Way, then stayed in the heavy funk era for a long time. Over the ensuing years I have played the 2nd quintet stuff much more and am finally back in the 50s in the early Columbia years. No real point, just that I find it remarkable how much the music has to offer, and my changing perceptions of it over time. There isn't anything I find where I think "oh this wasn't all that after all". If anything, occasional replays of the 80s material have made me more generous toward some (not all) of it...

JAZZ IS LIKE HEROIN TO ME ! ! ! ~~~~ ILM POST-1945 JAZZ ALBUMS POLL - THE RESULTS COUNTDOWN (now counting top 25!)

In A Silent Way won that ^

Porgy and Bess is a fucking beautiful album and just about as close to perfection as he has reached at other times in a recording studio over the decades. Not that much of a controp either - 5 people back then agreed.

no votes for Big Fun is ridic!

There *is* something a little weird about OTC at number one — not that it’s not legit for someone to have as their fav miles album but it’s so representative of a very specific style of his music vs being especially representative ... I think the reason something like KoB is so often listed at no 1 is because it’s seen is bridging different styles and eras of his while being very singularly itself. OTC at number one is so dismissive of the mass of miles fans who valued the intricacies of his bebop, cool, hardbop, and post bop records it’s hard not to take it as a pretty extreme ideological statement about what “really matters” in his career — and to see that as deferential to a rock & funk generation that came later

*vs being especially representative of his whole career, I mean

In other words, nothing wrong it as personal preference but for a publication it’s saying something very uh bold about the values & preferences of its writers

There *is* something a little weird about OTC at number one — not that it’s not legit for someone to have as their fav miles album but it’s so representative of a very specific style of his music vs being especially representative

... I think the reason something like KoB is so often listed at no 1 is because it’s seen is bridging different styles and eras of his while being very singularly itself.

OTC at number one is so dismissive of the mass of miles fans who valued the intricacies of his bebop, cool, hardbop, and post bop records it’s hard not to take it as a pretty extreme ideological statement about what “really matters” in his career — and to see that as deferential to a rock & funk generation that came later

What puts In A Silent Way over the top for this period is its length and cohesion. Bitches Brew is more, I don't know, "advanced" than In A Silent Way? And sprawling. It has more to offer. But spending all that time wandering through it, it's a pretty big lift. Pharaoh's Dance requires set and setting. Shhh/Peaceful doesn't. Maybe that's because I've listened to it more and because my synapses are already primed for it. I don't know. But the idea of a canon being self-reinforcing makes sense to me, my favorite records are the ones I've listened to the most.

OTC as a pick is just extending the line of ceaseless-boundary-pushing out as far as it goes relative to a preference for 'works', decisive steps, etc. (there are reasons to pick other albums from the back end of his 70s run but maybe that one covers more criteria better). much later and you're picking fine but underrated albums that almost no one lauds as groundbreaking. earlier and someone could always object, ok but that's not nearly so XXX as OTC.

Maybe it’s less “dismissive of the mass of Miles fans,” and more that that particular mass of Miles fans is generally dismissive of electric Miles.

nah. i think there are things abt miles that the electric miles fans tend to be not interested in or dismissive of, looking to appreciate miles songs in toto bc they dont really care as much abt the soloist as auteur, more concerned w/ album creator as auteur ... i def think there's a pretty distinct difference between how rock oriented fans approach miles' catalog vs artists who came up w/ his stuff as fans of jazz

OTC as a pick is just extending the line of ceaseless-boundary-pushing out as far as it goes relative to a preference for 'works', decisive steps, etc. (there are reasons to pick other albums from the back end of his 70s run but maybe that one covers more criteria better). much later and you're picking fine but underrated albums that almost no one lauds as groundbreaking. earlier and someone could always object, ok but that's not nearly so XXX as OTC.

― j., Saturday, October 19, 2019 4:30 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

dont disagree w this but i think that kind of reinforces what im saying abt it not being especially representative of his career on the whole ... like ppl dont generally expect coltrane fans to see 'interestellar space' as the best trane album, not that they *cant* feel that way but its making a pretty extreme statement

coltrane does have a similar rep for that but that story in his case also has a TOO FAR, TOO FAAAAR qualifier

Unchallenging opinion: OTC is my least favourite from this period.

I wish I could have afforded the OTC box set

porgy and bess is incredible

Honestly I don't even feel like "best Miles Davis album" is a question particularly flattering to a lot of his works. I'm not just talking about the not-album Birth of the Cool, but Miles put a lot of his best work on albums that aren't coherent or cohesive. I fucking love the song "Circle in the Round" and have since I first heard it through the Either/Orchestra but while most of the other people who have heard it love it, how many of us are there?

otm

'Ware the OTC box, Oor Neehy! At least to my ears, it starts intriguingly and soon gets less and less related by anything but the calendar: that's how quickly his music was changing, and you would be better off with the original releases (I always thought Live-Evil was way better than BB). Also beware of the early Columbia CDs, maybe especially initial Miles Ahead and Kind of Blue---Gary Giddens used to get so pissed off!
Worthy comps:Big Fun, Cirle In The Round, and my fave rave,The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions
I dig most Miles in all eras, and don't sleep on Sketches of Spain either.

Oor Neechy, that is, sorry

heh i started this thread dow. I have the complete columbia albums CDs box set, a few box sets and CDs on prestige. I have loads of miles.

the OTC boxgoes for silly money now I think so way out of my price range

I like Live-Evil but I never heard it until after the Cellar Door box so the album is a bit spoiled for me.

I'm one of those who found On the Corner interesting, but it only really clicked for me after hearing the full, un-Ted-Maceroed edits on the box set. Frankly I think they work far better as musical constructions there. On the Corner is a collage album, and it's a tremendous curiosity, but the real meat of the music, in terms of fully developed pieces with beginnings, middles and ends is there on Disc 1 of the On the Corner Sessions.

Live-Evil is one of the 1st CDs I bought in the mid 90s. £1.99 from Missing Records in Glasgow in one of their sales

all polls are bad especially polls that fail to include dark magus

Dark Magus is my favorite of the mid 70s live double slabs

to point out such a glaring omission might just be the spark in the powder barrel to kick off another bad poll... and so it goes on!

I love Agharta and Dark Magus.

i will not rest until all the polls on ilm are deleted for omitting dark magus

Its great to see mark being so pro-poll

I forget that is D Liebman on sax on Dark Magus. He's still doing lots of fine music on a regular basis.

I also forget what a cool album Agharta was as well.