Editor’s Note: From Albumism’s inception back in 2016, we’ve remained unabashedly and unequivocally passionate about our mission of celebrating the world's love affairs with albums past, present and future.
But while our devotion to the album as an art form has remained steadfast, as evidenced by our deepening repository of individual album tributes and reviews, we’ve admittedly seldom taken the opportunity to explicitly articulate our reverence for the virtues of artists’ complete album repertoires as a whole.
Hence why we’ve decided to showcase what we believe to be the most dynamic discographies of all time in this recurring series. In doing so, we hope to better understand the broader creative context within which our most beloved individual albums exist, while acknowledging the full breadth of their creators’ artistry, career arcs, and overall contributions to the ever-evolving musical landscape.
We hope you enjoy this series and be sure to check here periodically for the latest installments.
MILES DAVIS
Studio Albums: The New Sounds (1951) | Young Man with a Horn (1952) | Blue Period (1953) | The Compositions of Al Cohn (1953) | Miles Davis Volume 2 (1953) | Miles Davis Volume 3 (1954) | Miles Davis Quartet (1954) | Miles Davis All-Star Sextet (1954) | Miles Davis Quintet (1954) | Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins (1954) | Miles Davis All Stars, Volume 1 (1955) | Miles Davis All Stars, Volume 2 (1955) | Musings of Miles (1955) | Blue Moods (1955) | Dig (1956) | Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet (1956) | Miles Davis and Horns (1956) | Quintet/Sextet (1956) | Birth of the Cool (1957) | Collectors’ Items (1957) | Blue Haze (1956) | Walkin’ (1957) | Cookin’ (1957) | Bags’ Groove (1957) | ‘Round About Midnight (1957) | Miles Ahead (1957) | Relaxin’ (1958) | Milestones (1958) | Jazz Track (1958) | Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (1959) | Workin’ (1959) | Porgy and Bess (1959) | Kind of Blue (1959) | Sketches of Spain (1960) | Steamin’ (1961) | Someday My Prince Will Come (1961) | Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) (1963) | Seven Steps to Heaven (1963) | E.S.P. (1965) | Miles Smiles (1967) | Sorcerer (1967) | Nefertiti (1967) | Miles in the Sky (1968) | Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968) | In a Silent Way (1969) | Bitches Brew (1970) | Jack Johnson (1971) | Live-Evil (1971) | On the Corner (1972) | Big Fun (1974) | Get Up with It (1974) | Water Babies (1976) | The Man with the Horn (1981) | Star People (1983) | Decoy (1984) | You’re Under Arrest (1985) | Tutu (1986) | Amandia (1989) | Aura (1989) | Doo-Bop (1992) | Rubberband (2019)
Miles Davis changed the course of 20th Century music five or six times. At least, that's what he said about himself. But who am I to argue with that? If genius is an overused word, then this is one case where it is definitely appropriate.
Having started at the prestigious Juilliard music school, it wasn’t long before Davis was playing alongside his heroes (like Charlie Parker) in the jazz clubs of New York City. With Birth of the Cool (1957), he began the “cool”’ jazz movement in the early ‘50s before playing some of the earliest examples of hard bop. But it was his mid ‘50s output including the jazz orchestral works with Gil Evans and his monumental Kind of Blue (1959) that are among his most famous. But his restless creativity continued to expand the boundaries of what jazz could be.
Post-bop came and went, and African rhythms and funk-inflected work entered his early 1970s repertoire before he threw the gauntlet down to jazz fans and critics alike with his use of electronic music and rock to create epochal albums like In A Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970). He opened the door to the world of jazz for me—teaching me what I liked and (unsurprisingly over such a long and voluminous career) didn’t like. It seems to me, as an embryonic lover of jazz, that he did everything in his own time. Even against the frantic hard bop rhythms, time seems to stop still when he puts his lip to his horn—he was on his own timeline and unafraid to go anywhere the feeling took him.
Beyond the sheer musicality of Davis though, he represents freedom to me and introduced a whole galaxy of other artists to my collection. Without Davis, there’s no John Coltrane or Herbie Hancock—he was a beacon to light the way, both for fellow artists and grateful listeners like me.
Patrick’s 3 Favorite Miles Davis Albums of All Time:
1. Kind of Blue (1959)
2. Milestones (1958)
3. Sketches of Spain (1960)
VISIT Miles Davis’ Official Store
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