What is immedately noticeable upon listening to
Miles Davis
' classic first -- and only -- album with his original sextet is how deep the
blues
presence is on it. Though it's true that the album's title cut is rightfully credited with introducing
modalism
into
jazz
, and defining
Davis
' music for years to come, it is the sole selection of its kind on the record. The rest is all
in any flavor you wish you call your own. For starters, there's the steaming
bebop
of
"Dr. Jackle,"
recorded in 1955 for a
Prestige
session with
Jackie McLean
.
is still in his role as a trumpet master, showing a muscularity of tone that reveals something more akin to
Roy Eldridge
or
Louis Armstrong
than
Dizzy
Fats Navarro
. The tempo is furious, as all the members of the sextet solo except for
Jones
. The saxophonists trade choruses and come off sounding like mirrored images of one another in the slower,
post-bop
that is
"Sid's Ahead,"
which is followed by
"Two Bass Hit,"
written by
and
John Lewis
. It's an off-kilter
with a wide middle section, no doubt for
Lewis
' piano to fill. But then comes
"Milestones"
with its modal round and interval, where harmony is constructed from the center up. It is a memorable tune for not only its structure and how it would inform not only
' own music, but
in general for the next seven years. The album's closer is
Monk
's
"Straight, No Chaser,"
which became a signature tune for the sextet even when
Garland
left to be replaced by
Bill Evans
Jimmy Cobb
, and later
Evans
by
Wynton Kelly
. ~ Thom Jurek