Refreshed

MILES DAVIS
The Best of Miles Davis & John Coltrane (1955-1961) (Columbia/Legacy)
The Essential Miles Davis (Columbia/Legacy)
Wrapping up Columbia's celebration of jazz deity Miles Davis' 75th birthday are two compilations. The Best of Miles Davis & John Coltrane (1955-1961) is a nine-song collection drawn from the six years the pair of innovators worked together. It serves as a sampler for the box set that came out a couple of years ago, as well as an introduction to their collaboration. Diehards will have all these performances already, since they no doubt own the box or the individual albums on which the songs originally appear. However, for neophytes this set can serve as an intro not only to the two men's work but also to jazz in general. Blues, ballads, bop and swing come together here, fired by a chemistry rare in any genre. "Bye Bye Blackbird," "'Round Midnight," "Straight, No Chaser" and "So What" are quite simply as good as straightahead jazz gets. Even if you already own these tracks, their combination here adds up to pure listening pleasure. If you've never heard jazz, this is a perfect point of entry.

A two-disc set, The Essential Miles Davis takes a much broader view, beginning in 1945 with his early work with Charlie "Bird" Parker and going up through 1986 and his synth-heavy work for Warner Bros. Even with two CDs stuffed full to the brim, it's a hit-and-run survey of a long and often astonishing career. It starts with a performance of Miles as sideman on Bird's "Now's the Time," a quintessential slice of bebop, and moves through the bop and cool jazz tracks he recorded for Prestige, Blue Note and Capitol (Birth of the Cool's "Jeru") before settling into the Columbia years with "'Round Midnight." The set hits most of the predictable highlights: "So What" from Kind of Blue, "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" from Bitches Brew, "The Pan Piper" from Sketches of Spain, "Portia" from Tutu, "Summertime" from Porgy & Bess, the title tracks from Nefertiti, E.S.P. and Someday My Prince Will Come. There are a couple of surprises, namely "Jean Pierre," from Davis' out-of-print '80s live album We Want Miles, and "Generique," a lovely track from the obscure French film Ascenseur Pour L'Echafauds. As important and just plain enjoyable as all this music is, it's ultimately just a tease. There's simply too much left uncovered. Only one song each from Birth of the Cool and Kind of Blue? Nothing from In a Silent Way? Nothing from his classic pre-Columbia bop quartet, Workin', Cookin', Relaxin' and Steamin'? "Essential" is a mighty lofty tag to put on an album that underscores the fact that two discs just isn't enough for a comprehensive overview of one of the greatest figures in American music. This might give someone who's never heard a lick of his music a decent idea of whether or not she wants to hear more, though, and that's the point. Michael Toland

For fans of: jazz