The William Claxton Collection, 180 pure virgin vinyl LPs in Gatefold packaging.

The 1958 Miles Davis group wasn’t a quintet but a sextet, with the addition of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley on alto sax. The band’s first studio album was Milestones. The rhythm section was the same as the classic 1956 quintet, with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, plus Miles, Cannonball and John Coltrane. In his autobiography, Miles referred to the making of the album in these terms: “I wanted to get my group into the studio, and we recorded ‘Billy Boy’, ‘Straight, No Chaser’, ‘Milestones’, ‘Two Bass Hit’, ‘Sid’s Ahead’, and ‘Dr. Jackle’ (listed as ‘Dr. Jekyll’) for the album "Milestones". I played piano on ‘Sid’s Ahead’ because Red got mad at me when I was trying to tell him something and left. But I loved the way the band sounded on this record and I knew that we had something special. Trane and Cannon were really playing their asses off and by then were really used to each other.”

PERSONNEL:

MILES DAVIS, trumpet
JOHN COLTRANE, tenor sax
JULIAN “CANNONBALL” ADDERLEY, alto sax
RED GARLAND, piano
PAUL CHAMBERS, bass
PHILLY JOE JONES, drums

Red Garland out and Miles Davis plays piano on “Sid’s Ahead”.
Only the rhythm section plays on “Billy Boy”.

New York, February 4 (A3, B1-B3) & March 4 (A1-A2), 1958.

SIDE A:

1 DR. JEKYLL
2 SID’S AHEAD
3 TWO BASS HIT

SIDE B:

1 MILESTONES
2 BILLY BOY
3 STRAIGHT, NO CHASER