''Miles Davis, Volumes 1 & 2'' are a pair of separate but related albums by American jazz trumpeter

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

recorded on May 9, 1952, April 20, 1953 and March 6, 1954 and released on

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

early 1956. The three sessions were originally released on ten-inch LPs as ''Young Man with a Horn'' (1953), ''Miles Davis, Vol. 2'' (1953) and ''Miles Davis, Vol. 3'' (1954), respectively.

Background

Personal life

''Volume 1'' was originally released in January 1956 shortly after Davis won the ''

DownBeat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

'' readers poll as best trumpeter and shortly followed in February by ''Volume 2'' (BLP 1502).

Release history

After 10"s lost the format war, Blue Note began reissuing its Modern Jazz Series on 12"s. The three sessions were subsequently recompiled across ''Miles Davis, Volume 1'' (BLP 1501) and ''Miles Davis, Volume 2'' (BLP 1502), the first of Blue Note's 1500 series, their first one hundred 12" records after they discontinued their line of 10" records. The two volumes were recompiled for their CD reissue, restoring the track listing of the original 10"s, placing ''Vol. 1'' (BLP 2028) on ''Volume 1'', and ''Vol. 2'' (BLP 5057) ''and Vol. 3'' (BLP 5070) on ''Volume 2''. While the original BLP 1501 running order is available on some Japanese CD versions and from HDTracks, most CD reissues recompile the three sets with an entirely different track listing, grouping the sessions together and appending alternate takes, placing the 1952 and 1954 sessions on ''Volume 1'' and the 1953 session on ''Volume 2''. When

Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including Booker Ervin, John Coltrane, Mil ...

remastered the pair of the 2001 RVG edition, he reused the CD track list and replaced the covers for the two volumes with new covers based on the originals from ''Miles Davis, Vol. 3'' and ''Miles Davis, Vol. 2'' respectively.

Reception

The album was identified by

Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author. Life and career Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Beginning in 1974, Yanow was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles and was the jazz e ...

in his

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

essay "Hard Bop" in 2010 as one of the 17 Essential Hard Bop Recordings.

Track listing

''Miles Davis, Volume 1''

''Miles Davis, Volume 2''

CD reissues

Source:

Personnel

Musicians

May 9, 1952

Source: *

– trumpet * J. J. Johnson – trombone *

Jackie McLean John Lenwood McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their death. Bio ...

– alto saxophone * Gil Coggins – piano *

Oscar Pettiford Oscar Pettiford (September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960) was an American jazz double bassist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom. Jazz bassist Christian McBride called Pettiford "probably the most imp ...

– bass *

Kenny Clarke Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), known professionally as Kenny Clarke and nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride ...

– drums ** Recorded at WOR Studios, New York City

April 20, 1953

Source: * Miles Davis – trumpet * J. J. Johnson – trombone *

Jimmy Heath James Edward Heath (October 25, 1926 – January 19, 2020), nicknamed Little Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader. He was the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath. Biography Heath w ...

– tenor saxophone * Gil Coggins – piano *

Percy Heath Percy Heath (April 30, 1923 – April 28, 2005) was an American jazz bassist, brother of saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975. Heath played with the Modern Jazz Quartet througho ...

– bass *

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

– drums ** Recorded at WOR Studios, New York City

March 6, 1954

Source:March 6, 1954 Session Details
Miles Ahead: A Miles Davis Website, accessed July 14, 2014 * Miles Davis – trumpet *

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...

– piano * Percy Heath – bass * Art Blakey – drums ** Recorded at

Van Gelder Studio The Van Gelder Studio is a recording studio at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, United States. Following the use of his parents' home at 25 Prospect Avenue, Hackensack, New Jersey, for the original studio, Rudy Van Gelder (1924 ...

, Hackensack, New Jersey

Technical personnel

Original

Alfred Lion Alfred Lion (born Alfred Löw; April 21, 1908 – February 2, 1987) was a German-born American record executive who co-founded the jazz record label Blue Note in 1939. Lion retired in 1967, having sold the company, after producing recordings by le ...

– producer * Doug Hawkins (1952, 1953) – recording engineer *

(1954) – recording engineer * John Hermansader,

Reid Miles Reid Miles (July 4, 1927 – February 2, 1993) was an American graphic designer and photographer best known for his work for Blue Note Records in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Miles was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 4, 1927, but, follow ...

– cover design *

Francis Wolff Francis Wolff (April 5, 1907 – March 8, 1971) was a record company executive, photographer and record producer. Wolff's skills, as an executive and a photographer, were important contributions to the success of the Blue Note record label. Car ...

– photography *

Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...

– liner notes

Reissue

Michael Cuscuna Michael Cuscuna (September 20, 1948 – April 20, 2024) was an American jazz record producer and writer. He was the co-founder of Mosaic Records and a discographer of Blue Note Records. Biography Career Cuscuna played drums, saxophone and flute ...

– producer * Ron McMaster, Yoshio Okazaki – digital transfers

References

{{Authority control 1956 compilation albums Miles Davis compilation albums Albums produced by Alfred Lion Albums produced by Michael Cuscuna Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio Albums recorded in a home studio Blue Note Records compilation albums