SDP Jazz Note: Miles & Trane

Jason weighs in on jazz, mentioning three of the four discs recorded by the Miles Davis Quintet in 1956: Workin', Relaxin' and Cookin'.  For some reason, Steamin', which was the second of the two recorded gets left off of the list a lot.  Maybe it's because he is lighting a cigarette on the cover.  I note that I reviewed this work earlier.  I agree with Jason that the Miles Davis disc Kind of Blue stands out as maybe the most perfect jazz recording ever made.  I am not sure I would put Coltrane's A Love Supreme at that same level, though it is surely one of the most popular jazz albums.  The latter is a long, four movement composition more akin to classical music in its structure.  I listen to it a lot, but it is a very atypical piece of jazz.  The four quintet recordings mentioned above might be the single best slice of modern jazz available.  They present the repertoire of the quintet as it toured in that year.  I happen to think that this represents the perfection of jazz: nothing that has come since has been better.  If you want to know whether you will like jazz or not, listen to "If I were a bell" on Relaxin' or "My Funny Valentine," on Cookin'.  If you don't like these numbers, you won't like jazz.