Craft Recordings will commemorate seven decades since one of Miles Davis' most pivotal early years with a new 2CD or 4LP compilation that brings everything he recorded in that period together.

Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings offers 20 tracks from several unforgettable sessions, with luminaries like pianists Horace Silver and Thelonious Monk, drummer Art Blakey, saxophonist Sonny Rollins and vibraphonist Milt Jackson offering their talents in Davis' ensembles. The package includes a new essay by writer Ashley Kahn and in-depth session notes from Dan Morgenstern. The package commemorates both the anniversary of these sessions as well as the 75th anniversary of Prestige Records, the label that released them.

Since the late '40s, Miles had been considered a jazz trailblazer: the trumpeter was a member of Charlie Parker's bebop-playing quartet, and pioneered a "cool jazz" style in sessions with his own nine-piece ensemble (later released as the album Birth of the Cool). But it was a time of personal upheaval as well, thanks in large part to a costly and debilitating addiction to heroin. He'd ultimately move out of New York City, staying in his native St. Louis and then Detroit to kick his demons.

Arriving rejuvenated and healthy back in Manhattan in February 1954, he soon made his presence known and signed a new contract with Bob Weinstock at Prestige, who'd been a supporter since earlier in the decade. Davis first finished up some contractual requirements for Blue Note, bringing into the studio with him a new quartet comprised of longtime bassist Percy Heath, Silver on piano and Blakey on drums. This same quartet came together that March for Miles' first Prestige session of the year, tackling originals ("Four," "Blue Haze") and Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg's standard "Old Devil Moon." A month later, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, NJ, Davis cut a session with a quintet, retaining Silver and Heath and adding drummer Kenny Clarke (who, with Heath, made up the rhythm section of the Modern Jazz Quartet) and alto saxophonist Dave Schildkraut.

Only weeks later, on April 29, did Miles return to Van Gelder's studio for a session he later called one of the most pivotal of the period. Working with Silver, Heath and Clarke and adding J.J. Johnson and Lucky Thompson on trombone and tenor sax, this sextet session found him starting to rotate slightly away from bebop toward a more blues-infused sound. He'd further explore this style, influenced in part by the spacings of pianist Ahmad Jamal and later codified as "hard bop," in a June 29 session at Van Gelder; once again, he rotated out horn players, adding sax upstart Sonny Rollins to form a quintet with himself, Silver, Heath and Clarke. That session featured three originals by Rollins, including "Oleo," a staple of both horn players' live sets for years to come, and a rendition of the Gershwin standard "But Not for Me."

Davis only cut one more Prestige session in 1954, returning to Hackensack on Christmas Eve. Along with Heath and Clarke, he added one more member of the MJQ to his session, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and legendary pianist Thelonious Monk. Though rumors persisted that the session came to blows at one point (a claim Davis denied), this quintet brought the fire on renditions of Jackson's standard "Bags' Groove," Davis' "Swing Spring," Monk's "Bemsha Swing" and another Gershwin tune, "The Man I Love." The material from these "all-star sessions" were issued in 1955, another pivotal year for the man with the horn thanks to a stunning Newport Jazz Festival set that put him on the radar for a fateful deal with Columbia Records.

Though all these tracks - including alternates of "But Not for Me," "Bags' Groove" and "The Man I Love" - have been released on original 10" and 12" albums by Prestige between 1954 and 1959, this collection marks an opportunity to fans old and new to add these essential recordings into your collection. It's available November 22 and can be pre-ordered at the links below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

Miles '54: The Prestige Recordings (Craft Recordings, 2024)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1/LP 1 and LP 2, Side C and Side D, Tracks 1-2

1. Four
2. Old Devil Moon
3. Blue Haze
4. Solar
5. You Don't Know What Love Is
6. Love Me or Leave Me
7. I'll Remember April
8. Blue 'N' Boogie
9. Walkin'
10. Airegin
11. Oleo

CD 2/LP 2, Side D, Tracks 3-4 and LPs 3-4

1. But Not for Me (Take 1)
2. But Not for Me (Take 2)
3. Doxy
4. Bags' Groove (Take 1)
5. Bags' Groove (Take 2)
6. Bemsha Swing
7. Swing Spring
8. The Man I Love (Take 1)
9. The Man I Love (Take 2)

Disc 1, Tracks 1-3 from Miles Davis Quartet - Prestige PRLP 161, 1954
Disc 1, Tracks 4-5 and 7 released as Miles Davis Quintet - Prestige PRLP 185, 1954
Disc 1, Track 6 from Blue Haze - Prestige PRLP 7054, 1956
Disc 1, Tracks 8-9 released as Miles Davis All-Star Sextet - Prestige PRLP 182, 1954
Disc 1, Tracks 10-11 and Disc 2, Tracks 1 and 3 released as Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins - Prestige PRLP 187, 1954
Disc 2, Tracks 2 and 5 from Bags' Groove - Prestige PRLP 7109, 1957
Disc 2, Tracks 4 and 7 released as Miles Davis All Stars Vol. 1 - Prestige PRLP 196, 1955
Disc 2, Tracks 6 and 8 released as Miles Davis All Stars Vol. 2 - Prestige PRLP 200, 1955
Disc 2, Track 9 from Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants - Prestige PRLP 7150, 1959