Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection Explained

The Complete Columbia Album Collection
Type:	box
Artist:	Miles Davis
Cover:	MilesDavis CompleteColumbiaCollection 2009.jpg
Released:	November 24, 2009
Recorded:	1949–1989
Genre:	Jazz
Length:	62 hours
Label:	Sony Legacy
Producer:	Daniel Baumgarten, Richard Seidet

Miles Davis: The Complete Columbia Album Collection is a box set by jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 2009. It contains all the official releases on the Columbia Records label. The box set consists of 70 CDs and 1 DVD.^[1]

Contents

The box set contains fifty-two albums on seventy CDs spanning Davis' career on Columbia Records from 1949 to 1989. All albums feature their original tracklists, while some use various deluxe reissue tracklists when available. A few albums received never-before-released bonus tracks. It also includes a never-before-released CD of the full Isle of Wight 1970 concert, a bonus DVD of the Miles Davis Quintet performing live in Europe in 1967. It also contains a 250-page book with annotations on every album and a biographical essay by magazine editor Frederic Goaty. Since this covers everything that Columbia owns, several albums from the early stages and the later stage of Davis' career are not included. This includes everything released by Prestige Records from 1951 to 1960, which is 12 10" records, and 9 full albums. Also missing is the short-lived Warner Bros. contract Miles had from 1986 to 1991, ending with his death. This includes the praised Tutu and Amandla, as well as 3 others. (One Warner Bros. album, Rubberband, was not released until about 10 years after this set came out.)

The albums were ordered in the box set by time of recording (as opposed to album release date); this order is reflected in the list below. All albums were newly remastered in 2009 for supreme sound quality.

Disc #	Album #	Album	Year	Version
Disc 1	No. 1	In Paris Festival International de Jazz, May 1949	1977	Original 1977 Mono Mix
Disc 2	No. 2	'Round About Midnight	1957	Original 1957 Mono Mix
Disc 3	No. 3	Circle in the Round	1979	Original 1979 Stereo Mix
Disc 4
Disc 5	No. 4	Miles Ahead	1957	1996 True Stereo Mix
Disc 6	No. 5	Milestones	1958	2000 True Stereo Mix
Disc 7	No. 6	1958 Miles	1974
Disc 8	No. 7	At Newport 1958	1964	1994 True Stereo Mix
Disc 9	No. 8	Porgy and Bess	1959	1996 True Stereo Mix
Disc 10	No. 9	Jazz at the Plaza	1973	2000 True Stereo Mix
Disc 11	No. 10	Kind of Blue	1959	1997 Stereo Mix
Disc 12	No. 11	Sketches of Spain	1960	1996 Stereo Mix
Disc 13	No. 12	Directions	1981	Original 1981 Stereo Mix
Disc 14
Disc 15	No. 13	Someday My Prince Will Come	1961	1999 Stereo Mix
Disc 16	No. 14	In Person Friday Night at the Blackhawk	1961	2003 Stereo Mix
Disc 17
Disc 18	No. 15	In Person Saturday Night at the Blackhawk
Disc 19
Disc 20	No. 16	Carnegie Hall	1962	1998 Mono Mix
Disc 21
Disc 22	No. 17	Quiet Nights	1963	2009 Stereo Mix
Disc 23	No. 18	Seven Steps to Heaven		2004 Stereo Mix
Disc 24	No. 19	In Europe	1964	2005 Mono Mix
Disc 25	No. 20	My Funny Valentine	1965	2004 Stereo Mix
Disc 26	No. 21	'Four' and More	1966
Disc 27	No. 22	Miles in Tokyo	1969	Original 1969 Stereo Mix
Disc 28	No. 23	Miles in Berlin	1965	2004 Mono Mix
Disc 29	No. 24	E.S.P.	1965	1998 Stereo Mix
Disc 30	No. 25	Plugged Nickel, Vol. 1 and 2	1976	1995 Stereo Mix
Disc 31
Disc 32	No. 26	Miles Smiles	1967	1998 Stereo Mix
Disc 33	No. 27	Sorcerer
Disc 34	No. 28	Nefertiti	1968
Disc 35	No. 29	Water Babies	1976
Disc 36	No. 30	Miles in the Sky	1968	1998 Stereo Mix / 1993 Stereo Mix
Disc 37	No. 31	Filles de Kilimanjaro		Original 1968 Stereo Mix
Disc 38	No. 32	In a Silent Way	1969	Original 1969 Stereo Mix
Disc 39	No. 33	Bitches Brew	1970	Original 1970 Stereo Mix
Disc 40
Disc 41	No. 34	Big Fun	1974	Original 1974 Stereo Mix
Disc 42
Disc 43	No. 35	Jack Johnson	1971	2005 Stereo Mix
Disc 44	No. 36	Live at the Fillmore East: It's About That Time	2001	Original 2001 Stereo Mix
Disc 45
Disc 46	No. 37	Black Beauty	1973	Original 1973 Stereo Mix
Disc 47
Disc 48	No. 38	At Fillmore	1970	Original 1970 Stereo Mix
Disc 49
Disc 50	No. 39	Isle of Wight	2009	Original 2009 Stereo Mix
Disc 51	No. 40	Live-Evil	1971	Original 1971 Stereo Mix
Disc 52
Disc 53	No. 41	On the Corner	1972	Original 1972 Stereo Mix
Disc 54	No. 42	In Concert	1973	Original 1973 Stereo Mix
Disc 55
Disc 56	No. 43	Dark Magus	1977	Original 1977 Stereo Mix
Disc 57
Disc 58	No. 44	Get Up with It	1974	Original 1974 Stereo Mix
Disc 59
Disc 60	No. 45	Agharta	1975	Original 1975 Stereo Mix
Disc 61
Disc 62	No. 46	Pangaea	1976	Original 1976 Stereo Mix
Disc 63
Disc 64	No. 47	The Man with the Horn	1981	Original 1981 Stereo Mix
Disc 65	No. 48	We Want Miles	1982	Original 1982 Stereo Mix
Disc 66
Disc 67	No. 49	Star People	1983	Original 1983 Stereo Mix
Disc 68	No. 50	Decoy	1984	Original 1984 Stereo Mix
Disc 69	No. 51	You're Under Arrest	1985	Original 1985 Stereo Mix
Disc 70	No. 52	Aura	1989	Original 1989 Stereo Mix
DVD	No. 53	Live at Europe 1967	2009	Original 2009 DVD Stereo Mix

Bonus tracks and expansions

• In Paris Festival International de Jazz, May 1949 is released for the first time on CD outside of Japan and includes two never-released bonus tracks, "The Squirrel" and "Lover Man".
• Round About Midnight features the bonus tracks included on the 2001 reissue ("Little Melonae", "Budo", "Sweet Sue, Just You"), and also including the first alternate take of "Two Bass Hit", at around 7:00, not released anywhere else.
• Circle in the Round is unchanged.
• Miles Ahead features 4 previously released alternate takes: "Springsville", "Miles Ahead" (labelled at "Blues for Pablo"), "The Meaning of the Blues / Lament", and "I Don't Wanna Be Kissed (by Anyone but You)".
• Milestones features 3 previously released alternate takes: a second "Two Bass Hit", "Milestones" and "Straight, No Chaser".
• 1958 Miles features 1 previously released alternate take: "Fran-Dance". However, it does not include the 1958 show at The Plaza Hotel on the original release.
• At Newport 1958 is unchanged.
• Porgy and Bess featured 2 previously released alternate takes: "I Loves You, Porgy" and "Gone".
• Jazz at the Plaza is unchanged.
• Kind of Blue features 1 previously released alternate take: "Flamenco Sketches".
• Sketches of Spain features 2 previously released alternate takes: "Concierto de Aranjuez" (Part 1) and "Concierto de Aranjuez" (Part 2).
• Directions is unchanged.
• Someday My Prince Will Come features 1 previously released alternate take: "Someday My Prince Will Come".
• Friday Night and Saturday Night at the Blackhawk both contain the full Blackhawk shows, previously released.
• At Carnegie Hall contains the full Carnegie Hall, previously released.
• Quiet Nights features two unreleased tracks: "Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)", and "Devil May Care".
• Seven Steps to Heaven features 1 previously released alternate take: "So Near, So Far" and 1 previously released outtake: "Summer Night".
• In Europe features 1 previously released track not on the original LP: "I Thought About You".
• My Funny Valentine is unchanged.
• Four' and More separates the announcements and versions of "The Theme" with the rest of the tune it's attached to.
• Miles in Tokyo is unchanged.
• Miles in Berlin features 1 previously released track not on the original LP: "Stella by Starlight".
• E.S.P. is unchanged.
• At Plugged Nickel, Chicago features the original track listing of the LP but the unedited versions of the songs included, unlike any other reissue.
• Miles Smiles is unchanged.
• Sorcerer features 2 previously released alternate takes: "Masqualero" and "Limbo".
• Nefertiti features 4 previously released alternate takes: 2 of "Hand Jive", and 1 of "Madness" and "Pinocchio"
• Water Babies features 1 previously released outtake: "Splash".
• Miles in the Sky features 2 previously released alternate takes: "Black Comedy" and "Country Sun".
• Filles de Kilimanjaro features 1 previously released alternate take: "Tout De Suite".
• In a Silent Way is unchanged.
• Bitches Brew features 1 previously released outtake: "Feio".
• Big Fun features the more complete reissue version as opposed to the original LP version.
• Jack Johnson is unchanged.
• The last track on "Pangaea" is increased to almost 50 minutes as compared to 46 minutes on the original version.
• "Agharta" is unchanged.

Production

• Box Set Producer - Daniel Baumgarten and Richard Seidet
• Boxset Supervision/A&R - Steve Berkowitz
• Mastering Engineer - Mark Wilder and Maria at Battery Studio, NYC
• Mastering coordination - Donna Kloepfer
• Project Direction - Adam Farber and Zak Profera
• Archival Research - Michael Panico and Tom Tierney
• Tape Research - Matt Kelly
• Art Direction and Design - Bruno Lefèvre, Christophe Javault and Juliette Carrico / Objectif Lune [Paris]
• English translation - Michelle Sommers and Diane Cousineau
• Editorial Supervision [English translation] - Jeremy Holiday and Sheri Miller

External links

• Information page in www.kind-of-blue.de

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Complete Miles Davis Columbia Album Collection . Miles Davis . Sony Music Entertainment . 12 March 2020.