Re: Miles Davis
miles davis has a huge range of work, from electric funk/fusion to completely straight ahead. here's a few of his different bands/albums and their (IMO) best work:
"birth of the cool" - this record is a nonet miles had early in his career. it is a good record with interesting arrangements, but IMO it is somewhat overrated.
the "first quintet" - miles' first quintet had red garland, philly joe jones, paul chambers and john coltrane. their most famous records are cookin',workin',steamin', and relaxin'. the music is all jazz standards, and is quintessential hardbop.
"kind of blue" - this cd is probably the most famous/bestselling jazz cd of all time. it's must have, enough said.
the "second quintet", which is one of my favorite musical groups ever, had tony williams (who joined the band at 19 and already had a completely unique style that revolutionized jazz drumming), ron carter, herbie hancock and a rotating cast of tenor players, the most notable being wayne shorter and george coleman. they have an absolute ton of great recordings, but the absolute best is "my funny valentine + four and more", which is a live recording. tony is unbelievable, as is everyone. the studio recordings mostly feature new compositions instead of standards, my favorite is "miles smiles" although they are all good.
miles davis/gil evans - miles did a few records with the arranger gil evans. they're modern big band recordings with interesting instrumentations and beautiful arrangements, very subdued. "miles ahead" is my favorite, but "sketches of spain" and "porgy and bess" are classics and also great.
"bitches brew" - a lot of people say this is first fusion record, at any rate it's all electric instruments and is completely different from all the stuff mentioned before. it's a classic though. another good one from this period is "in a silent way".
later electric stuff - if you like bitches brew, you'll want to check out "live evil", "dark magus", "agharta" and "pangea". I can't really explain this music, but it's sort of like funk and awesome.
anyways, this is really just scratching the surface of all the stuff miles did. if you had to limit it to 5 albums you should get, I would choose:
kind of blue
milestones
miles ahead
my funny valentine + four and more
bitches brew
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