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REVIEW    DownBeat  /  December 26, 1956


Miles Davis
Collector’s Items

Prestige 7044

★★★★½

Rudy Van Gelder Remasters


Collector’s Items is in two parts. The first side was cut in January 1953, and is released for the first time. It’s the session with Charlie Parker on tenor that Sonny Rollins talked about in the Nov. 28, 1956, DownBeat. Sonny is also present on tenor with a cooking rhythm section of Philly Joe Jones, Walter Bishop and Percy Heath. The most arresting track is the mournful “’Round About Midnight,” which has Bird’s best tenor and Miles’ best trumpet of the date.

For the rest, his tenor work is inevitably intriguing and forceful, and I wish there had been more recorded examples of his work on the horn after he had been playing it for some months (on this date, he has a new tenor that was christened on the date). Sonny also plays with heat. Miles is in good if not outstanding form, and Philly Joe is somewhat too loud in places. Bird is called Charlie Chan on the envelope.

The newer session (the last three tracks) has better Miles, considerably improved Rollins (with fuller, warmer tone and more cohesive idea structuring), and a superior rhythm section of Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. Flanagan also solos with flowing distinction. Miles wrote the first two, and the third is Dave Brubeck’s. The improvement in Prestige’s recorded sound in three years, incidentally, is illuminating.

“Vierd Blues” is a fine demonstration of the continuing, freshening, earthy validity of the blues in modern jazz, with Sonny blowing one of his most eloquent choruses on record. This track has superb Miles and another excellent Flanagan solo. Miles treats the Brubeck ballad with sensitive intentness. Sonny is less lyrical, but his solo is built interestingly. And Flanagan, one of the few younger pianists with a quality of touch and lyricism akin to Hank Jones, speaks briefly. An important record. —Nat Hentoff


The Serpent’s Tooth (two takes); ’Round About Midnight; Compulsion; No Line; Vierd Blues; In Your Own Sweet Way


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