Miles Davis first session for Blue Note Records was on 9 May 1952 when, along with JJ Johnson (trombone) Jackie McLean (alto saxophone) Gil Coggins (piano) Oscar Pettiford (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums) they recorded 6 different songs over 9 takes at WOR studios in New York City.

Much of this material was released on ten-inch albums shortly after it was recorded. The tracks from this 1952 session, dubbed Miles Davis – Young Man With A Horn, also appeared in Blue Note’s Modern Jazz series. Two of the songs from the 1952 session, along with others he recorded on 20 April 1953 at the same studio appeared on Miles Davis Volume 2.

Miles’s first session at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio that was in his New Jersey living room, was on 6 March 1954 and this time it was just a quartet, with Horace Silver on piano with Heath and Blakey as the rhythm section. This material, along with the cuts from the earlier two sessions were gathered together to become the first two twelve-inch LPs issued by Blue Note in 1956. For this session, Jimmy Heath played tenor saxophone and Percy Heath replaced Pettiford on bass and Art Blakey was on the drum stool.

The 1952 session was far from Miles’s finest; he was seriously addicted to heroin and didn’t have a regular band. However, as the three sessions progressed so did a genuine arc of a musical story, showing how Davis was moving beyond pure bop to create his own unique musical vision and style.

”That’s what makes jazz the exciting thing it is, illuminating the character of the man who makes it, fabricating moods and transmitting thought vibrations in the very moment of creation. And in this process Miles is a past master.” Leonard Feather, liner notes of the original issue

The 1953 session is indispensable and worthy enough to follow on from the seminal Birth of The Cool. The tracks Van Gelder recorded feature Miles’s trumpet, without the saxophone, and allow him full control. On ‘Take Off’ and ‘The Leap’ he demonstrates just how to construct the perfect trumpet solo. Back in 1955, when this session came out on a ten-inch album, Down Beat were moved to suggest that it would have ‘benefitted from the addition of an extra horn’. We beg to differ.

He did record again for Blue Note, in 1958, as a member of Cannonball Adderley’s band on the wonderful, Somethin’ Else album.

For more classic tracks, follow our Miles Davis Best Of playlist here.