Miles Ahead

The idea came after Capitol issued Birth of the Cool as an LP in February 1957. Producer George Avakian wanted to present Davis in a larger setting than his quintet, and Gil Evans was hired as arranger. Avakian said the plan was to put Miles in front with the setting all Gil. Davis played flugelhorn throughout and is the only soloist, with sixteen woodwind and brass players behind him. It was the first of four albums he and Evans made together between 1957 and 1963.

The record is two suites rather than one: the first seven pieces, then a three-part medley that opens with an allusion to the second movement of Berg's Violin Concerto. The material ranges from Delibes's The Maids of Cadiz and Kurt Weill's My Ship to Dave Brubeck's The Duke, Ahmad Jamal's New Rhumba and originals by Davis and Evans. Blues for Pablo draws on themes by Manuel de Falla and Carlos Chavez. The sessions were at the 30th Street Studio on 6, 10, 23 and 27 May 1957, with patches overdubbed on 22 August.

The Penguin Guide gave it four stars and called it a quiet masterpiece. Ted Gioia wrote that Davis's flugelhorn showed a new anti-virtuosity, and Evans's biographer Larry Hicock called it an immediate success on every level. Davis said Evans once told him to listen to Springsville if he was ever depressed. In 1991 Davis revisited the first six arrangements on Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux, with Quincy Jones conducting the Gil Evans Orchestra, and Don Cheadle's 2015 Davis film took its title from the album.