Even if Miles Davis didn't always play–and, during one period, abandoned–12-bar blues, "the unsentimental detailings of tone, emotion, and attack of the blues," in the words of Stanley Crouch, were at the core of his trumpet style. This collection of nine classic tracks from the Fifties contains some of the innovative musician's most-inspired blues work. He's joined by such prominent contemporaries as Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, and Milt Jackson and, on the final two selections, by his first great working band: John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. On each performance, Seth Markow observes in the booklet notes, Davis displays "a knack for milking a note for all its emotional worth."

with Walter Bishop, Jr., Art Blakey, Ray Bryant, Paul Chambers, Kenny Clarke, John Coltrane, Tommy Flanagan, Red Garland, Percy Heath, Milt Jackson, J.J. Johnson, Philly Joe Jones, Jackie McLean, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Tommy Potter, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Arthur Taylor, Lucky Thompson