GREATEST HITS

This is 100% great music. It is 0% prog. It's not even proto-prog. There are no electric instruments or rock/funk influences here. This is great traditional jazz music. This is a great introduction to pre-electric Miles. It is the only acoustic jazz album I own. I don't even have Kind Of Blue, although two songs from that album are here in live versions. "Greatest Hits" is a misleading title because Miles never had any hits. I like to listen to this once or twice a year. I'm more of a "rock" guy, but I like to listen to some jazz, classical and avant-garde music occasionally just for variety.

Of course I prefer his proto-fusion and fusion stuff to this. Here you will find some of the biggest names in the world of jazz: John Coltrane, "Cannonball" Adderly, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams. Miles was born in the 1920s to a well-to- do dentist; the family owned a ranch. This dispells the myth that all blacks in the US had a hard life before the civil rights era. Later in life Miles became one of the biggest a-holes in the music business. But I judge music by what it sounds like, not who made it.

I like the essay by George Frazier in the liner notes called "The War Lord Of The Weejuns". My CD copy has the back cover upside down; I assume this is a printing error but I like it that way. The music here deserves 4 stars at least. But for PA I have to give this 2 stars.