What was the first Miles Davis record in your collection?

[rostasi]

This is kind of a funky scanner photomerge of the first Miles LP I owned.

Don't know the exact date that I got it - maybe 66 or 67?

It's the reissue of The Original Quintet '55 session LP:

Up to this time, I had only seen him live

at the infamous Plugged Nickel gig of December '65

(the 22nd to be exact) and even tho the personnel was totally different,

this cover photo reminded me of the gig - to my very young mind.

The recording didn't disappoint!

Rod

[rostasi]

I was working as a flunky at a Howard Johnson's motel in 1972, while I was in high school....

<snip>

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

[Dan Gould]

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe it was KoB, probably winter of 1988. Christmas of '87 I received two Columbia Jazz Masterpieces samplers and I know that "So What" was on it and that my first purchases came from favorite tracks on those albums, specifically Satch Plays Fats, Satch Plays W.C. Handy and Time Out. So I have to assume that KoB was in there as well.

As far as the rather popular item Bitches Brew, I bought that the following summer when I was home from Graduate School and had a full-on Jazz Fever. Didn't know what I was getting but my brother (who was in high school and involved in the jazz band) advised me to go for it.

The only record I sold faster was

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe it was KoB, probably winter of 1988. Christmas of '87 I received two Columbia Jazz Masterpieces samplers and I know that "So What" was on it and that my first purchases came from favorite tracks on those albums, specifically Satch Plays Fats, Satch Plays W.C. Handy and Time Out. So I have to assume that KoB was in there as well.

As far as the rather popular item Bitches Brew, I bought that the following summer when I was home from Graduate School and had a full-on Jazz Fever. Didn't know what I was getting but my brother (who was in high school and involved in the jazz band) advised me to go for it.

The only record I sold faster was

What's that Diz album - can't read the little writing.

MG

[jazzypaul]

I don't know if I've shared this story before, but it's well worth telling, IMHO...

I was 14, and had just checked out a book from the public library called Stairway to Hell: The 500 best heavy metal albums of all time. #1 was Zeppelin IV, #2 was Appetite for Destruction, and #'s3-24 were all albums that I owned and would have ranked similarly given the opportunity to do so. #25 (in the first edition, anyway) was Bitches Brew. Well, I agreed with the guy's first 24 choices, may as well pick up #25, right?

Well, I buy it on tape at the local record store that I would end up working at 3 years later. Tape 1 side one was the song Bitches Brew, and I thought it was absolutely terrible. Screw this noise, and screw this Miles Davis guy!

Well, three months later or something, I'm looking through my stash for something to play. I grab the second tape of Bitches Brew (the sides with John McLaughlin, Miles Runs the Voodoo Down, Spanish Key, etc) and HOLY SHIT! I went berzerk. Then I heard about this Tony Williams guy that my drum teacher was telling me about. Emergency followed. Then the 60's Miles Quintet stuff. Then Cannonball's sextet stuff. Then Blakey. Then Wayne. This stuff was fascinating. And then came The Dead.

So, I'm so entranced by Live/Dead that I forget about all of those jazz tapes and CD's that were accumulating in my room. Until I started working at that record store. The Lost Grooves compilation on Blue Note had just come out, and the two outtakes from the Alive! album really killed me. From there on in, I was a jazz fan for life.

And here I am, 17 years later, talking all about it.

[Dan Gould]

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe it was KoB, probably winter of 1988. Christmas of '87 I received two Columbia Jazz Masterpieces samplers and I know that "So What" was on it and that my first purchases came from favorite tracks on those albums, specifically Satch Plays Fats, Satch Plays W.C. Handy and Time Out. So I have to assume that KoB was in there as well.

As far as the rather popular item Bitches Brew, I bought that the following summer when I was home from Graduate School and had a full-on Jazz Fever. Didn't know what I was getting but my brother (who was in high school and involved in the jazz band) advised me to go for it.

The only record I sold faster was

What's that Diz album - can't read the little writing.

MG

Closer to the Source. Should have been named Closer to the Crapper.

[Noj]

I've since replaced it with all the full-length albums. This was among my first 10 jazz cds.

[Jim R]

Kind of a guess, but as I recall...

and

[Quincy]

Bitches Brew sometime in high school. I was into guitar gods so I was getting it for McLaughlin. Ended up getting Jack Johnson & In A Silent Way next. Ended up I kind of liked the trumpet player enough to try things without the guitarist. Either Saturday Night At The Blackhawk or 'Round About Midnight was the first acoustic purchase. Oh wait, that other list making album of his was before those last two. Kind of somethingorother.

[vibes]

I'm pretty sure it was "Blue Moods." The version of "Nature Boy" that's on that album was used in the movie "The Talented Mr. Ripley," which I'm a big fan of. I wanted to hear more music that sounded like that, so I bought the album.

[John Tapscott]

I believe it was Bitches Brew in the summer of '75; then Sketches of Spain in the fall of '75; followed by Kind of Blue, spring '76. I'm with Guy on this. I enjoyed them, but can't say that any of them really knocked me out at the time. The first Miles album which did that was Milestones, which would have come about a year later, followed by the 60's quintet recordings.

[Chuck Nessa]

While in high school I bought Cookin'. That and Soultrane (purchased the same day) were my first Prestige records. I was intrigued by the yellow and black labels.

[fent99]

Miles is a kind of touchstone in this music. Can't be many who he hasn't touched in some way.

I was at college too, trying to be cool no doubt. I'd been raiding friends vinyl collections for things to listen to and since listening to "jazzy" things (Tom Waits Joni Mitchell) taped a bunch of jazz stuff off a friend.

Most of which I thought were awful. They were a random bunch with some UK trad, Dizzy's Swing low sweet Cadillac etc etc

One tape though got a second chance it had some Parker Dial stuff on one side and Kind of Blue on the other. It was the Parker that got me first. My folks were away and I was at home doing some serious digging in the garden on a wintery day. Tape in the Ghetto Blaster was the Parker and when "The Gypsy" came on I stopped and had to listen. From then on I was hooked and learned to love Kind of Blue more than the tricky multiple takes of Parker on the other side of the TDK c90

First Miles I bought was a UK twofer of Cookin and Relaxin which I played while cooking dinner night before last. Still plenty of magic there.

[BruceH]

Kind of Blue. Still my favorite.

[sal]

The first Miles side I bought was in 1975, and it was Bitches Brew. Not exactly an ideal introduction to his music, but I could have done worse I suppose!

Bitches Brew was my first too, about 8 or 9 years ago. Not an ideal introduction to his music, but a PERFECT introduction to jazz for an open minded pot smoking Deadhead college student like I was.

[medjuck]

KOB. Got it from the Columbia Record Club when it first came out. One of the first jazz Lps I got and I thought "Hey if this is jazz I like it!"

[B. Clugston]

Bitches Brew , in 1984. Used to crank "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" and the bass would shake the windows. Subsequent CDs have never sounded as good. I got "At Fillmore East" next, the same year Miles came to town. I passed on seeing him because his '80s stuff didn't impress me (based on his Saturday Night Live appearance). Too bad, because that was night someone decided to throw Wynton Marsalis on stage midway through a Miles' solo. Miles was not impressed.

[Peter Friedman]

Back in the mid-50's the Prestige LP titled "Dig" was the first, followed soon after by "Blue Haze". and then "Walkin".

[.:.impossible]

Kind of Blue was the first Miles date, but I owned that Charlie Parker In A Soulful Mood comp before that. See, compilations do work!

[paul secor]

Either Someday My Prince Will Come or Kind of Blue - got both around the same time - sometime in '63

[Larry Kart]

I was intrigued by the yellow and black labels.

Me too -- the funky, squiggly yellow-on-black designs especially. They seemed, in their "Who cares?" squiggliness, to say, "We're over in this other place, and we're confident that it's a good one."

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I was intrigued by the yellow and black labels.

Me too -- the funky, squiggly yellow-on-black designs especially. They seemed, in their "Who cares?" squiggliness, to say, "We're over in this other place, and we're confident that it's a good one."

I wonder who designed those labels. And whether Bob W asked for something odd like that.

MG

[Kalo]

Kind of Blue, of course, back in the good old days of vinyl. Circa 1977/78. It was quite the rage among my circle of friends (theater-artsies, dancers, band geeks, freaks....) back in those highschool days.

My parents had Sketches of Spain, which was often played early in the evening when they held parties, so I kind of grew up with Miles. My dad also had ESP, but I don't recall it ever being played.

[Dave James]

"In a Silent Way". Spring of 1970. Not just the first Miles record I ever bought, but the first jazz record I ever bought.

Up over and out.

[(BB)]

Quiet Nights was in my father's small collection, first one I bought on my own was either Birth of the Cool or Miles Ahead. Birth of the Cool still gets played on a fairly regular basis, I haven't listened to Miles Ahead or any of the Miles/Gil stuff for a while and not really making any plans to.

Bill