Milestones

Milestones (CL 1193) is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis, recorded with his "first great quintet" augmented as a sextet. It was released in 1958 by Columbia Records. Milestones is one of Davis' first forays into the developing modal jazz experiments – with his composition "Milestones", listed on the original LP issue as "Miles". (This modal piece is not to be confused with the earlier composition with the same title recorded by Davis and Charlie Parker in 1947.) These modal techniques were continued and expanded on the groundbreaking album Kind of Blue. It was also the last time the rhythm section of Philly Joe Jones, Red Garland and Paul Chambers played with Davis on record. Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane's return to Davis' group in 1958 coincided with the "modal phase" albums: Milestones and Kind of Blue (1959) are both considered essential examples of 1950s modern jazz. Davis at this point was experimenting with modes – scale patterns other than major and minor.