'58 Sessions Featuring Stella By Starlight - Miles Davis

This compilation draws from two 1958 sessions by the Miles Davis Sextet: a studio date at Columbia's 30th Street Studio on May 26 and a live performance at the Plaza Hotel's Persian Room on July 28. The lineup — John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Cannonball Adderley on alto, Bill Evans on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums — is the same ensemble that would record Kind of Blue less than a year later. The studio tracks, including "Stella by Starlight," "On Green Dolphin Street," and Davis's own "Fran Dance," were originally released on the 1959 LP Jazz Track, while the live material first appeared on Jazz at the Plaza, Volume I in 1973. The sessions document a pivotal transitional moment: Davis was moving away from bebop chord changes toward modal improvisation, Evans had just joined the group and brought a spare harmonic sensibility that contrasted sharply with Coltrane's dense, rapid-fire "sheets of sound" approach. Their interplay on "Stella by Starlight" — Evans's delicate introduction giving way to Coltrane's intensity — illustrates the creative tension that defined this sextet. Originally compiled by CBS/Sony in 1974 and reissued on CD in 1991 as part of Columbia's Jazz Masterpieces Series, the album serves as a bridge between Milestones and Kind of Blue.