Songs from 1947 to 1959

Miles Davis

These are nine songs credited to Miles Davis, from Half Nelson in 1947, the first session he led under his own name, to the Kind of Blue tunes of 1959. Some credits are disputed: Bill Evans later said he wrote Blue in Green, and Eddie Vinson is linked to Four and Tune Up. Nardis was written for Cannonball Adderley's session, and Davis never recorded it himself. The page follows all nine through the decades, in records by Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery and many others.

Through the years

1940s
Miles Davis records Half Nelson in 1947 at the first session he leads under his own name, with Charlie Parker on tenor saxophone. It is the only song on this page from the 1940s.
Miles Davis All Stars Half Nelson · 1947
1950s
Davis records Tune Up in 1953 and Four and Solar in 1954, then plays Tune Up, Four and Half Nelson again in 1956 with John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins and Hank Mobley record Tune Up in 1957. He writes Nardis for Cannonball Adderley's 1958 session, with Bill Evans on piano, and never records it himself. In 1959 Kind of Blue brings So What, Freddie Freeloader, Blue in Green and All Blues.
Stan Getz - Chet Baker Quartet Half Nelson · 1953 Miles Davis Quartet Tune Up · 1953 Miles Davis Quartet Four · 1954 Miles Davis Quintet Solar · 1954 Miles Davis Quintet Four · 1956 Miles Davis Quintet Half Nelson · 1956 Miles Davis Quintet Tune Up · 1956 Red Garland Quartet Four · 1957
11 more
Phil Woods and Gene Quill Solar · 1957 Sonny Rollins Tune Up · 1957 Hank Mobley Tune Up · 1957 Cannonball Adderley Quintet Nardis · 1958 Miles Davis All Blues · 1959 Miles Davis Blue in Green · 1959 Bill Evans Trio Blue in Green · 1959 Lambert, Hendricks & Ross with Zoot Sims Four · 1959 Miles Davis Freddie Freeloader · 1959 Miles Davis So What · 1959 John Coltrane Tune Up · 1959
1960s
Davis plays So What and All Blues live with Coltrane in Stockholm in 1960, and in 1964 his new quintet with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams plays them much faster. Bill Evans keeps Blue in Green, Nardis and Solar in his trio, recording Solar at the Village Vanguard in 1961. Oscar Brown Jr. adds words to All Blues in 1963, and Eddie Jefferson sings words to So What in 1968.
Miles Davis Quintet So What · 1960 Bill Evans Trio Nardis · 1961 George Russell Sextet Nardis · 1961 John Coltrane So What · 1961 Bill Evans Trio Solar · 1961 Grant Green Tune Up · 1962 Oscar Brown, Jr. All Blues · 1963 Wes Montgomery Trio Freddie Freeloader · 1963
9 more
Miles Davis Quintet All Blues · 1964 Miles Davis Quintet Four · 1964 Miles Davis Quintet So What · 1964 Gerald Wilson Orchestra Freddie Freeloader · 1965 Bill Evans Trio Blue in Green · 1967 Joe Henderson Sextet Nardis · 1967 Joe Henderson with the Wynton Kelly Trio Four · 1968 Bill Evans Trio Nardis · 1968 Eddie Jefferson So What · 1968
1970s
Ron Carter, who played in Davis's mid-1960s quintet, names a 1973 album for All Blues, and in 1977 Hank Jones leads a trio with Carter and Tony Williams, the bass and drums of Davis's 1964 band. George Benson opens his first CTI album with So What, Dexter Gordon plays Four and Freddie Freeloader in Copenhagen in 1975, and David Liebman's quintet stretches Solar to 20 minutes in 1978.
John McLaughlin Blue in Green · 1971 George Benson So What · 1971 Ron Carter All Blues · 1973 Jackie McLean - Dexter Gordon Quintet Half Nelson · 1973 Anthony Braxton Half Nelson · 1974 Bill Evans Trio So What · 1974 Dexter Gordon Quartet Freddie Freeloader · 1975 The Great Jazz Trio All Blues · 1977
1 more
Bill Evans Freddie Freeloader · 1977
1980s
Cassandra Wilson sings her own words to Blue in Green on her first album in 1985, and Charlie Haden plays on it twice, with Fred Hersch in 1986 and with his own quartet in 1988. Bill Evans plays Nardis at Keystone Korner in San Francisco in September 1980, the month he dies. Keith Jarrett's trio plays Solar in Cologne in 1989 and dedicates it to Evans, and Pat Metheny opens a trio album with it.
Bill Evans Trio Nardis · 1980 Tete Montoliu Trio Tune Up · 1980 Jimmy Raney and Doug Raney Nardis · 1983 Cassandra Wilson Blue in Green · 1985 Fred Hersch with Charlie Haden and Joey Baron Blue in Green · 1986 Charlie Haden Quartet West Blue in Green · 1988 Keith Jarrett Trio Solar · 1989 Pat Metheny with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes Solar · 1989
1990s
The four surviving members of Davis's second quintet, led here by Herbie Hancock, play So What live in Berkeley in 1992 with trumpeter Wallace Roney. Ray Brown's trio plays Freddie Freeloader in Boston in 1996, and the World Saxophone Quartet plays All Blues in 1998 with Jack DeJohnette. Half Nelson turns up on saxophone records: Jack Nimitz leads a baritone quartet in 1995, and Frank Morgan an alto quartet in 1996.
Herbie Hancock Quintet So What · 1992 Jack Nimitz Quartet Half Nelson · 1995 Ray Brown Trio Freddie Freeloader · 1996 Frank Morgan Half Nelson · 1996 Jackie McLean and Junko Onishi Solar · 1996 Lee Konitz and Rich Perry Half Nelson · 1997 World Saxophone Quartet featuring Jack DeJohnette All Blues · 1998 Brad Mehldau Trio Solar · 1999
2000s
Pat Martino's organ trio plays All Blues for over twelve minutes at Yoshi's in Oakland in December 2000, and Blue in Green there in 2001. In 2001 Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette play Four as a piano trio at Montreux. In 2002 four former Davis sidemen, among them Jimmy Cobb, play Freddie Freeloader at Makor in New York, and Jacky Terrasson plays Nardis.
Pat Martino All Blues · 2000 Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette Four · 2001 George Coleman, Jimmy Cobb, Mike Stern, Ron Carter Freddie Freeloader · 2002 Jacky Terrasson Nardis · 2002 Stephen Riley Tune Up · 2007 Peter Bernstein Quartet Four · 2008 Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian Solar · 2009
2010s
The SFJAZZ Collective plays All Blues in an octet arrangement by Edward Simon in San Francisco in 2016, and Chick Corea plays it live in a trio in 2018. In 2014 Mostly Other People Do the Killing recreate the whole Kind of Blue album note for note. Carla Bley arranges Blue in Green for the Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra in 2011, and Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison play it with electronics in 2015.
Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane and Matthew Garrison Blue in Green · 2015 SFJAZZ Collective All Blues · 2016

Through the years

The tunes