Pittsburgh Courier : 12/15/1956
Harold L. Keith : 4 stars

This is one of those things where one is hard pressed to find the adjectives which would adequately describe Miles Davis‘ work for this album, fresh from Bob Altshuler’s “lab,” has catalyzed the best of Miles in a manner which compares favorably with the memorable Prestige LP 7034 (Dr. Jackie, Itty Bitty, Blues Changes, etc.)

Miles displays sheer exuberance with some artful phrasing on a mute No Line; a grooved Round About Midnight, treated a la Monk, and Compulsion a semi-rapid fire theme whose compelling challenge brings out the best in him.

With Miles on this album are Walt Bishop, piano; Sonny Rollins and “Charlie Chan”, tenors; Percy Heath, bass, and Philly Jo Jones, drums. Mr. “Chan,” who played his first date on tenor here, is forthright in his attack, particularly on the Midnight deal.

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Down Beat Review
Nat Hentoff : 4.5 stars

Collector’s Items is in two parts. The first side was cut in January, 1953, and is released for the first time. It’s the session with Charlie Parker on tenor that Sonny Rollins talked about in the Nov. 28 Down Beat. Sonny is also present on tenor with a cooking rhythm section of Philly Joe Jones, Walter Bishop, and Percy Heath. The most arresting track is the mournful Midnight which has Bird’s best tenor and Miles’ best trumpet of the date.

For the rest, his tenor work is inevitably intriguing and forceful, and I wish there had been more recorded examples of his work on the horn after he had been playing it for some months (on this date, he has a new tenor that was christened on the date). Sonny also plays with heat. Miles is in good if not outstanding form, and Philly Joe is somewhat too loud in places. Bird is called Charlie Chan on the envelope.

The newer session (the last three tracks) has better Miles; considerably improved Rollins (with fuller, warmer tone and more cohesive idea structuring), and a superior rhythm section of Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor. Flanagan also solos with flowing distinction. Miles wrote the first two, and the third is Dave Brubeck‘s. The improvement in Prestige’s recorded sound in three years, incidentally, is illuminating.

Vierd is a fine demonstration of the continuing, freshening, earthy validity of the blues in modern jazz with Sonny blowing one of his most eloquent choruses on record. This track has superb Miles and another excellent Flanagan solo. Miles treats the Brubeck ballad with sensitive intentness. Sonny is less lyrical, but his solo is built interestingly. And Flanagan, one of the few younger pianists with a quality of touch and lyricism akin to Hank Jones; speaks briefly. An important record.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

The term “collector’s item” seems to have died weeping on the grave of the 78 rpm record. No longer do legions of record hunters haunt musty shops on Saturday afternoons in hope of finding Pres playing clarinet on Texas Shuffle, Bird with McShann, old Louies or Beiderbeckes. They are all on LP.

It is true that many collectors lived up to the specific meaning of the word. It was the label and master number which interested them far beyond the music. To them records were like coins or postage stamps and this type of collector does not concern me. It is the other fellow who used to find a Jay Jay Johnson solo on a Savannah Churchill record, Milt Jackson with Dinah Washington, Lester Young with Glenn Hardman or Wardell Gray with Earl Hines and rejoice in the little gems of music that he had found; he is the jazz lover who will want this LP.

As I said before, many of the old out of print items have been re-issued on LP. Now we “collect” LPs. In addition to bringing back the obsolete 78 the LP has enabled us to hear, for instance, many of Charlie Parker‘s great passages through the issuance of his rejected takes which because of their abbreviated nature, never would have found their way on to a 78 rpm disc.

The sessions that went into the make-up of this LP were taped three years apart and in a way the second has a lot to do with the first being issued.

Session one, like session two is under the leadership of Miles Davis. Sonny Rollins is a sideman on both. However, the thing in common that really links these sessions is the abbreviated nature of each. Separately neither would produce enough listening time to sustain a commercial product. (The customer expects, and should get a certain amount of listening time on each LP.) Together there is much music, music that without the medium of the 12-inch LP would never have been heard by the jazz public. Although you may walk into your record shop and purchase this album without too much difficulty, it is nevertheless a “collector’s item” by its very nature.

The first session was recorded on January 30, 1953 and has Miles flanked by the tenor saxes of Sonny Rollins and “Charlie Chan.” This is only the second time that Charlie had recorded on tenor and he came into the studio with a brand new King that he hadn’t touched before that day. His sound was a deepthroated one which I’m told, moved toward a purer, lighter, albeit big sound if he stayed with the tenor for any length of time.

Compulsion is a swinging Davis opus with two choruses apiece by Miles, Charlie and Sonny with the group riffing at intervals during Miles’ and Charlie’s choruses. Then Walter Bishop, a most flowing modern pianist, plays two more choruses before the theme is re-stated.

The Serpent’s Tooth is presented in two takes. Take 1 is medium tempo and the solo order is Miles, Sonny and Charlie for two choruses apiece followed by Walter Bishop for one. Then Miles exchanges conversation with Philly Joe Jones. On take 2 the tempo moves up a bit. The solo order and their length is the same except that in the conversations with Philly Joe, Charlie and Sonny, in that order, join in after Miles

‘Round About Midnight was ’round six p.m. when it was recorded on this particular day and due to circumstances, new sadnesses were instilled into Monk‘s already melancholy air. For various reasons the date had not jelled to expectations. The engineer, who hadn’t helped much, went off duty and told us that the studio would close at 6:00 and that another engineer would take over for the last half-hour. After a few unsuccessful attempts at Well You Needn’t, it was decided to close with Midnight. This was at a quarter to six Miles and Charlie are the horns with the latter playing obligatos to the melody statement and crossing the bridges alone at both beginning and end. His opening solo is full of the pain and disappointment he knew too well and is an emotionally moving document as such. Miles cries some, too.

Session two is of more recent vintage (March 16, 1956) and has a different feeling to it.

One of Miles’ sensitive muted statements introduces the captivating, reflective Dave Brubeck ballad In Your Own Sweet Way. Sonny Rollins shows the results of three years maturation – After Tommy Flanagan‘s solo, Miles’ mute restates the theme Vierd Blues features an open but nevertheless subdued Miles who once again shows that a modicum of notes can go a long way when used with understanding. Sonny Rollins has a building solo and Tommy Flanagan (consistency is thy name) warms as usual in his spotlight time.

No Line is a blues of another than Vierd Blues. Miles leaps in with a muted sting and Sonny picks it up with an alternately flowing and time-breaking solo. Tommy Flanagan, another of the talented Detroiters (what a well of talent the Motor City has turned out to be) and one who has helped to make this year’s piano crop such a rich one, plays a lightly swinging solo which shows him to be an excellent exponent of the Bud Powell through Hank Jones style. Pianists like Flanagan, Ray Bryant, Barry Harris and Mal Waldron, to name one of the bright young modernists who became known this year, prove that simplicity, taste and direct emotion are much preferred to filigrees, extraneous matter and the keyboard extravagances of technique displays. If the latter group of characteristics comes with the “two-handed” pianists then I’ll take the “one-handed” pianists and may Phineas Newborn Jr. take the hindermost.

The digging-in, swinging of Paul Chambers and Art Taylor which is heard throughout the session stands alone at the end of No Line as Miles, who blows his second solo after Flanagan’s decides that he has spoken his piece and trails off. So things end as they begun with no line (no formal melody statement) and hence the title.

I appreciate a well integrated performance but will always prefer moments of sincere-emotion jazz with mistakes to the slick product which is too often palmed off as jazz today. Whether it be old jazz or new, I guess I’m kind of a purist.