San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 12/06/1955

Miles Davis has come into his own this year. His appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival resulted in considerable critical attention and his powerful Prestige LPs with his All-Star group have been among the best jazz albums of the year. His new Prestige album, though, is not by this group.

It’s titled Musings of Miles and, in a couple of instances, contains the sort of reflective music that made his previous Prestige LPs so good. However, possibly because of the different personnel, this album does not have the powerful effect its predecessors had. On the ballads his hesitant attack reminds one of Bunk Johnson. You are amazed when he gets through a chorus, you were hanging on the cliff expecting to fall with him any minute. The recording is very good and the Prestige surfaces these days are considerably improved.

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Saturday Review
Whitney Balliett : 12/31/1955

An excellent demonstration of why Miles Davis at least when he is cooking – is one of the seminal modern trumpeters. Davis, above all, knows the value of a note, as well as of simplicity. Inspired or not, he never tries to express more than he can on any particular day. Of great help here are Philly Joe Jones on drums (listen to his brush work), Red Garland, a workmanlike pianist, and Oscar Pettiford, who contributes a beautiful, stately solo on the moving slow blues that closes the album. Four standards and two originals.

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The Virginian-Pilot – Norfolk, VA
Robert C. Smith – 04/22/1956
Miles Davis Combines Crispness with Autumn

For some reason, there seems to be more jazz performers of individuality playing the trumpet than, for instance, the tenor sax. This may be because the trumpet lends itself to a wider variety of expression; it is more likely due to the diffuse influences on today’s trumpeters – the fact that such disparate styles as those of Armstrong, Clayton, and Gillespie are still used as models. The tenor sax school on the other hand is virtually descended as a stylistic family from Lester Young.

Miles Davis deserves to be ranked with the present day patriarchs of the horn. He combines a crisp, imaginative approach to his instrument with a high degree of musical acumen. These elements are in evidence in two new recordings, Blue Moods for Debut (Deb 120 12-inch LP), and The Musings of Miles for Prestige (LP 7007 12-inch LP). On the former, cut just after Miles’ triumphant appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival last year, he appears with Teddy Charles – whose vibes are a welcome sound of old – trombonist Britt Woodman, Charlie Mingus and Elvin Jones. As the album title suggests, this is a pastille set, with Charles embroidering a fittingly soft-voiced background for Miles’ balladry and Woodman and Mingus skillfully fitting in their work. On the Prestige set, Miles works with a rhythm section of Red Garland, piano; Oscar Pettiford, bass, and Philly Joe Jones, drums. Here the tempos skip from the bright Will You Still Be Mine to the haunting I See Your Face Before Me, which Miles seems to breath lovingly through a mute. On both records Miles has occasional flubs and is guilty of over-reaching his melodic material, but few other trumpeters possess his imagination or are capable of the kind of exploration that produces his dynamic and tone.

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Down Beat : 11/02/1955
Nat Hentoff : 5 stars

Miles’ first 12″ LP enlists the aid of bassist Oscar Pettiford, Philadelphia pianist Red Garland, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. The two originals, both sparsely built but intriguing, are by Miles. Pettiford is solid; Jones has a lot of fire along with taste and works very well behind Miles; Garland is good but has a frequently idle left hand on middle and up tempos that thereby takes a dimension away from most of his choruses. Miles is fine, and plays with so much heart and intelligently original conception that he’s consistently cooking. Dig, for example, his simple lyrically effective muted work on Face, the way he renews Tunisia, and the blues-deep warmth of his horn in Haze. Good, informative notes by Ira Gitler.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

At the age of 15, Miles Davis was becoming fairly proficient on the trumpet. He was listening avidly to Freddy Webster and had heard Bird on some of Jay McShann‘s records. Many of the bands that came to St. Louis (Miles was living with his family across the river in East St. Louis, Illinois) heard Miles and offered him jobs. There were bands like McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, Earl Hines, Tiny Bradshaw and Illinois Jacquet. His mother didn’t like the idea of him leaving town and after turning down a job with Jacquet for this reason, Miles wouldn’t talk to her for two weeks. About four months later, Billy Eckstine‘s band came to town and Miles met Bird and Dizzy Gillespie. Through Dizzy he was able to sit in with the band for the two weeks that they were in town.

In 1945, Miles came to New York to study at Juilliard. He met Bird who remembered him and took him around to 52nd Street where he was introduced to Coleman Hawkins and Thelonious Monk. His first record date with Bird upset him completely. He was so nervous that he couldn’t play on Ko Ko and Dizzy had to do the trumpet part as well as back Bird on piano.

These experiences were related to me by Miles in a recent conversation. As we talked the time switched from past to present. I asked Miles who his current favorites were. On his own instrument he quickly named Art Farmer and Clifford Brown as the new stars and Kenny Dorham as one who has come into his own. Then he spoke lovingly of Dizzy Gillespie. “Diz is it… whenever l want to learn something I go and listen to Diz.” In the piano department two Philadelphia boys, Red Garland (heard to good advantage in this LP) and Ray Bryant were mentioned along with Horace Silver, Hank Jones and Carl Perkins “a cat on the Coast who plays bass notes with his elbow.” The talk shifted to saxophone and to Sonny Rollins and Hank Mobley who are carrying on the tradition of Charlie Parker. This naturally started us talking about Bird. Miles credited his most wonderful experiences in jazz to his years with Bird. He stared slowly ahead “Like Max (Roach) said, ‘New York isn’t New York anymore without Bird.’” Max’s name being mentioned directed the conversation to drummers. “Art Blakey and Philly Joe Jones; Max for brushes.” Miles is very conscious of drummers. Many times he will sit down between the drummer and bass player and just listen to what the drummer is doing. You might even say that listening to drummers is a hobby with Miles. His real hobby, however, is boxing and he concerns himself with two aspects – spectator and participator. As a spectator he is not merely a TV fan. You’ll find him at Madison Square Garden or St. Nick’s when he is in New York and similar arenas in other cities when there is a good match on tap. His personal fistic activity is confined to working out on the light punching bag in various gyms. Anything more would be dangerous. One stiff right cross to the “chops” and this LP might have been delayed indefinitely.