Miles Davis - Bopping the Blues

Bopping the Blues drops in on a single 1946 session in Hollywood where a young Miles Davis played sideman to two singers. This reissue is pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

Davis was just twenty and still finding his voice in the bebop revolution when he joined a stacked band for the date: Gene Ammons on tenor saxophone, Linton Garner on piano, Connie Wainwright on guitar, Tommy Potter on bass and a young Art Blakey on drums. Vocalists Earl Coleman and Ann Baker took the spotlight, and Black Lion first gathered the takes into an album in 1987.

Only four songs were recorded, but each appears in several versions. Don't Sing Me the Blues and I've Always Got the Blues show off the band's easy blues swagger, while Don't Explain to Me Baby and Baby, Won't You Make Up Your Mind lean into smoky romance. Coleman's rich baritone is a pleasure throughout, and Ammons adds big, warm tenor fills.

With several takes of each song, you can hear the arrangements loosen up and the solos shift from one pass to the next, with Davis slipping lean bebop phrases behind the singers.

It is a fascinating snapshot of a future giant at work before anyone knew what he would become. Jazz historians and Davis completists will find plenty to savour.