Miles and Trane on Record: A Critic’s Favorites
Miles and Trane on Record: A Critic’s Favorites
Mark Stryker is the writer and producer of the documentary film The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit (2025, now streaming on Prime Video). He is also the author of Jazz from Detroit (2019, University of Michigan Press). An updated edition will be published in paperback on Feb. 11, 2026.
Here is a YouTube playlist of my favorite Miles Davis and John Coltrane recordings. I avoided posthumous box sets since large compilations run contrary to the spirit of the game. These are not my picks for the “greatest” or “most influential” records, through everything here is great and influential. These are my 10 desert island picks for each as a leader, presented in reverse order. Because I am making the rules, I allowed myself bonus tracks, too, to include individual performances I couldn’t leave out.
— Mark Stryker
Read More:
Miles Davis and John Coltrane at 100
Miles Davis
10. ‘Round About Midnight (1955-56), Columbia.
Miles’s debut on Columbia presents the finest group of its era throwing down in a perfectly programmed LP, leading with a stunning reading of Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight.” With Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Beautifully recorded too by Columbia’s ace engineer Frank Laico.
9. Jack Johnson (1970), Columbia.
Embracing his inner Sly Stone, Jimi Hendrix, and James Brown, Miles ditched the murky sprawl of Bitches Brew for a streamlined band and a funk-rock knockout punch. Miles floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee. By design, much of Miles’ ‘70s electric music sounds in a state of becoming, but Jack Johnson has the bracing clarity and expression of music fully arrived.
8. Bag’s Groove (1954), Prestige.
Two dates in one. First, Miles, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, and pianist Horace Silver on the brink of stardom; the exceptional rhythm section of Silver, bassist Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke swing with pristine unity. Second, the pellucid perfection of the title blues in two takes, with pianist Thelonious Monk and vibraphonist Milt Jackson.
7. Nefertiti (1967), Columbia.
Iconic material abounds by saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, and drummer Tony Williams. Shorter’s title track, a miracle of lyric melodic-harmonic expression sums up ‘60s post-bop. The performance still startles: The horns keep repeating the melody; the rhythm section, including bassist Ron Carter, gets loose as Williams improvises a drum concerto.
6. The Lost Quintet (1969), Sleepy Night.
Taped in Rotterdam, 11/9/69, the final document of the band with tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland, and drummer Jack DeJohnette without extra players. The concert sounds like the end of the world. Audaciously free, wild, incendiary, amped up to 11. Good God. Dubbed the “Lost Quintet” because it was never recorded commercially.
5. Miles Ahead (1957), Columbia.
Miles’s first large-scale collaboration with arranger Gil Evans unfolds like a luminous hallucination, a concerto for Miles (on flugelhorn) that segues between numbers in the manner of a suite. The ballads vibrate with the warm breath of human feeling, the swingers bloom like roses. Evans’s insanely creative writing is gorgeously textured, translucent. Miles plays like a God.
4. Relaxin’ (1956), Prestige.
Best of the five Prestige LPs by the First Great Quintet. “If I Were a Bell” is THE defining track by the band: Miles’s muted trumpet dancing, the contrast with Trane’s brash tenor. Red Garland’s grooving. Paul Chambers’s purr and melodic walking. Philly Joe Jones’s fire. Melody in “2,” solos in “4.” The recurring tag. Swing! Plus, Miles’s voice: “I’ll play it and tell you what it is later.”
3. Miles Smiles (1966), Columbia.
Spontaneous perfection. The Second Great Quintet coming into its own, widening its play of formal abstraction, redefining improvised music every night on the bandstand and in the studio. Everything here remains state-of-the-art 60 years later: The compositions (including Wayne Shorter’s immortal minor blues, “Footprints”), exploratory solos, group dialogue, overarching aesthetic.
2. My Funny Valentine (1964). Columbia
A true peak, especially epic ballads “Stella by Starlight” and “My Funny Valentine.” The expressive control of Miles’s sound and solos are a high bar; he didn’t start with chops but sure as hell developed them. Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams equal a magic triangle of intuition and intellect. “Stella” is saxophonist George Coleman’s shining hour; Herbie on “All of You”!
1. Milestones (1958), Columbia.
I can’t say it any better than Tony Williams: “Milestones is the definitive jazz album. If you want to know what jazz is, listen to that album. It embodies the spirit of everyone who plays jazz.” The closing “Straight No Chaser” is EVERYTHING. Miles, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones fulfilling their swinging destiny at the highest level.
Bonus Track 1: “Country Son” (1968).
An extended, suite-like track, encompassing furious, harmonically open swing, a premonition of funky jazz-rock, and dreamy rubato sections. Composed by Miles, from Miles in the Sky, the most underrated of his ‘60s LPs.
Bonus Track 2: “I Waited for You” (1953).
I adore Miles on the Blue Note label (1952-54). Still struggling to wean himself from drugs, his sound smolders with wounded vulnerability. This plaintive ballad includes lovely support from pianist Gil Coggins.
Bonus Track 3: “Love for Sale” (1958).
Euphoric swing! Kind of Blue sextet breaks loose. Dig how Miles phrases the melody, especially the tension-and-release of the dotted quarter notes floating behind the beat starting at 51 seconds. Peak ebullience from alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley.
John Coltrane
10. Soultrane (1958), Prestige.
The best of Coltrane’s 11 LPs made for Prestige in 32 months from 1956-58. Sharp execution, a gleaming tenor sound, a fabulous program of swinging standards, bebop and ballads, and the A+ trio that Coltrane favored in those days: pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Art Taylor. Trane’s three choruses on “You Say You Care” roar out of the gate like a Triple Crown winner.
9. Interstellar Space (1967), Impulse!
Lucid, deeply moving duets in rubato time with drummer Rashied Ali that reveal how much control Coltrane had over his horn and materials. The music may sound totally free at first, but defined structural arcs, thematic and motivic development, and key centers unify the polymodal flurries of scales, variegated sonics, and orchestral effects. “Venus” is pick of the litter.
8. Coltrane’s Sound (1960), Atlantic.
Giant Steps and My Favorite Things get the most ink of the Atlantic LPs, but potent originals, a famous arrangement of “Body and Soul” with pedal points and “Giant Steps” substitutions, and a definitive “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” capture the early Coltrane Quartet discovering its greatness. With pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Steve Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones.
7. The Mastery of John Coltrane, Vol. II: To the Beat of a Different Drum (1963
and 1965), Impulse!
Fantastic 2-LP compilation from 1978 collecting performances with drummer Roy Haynes, who subbed occasionally for Elvin Jones. The 1963 Newport set transcends: “I Want to Talk About You,” “Impressions,” “My Favorite Things.” Haynes’s chattering way of breaking up the
beat provides a trampoline for Coltrane, compared to Jones’s enveloping tornado of rhythms.
6. Ballads (1962), Impulse!
A record with bedroom eyes, this romantic LP provided a powerful argument against conservative critics who accused Coltrane of being anti-jazz. He sings these love songs on tenor with tenderness, patience, and sensitive lyricism, especially when he slides into his high register where the notes float softly among the clouds. McCoy Tyner’s piano accompaniment is to die for.
5. Blue Train (1957), Blue Note.
Quintessential hard bop and a high point of Coltrane’s early discography. Four alluring originals include two challenging tunes that became standards (“Moment’s Notice,” “Lazy Bird”). The groovy title blues launches one of Trane’s most memorable recorded solos. With trumpeter Lee Morgan, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Philly Joe Jones.
4. Crescent (1964), Impulse!
The most sublime and elegantly proportioned of the Coltrane Quartet’s masterpieces. Keatsian poetry bathes the title track and “Wise One.” The jaunty “Bessie’s Blues” captures a universe in 3-½ minutes. The heartfelt “Lonnie’s Lament” brings pianist McCoy Tyner and bassist Jimmy Garrison to the fore. Not a note is wasted, even on “The Drum Thing” for Elvin Jones.
3. Live at the Half Note: One Down, One Up (1965), Impulse!
A holy grail bootleg tape until commercially released in 2005, this music captures the Coltrane Quartet at its most incendiary. The combustible, 28-minute version of “One Down One Up,” an exploration of whole tone and augmented scales, is from another planet; Coltrane and Elvin Jones speak in tongues during their ultimate saxophone- drums duet.
2. Transition (1965), Impulse!
A valedictory statement, taped mostly in June 1965, pushes the quartet to the outer limits of its language and intensity. The title track is a wild fever dream. Coltrane’s tenor strains to reach as high as he can go, climaxing in a beautiful nightmare of screams—yet the music never stops swinging or loses touch with the blues. Some days I even prefer this LP to A Love Supreme.
1. A Love Supreme (1964), Impulse!
After living with this music for 45 years, what strikes me most has little to do with the Aristotelian unity of its four movements, musicological insights, or the elevated technical resources and intellect of the quartet—and everything to do with the overwhelming power of its impassioned expression: It represents the peak of human feeling in art. Hearing it often brings tears to my eyes.
Bonus Track 1: “Bye Bye Blackbird” (1962), Pablo.
An irresistible swinger captured in concert in Stockholm. The 5-½ minute tag starting at 12:25 is some of my favorite music ever. Trane and Elvin! To paraphrase Amiri Baraka, they sound like the wild pulse of all living.
Bonus Track 2: “They Say It’s Wonderful” (1963), Impulse!
A gift for lovers of singers and song, the one-off LP collaboration between Coltrane and suave baritone Johnny Hartman lands like Cupid’s arrow. Romance is in the air. They say it’s wonderful, and they’re not wrong.
Bonus Track 3: “But Not for Me (1960), Atlantic.
I love the elation the quartet achieves in this swinging version of a beloved Gershwin tune, reharmonized with “Giant Steps” substitutions.
The extended tags capping each solo and the final tenor ride out at the end really sends me.
Bonus Tracks 4 and 5: “Impressions” and “Chasin’ the Trane (1961),
Impulse!
Gotta have these extended, volatile performances from a landmark run at the Village Vanguard. They set new standards for improvisation, group dynamics, and extended saxophone techniques. A Coltrane anthem at a racehorse tempo, “Impressions” explores the same modal territory as Miles Davis’s “So What.” The swift “Chasin’ the Trane” an ad-lib, 12-bar blues in F, is taken to extremes of abstraction. Coltrane mostly goes it alone with Jimmy Garrison and a maniacal Elvin Jones, whose elevated volume and aggressive dialogue on drums erases distinctions between foreground and background.
