Here's a novel way to get more mileage out of best-selling material – original LP covers and contents, no alternate takes or bonuses, but remastered from mono tapes. Miles’ first three Columbia albums (Round About Midnight, Miles Ahead and Milestones) were not even released in stereo, being earlier than either Dylan or The Beatles who've received similar marketing. Although stereo versions were issued simultaneously from Kind Of Blue onwards, the mono mix was the one most of us heard first, up to and including Someday My Prince Will Come. (The latest release here, Miles And Monk At Newport, saw Miles in 1958 with the KOB line-up, the Monk/Pee Wee Russell set from 1963 that formed Side Two of the LP constituting a bizarre finale – it might have been better to omit this or simply add the extra unissued Miles tracks, but that would appeal to a different kind of collector.)

The material is available on mid-1990s box sets of Miles with Coltrane and with Gil Evans (except for the two Monk tracks and four non-Trane items from Someday My Prince Will Come) so the question is the difference in sound. With the early albums, clearly, not much difference at all but, when it comes to comparison with stereo, the mono versions seem no less detailed yet more focussed and more mellow. This applies especially with the three big-band albums (discussed in Jazzwise 175 when reviewing Avid's Four Classic Albums, though that public-domain release is inferior to the original sources here). Miles is more front and centre, and that is often an improvement on the current stereo versions. For instance, the 90-second passage in ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ (from 5'52”) where part of the orchestra simulates acoustic guitar chords; in the 1996 stereo re-mix, individual instruments stick out and ruin the effect, which is restored in this mono version. Likewise the written flute counterpoint in ‘Bess Oh Where's My Bess’ (0'25”– 0'31”), actually a quote from ‘I Love You Porgy’ and far too prominent in the 1996 re-mix. Conversely, at exactly 1'00” of the ‘I Love You Porgy’ track, where woodwinds carry Gershwin's melody but are absurdly drowned in the stereo version, their ethereal sound returns intact. On a production level, the incorrect cueing of ‘The Duke’ (Miles Ahead) is now corrected, but the missing beat at 1'09” of ‘New Rhumba’ – corrected on Teo Macero's sincewithdrawn, late-1980s fake-stereo version – has gone missing again. Authenticity is everything!

This brings us back, of course, to the key subject of the music. Which is marvellous, and covers perhaps the most crucial period of Miles's development. Credit is due to the challenging and supportive contributions of people like Coltrane, Philly Joe, Paul Chambers (heard throughout, except on the Lift To The Scaffold OST that formed Side One of Jazz Track) and Gil and Bill. Every note of every one of these albums deserves to be savoured and memorised and, unless you possess most of the contents in some form or other already, you need to get up to speed. Now.