The four classic albums referred to in this collection are Miles Davis & Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet, Miles Davis & The Modern Jazz Giants: Bags Groove, The New Miles Davis Quintet: Miles and Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants. They were recorded during the period immediately after Davis had cleansed himself of heroin addiction at his parents’ farm in St Louis and had returned to New York to reclaim his career. He was a man with a plan. His mission was twofold: to convince club owners and booking agents he was now sober, having let them down big time in the past because of his addiction; and to persuade George Avakian he was reliable and thus worthy of signing to the Columbia label.

The plan worked. If these four Prestige albums are somewhat uneven, and they have been reviewed/reissued to death over the years, he did at least establish a regular working group with the debut of his quintet with John Coltrane on tenor sax on the album Miles. These albums have been both underrated and overrated in the past and the truth lies somewhere in between. The Avid label is doing a good job in making both classic jazz albums available at a modest cost and digging out interesting albums from the 1950s and early 60s at a time when the major recording companies have broadly lost interest. They do not seem to be returning to the original session tapes, but are using the recorded artefact, and transfers can be a little toppy, but it’s a trade-off. Do you want to fill holes in your collection with recordings that otherwise would be too expensive in the second hand vinyl marketplace (if you could find them, in some cases), and be able to give a couple of artists a try whom you’ve read about but not really heard a go, all for a modest price, so broadening your understanding of jazz? Because if the answers are yes, then Avid is performing a valuable service for fans.