An excellent prequel to the recent 6-CD set of Miles' recordings with Coltrane, reviewed in Jazzwise 194. The trumpeter's playing in the early 1950s was initially far less stylised than it became, still sounding much as he did in Parker's quintet, but you can hear the development before your very ears. Given how untogether Miles' life was during at least half of this period, he sounds surprisingly sprightly for the most part, and increasingly emotive on tracks like the 1953 ‘Round Midnight’. Rollins, four years younger than Miles and equally messed up at the time, is already instantly recognisable and constantly inventive. He was also contributing themes credited to Miles (he's acknowledged his authorship of ‘Out Of The Blue’, based on ‘Get Happy’, and ‘Down’ sounds like his too), before actually getting a publishing deal for that brilliant 1954 trio of ‘Airegin’, ‘Oleo’ and ‘Doxy’. The 1956 ‘Vierd Blues’ session is the only one here that post-dates Trane's arrival on the scene – and one of only two engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, contrary to the booklet – while the 21-minute bonus airshot with J.J. and Blakey (previously on Blue Note's Birdland 1951 set) is poorly balanced but highly invigorating.