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Best Miles Davis Mono LPs to Start a Collection

My wife has had, I think, some sort of a mid-life crisis, a female version of male menopause, I suppose, and has suddenly turned into a complete jazz freak. It's all about jazz with her, now. And, God, in this new universe of hers, is Miles Davis. Although she has CDs of his, she has nothing on vinyl. (And why should she? I'm the one with the turntable.) Since I don't, currently, own a CD player, I would like to give her a collection of some of his albums. But, there are several parameters the collection needs to meet.
They must all be in mono. They should, together, comprise a retrospective of his many styles and groupings over the time period commencing in 1949 and ending, well, ending whenever they stopped issuing mono releases. You tell me. Lastly, they must all be, relatively, affordable. (The emphasis being on the "relatively", as I'm aware that these things don't come cheap.) Perhaps, there are some good sounding, more affordable reissues out there, for instance, or releases whose prices havn't been driven up by collectors.
I've already got some, though. These are:
1) The Miles Davis Tad Dameron Quintet in Paris International of Jazz may, 1949: Columbia AL-38804
2) Bags' Groove: Prestige 71095
3) Milestones Columbia CL-1193
4) Porgy and Bess: Columbia CL-1274
5) Sketches of Spain: Columbia CL-1480
6) Miles Davis: United Artists UAS 9952
All, of course, are mono.
So, what should I get, next?
128x128nietzschelover

Showing 2 responses by herman

herman
2,215 posts
 
I have to ask, why mono only? And why are you collecting vinyl for your wife when she has only CDs and you have only a turntable?

Start here for an excellent summary of his work.

The first stereo records were in 1958. I believe Porgy and Bess was the first Miles available in stereo. It was released in mono CL1274 and stereo CS8085, They continued releasing both for some time and I'm not sure when they started stereo only, but I believe late 60's.

There are also several complete discographies of his work on the internet if you google it.
herman
2,215 posts
 
I see, good plan. As for mono, I have no problem with that. What many of us try to achieve with our stereos; pinpoint imaging, width and depth of soudstage, etc. simply does not exist with most live performances. You also have a ton of tremendous music recorded during that period so if she likes Miles she has quite an adventure ahead. I would also suggest she read his autobiography to gain some perspective and his take on many of the recordings. Then get her started on Art Pepper. A true genius with quite a few recordings available. That autobiography is also very interesting.

Do you have a mono system? Mono cartridge and single channel with one speaker?
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