Davis, Coltrane Together Again On Remastered Six-Cd Set

Miles Davis and John Coltrane Miles and Trane are mythical names to conjure within 20th-century American music. It’s a magical mantra, an invocation of two jazz giants whose brilliant collaboration from 1955 to 1961 on Columbia Records set imaginations afire.

Now thanks to Columbia/Legacy, the classic collaboration is back in its entirety - remastered, handsomely illustrated and graced with learned liner notes by critic Bob Blumenthal in a six-CD box set called “The Complete Miles Davis featuring John Coltrane” (list price $109.97).

Running more than six hours, the box’s 58 tracks cover all the music of the “’Round About Midnight,” “Milestones” and “Kind of Blue” albums, one side of “Jazz Track” and two tracks of “Someday My Prince Will Come.” There are also miscellaneous tracks including a live set from the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival and more than a dozen never-before-issued alternate takes.

Just because this music is laid out in a box and was recorded mostly in the Eisenhower Era, don’t think for a minute that it’s safely embalmed nostalgia. On the contrary, this is great, vital music in the American grain. While Davis was introspective, Coltrane was open, irrepressible, constantly erupting with stunning, high-energy phrases.

Owning this set is like having the complete Hemingway, Faulkner or Fitzgerald in a new edition. You know that you possess a complete, priceless piece of America’s 20th-century musical legacy.