The monumentality of this partnership sounds even more astonishing on Miles Davis and Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings, a new six-CD set that includes these albums and a fourth collaboration, the brief but lovely “Quiet Nights” from 1963, plus rehearsal tapes and alternate versions. Heavily annotated, with the recordings re-engineered and remastered-cleaned like old paintings- to bring out their best sound, this set is a jazz fan’s dream. “Miles Ahead,” for example, can be heard in true stereo, as it was recorded, for the first time. (Diehard vinyl fans can get the 11-LP version of the set by calling Mosaic Records at 203-327-7111.) Not that this is for fanatics only. Any music lover can have fun prowling through this music; it’s not often, after all, that you get a chance to watch two geniuses constructing masterpieces.
