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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?
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viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Oh, so she's an enabler, good catch.
grimace
624 posts
 
Try 'Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants'. It's got both Milt Jackson and Thelonious Monk on it. The version of 'Round Midnight' is amazing. I think some of this session also appears on Bags Groove, but this is a better album.
herman
1,974 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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roscoeiii's avatar
roscoeiii
1,155 posts
 
To keep things from getting very pricey, I agree that you should look for mono OJC releases and two-fers from the 70s. Usually great sounding. The two-fers usually had a new album title but inside was 2 earlier LPs in their entirety. Open the two-fer up and look to see where the tracks originally came from.

Don't recall how many of these are going to be mono, and be aware that at a certain point many mono releases were fold downs made from the stereo tracks.
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