Here are my picks:

1. In a Silent Way

2. Get Up With It

3. Agharta

4. Kind of Blue

5. Big Fun

I'm by no means and expert so I couldn't really say, but I find his change of style amazing... to go from "Kind of Blue" to "Around the corner" is amazing.

Miles Davis was the coolest mutherfucker to ever walk this planet:

Sketches of Spain
Miles Smiles
'Round About Midnight
E.S.P.
Milestones

omg how hard is this...

.

hmmm... I'm partial to earlier Miles, with a key later album as an exception (EDIT: I do like lots of his mid- and later-period stuff, just meant 'exception' as in being a top five fave)...

.

1 - "ESP" - love, love, love the '2nd great quintet' and especially the playing on this album

.

2 - "Kind of Blue" - hate to go so obvious, but man this one never, ever gets old

.

3 - "Workin'" - love 'Steamin',' 'Relaxin',' and 'Cookin',' almost equally but for me 'Workin' stands as best of those

.

4 - "Someday My Prince Will Come" - title track alone makes this a fave, Trane's solo blows me away and solid work on "Teo", underrated Mobley sounds great on the rest

.

5 - "Aura" - '80s collab with Palle Mikkelborg, wildcard fave for me, love the concept with the various colors (hard to do a concept album w/ strictly instrumental music), great mashup of styles w/ large ensemble

[Edited 7/25/17 8:21am]

CAL3 said:

omg how hard is this...

.

hmmm... I'm partial to earlier Miles, with a key later album as an exception (EDIT: I do like lots of his mid- and later-period stuff, just meant 'exception' as in being a top five fave)...

.

1 - "ESP" - love, love, love the '2nd great quintet' and especially the playing on this album

.

2 - "Kind of Blue" - hate to go so obvious, but man this one never, ever gets old

.

3 - "Workin'" - love 'Steamin',' 'Relaxin',' and 'Cookin',' almost equally but for me 'Workin' stands as best of those

.

4 - "Someday My Prince Will Come" - title track alone makes this a fave, Trane's solo blows me away and solid work on "Teo", underrated Mobley sounds great on the rest

.

5 - "Aura" - '80s collab with Palle Mikkelborg, wildcard fave for me, love the concept with the various colors (hard to do a concept album w/ strictly instrumental music), great mashup of styles w/ large ensemble

[Edited 7/25/17 8:21am]

To be honest, I am not very familiar with 80s Miles. I still need to give Aura a listen.

I prefer his work in the 50's and early 60's, but can only go with those I know.

My favorites in rough order --

1. Kind of Blue (Columbia 1959)

2. Miles Ahead (Columbia 1957)

3. Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants (Prestige 1959)

4. Seven Steps To Heaven (Columbia 1963)

5. Round About Midnight (Columbia 1957)

I almost went with Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia 1961) and Milestones (Columbia 1958).

CAL3 said:

omg how hard is this...

.

hmmm... I'm partial to earlier Miles, with a key later album as an exception (EDIT: I do like lots of his mid- and later-period stuff, just meant 'exception' as in being a top five fave)...

.

1 - "ESP" - love, love, love the '2nd great quintet' and especially the playing on this album

.

2 - "Kind of Blue" - hate to go so obvious, but man this one never, ever gets old

.

3 - "Workin'" - love 'Steamin',' 'Relaxin',' and 'Cookin',' almost equally but for me 'Workin' stands as best of those

.

4 - "Someday My Prince Will Come" - title track alone makes this a fave, Trane's solo blows me away and solid work on "Teo", underrated Mobley sounds great on the rest

.

5 - "Aura" - '80s collab with Palle Mikkelborg, wildcard fave for me, love the concept with the various colors (hard to do a concept album w/ strictly instrumental music), great mashup of styles w/ large ensemble

[Edited 7/25/17 8:21am]

Well rounded list. Those last few albums he recorded to get out of his Prestige contract were all superb, and I can't argue with Workin' but Relaxin' is my favorite of the bunch.

Kind of Blue is my nr1 as well....

Glad to see nobody has Bitches Brew actually

Me and theAudience almost came to blows over this about ten years ago but I always felt, and
I think Davis acknowledged it too, that Kind of Blue is for white people and a money grab.

Dasein said:

Me and theAudience almost came to blows over this about ten years ago but I always felt, and
I think Davis acknowledged it too, that Kind of Blue is for white people and a money grab.

I can see why.

You officially done lost your mind.

namepeace said:

Dasein said:

Me and theAudience almost came to blows over this about ten years ago but I always felt, and
I think Davis acknowledged it too, that Kind of Blue is for white people and a money grab.

I can see why.

You officially done lost your mind.

. . . then so did Miles Davis.

Yet, I'm not making this up: Davis admits in his autobiography that Kind of Blue is kinda overrated
and he wanted to get paid, so what did he do? He made an accessible jazz album that features the
compositional and improvisational talents of a white pianist (Bill Evans) so white people would buy it!

Agharta
Miles Ahead
Nefertiti
In A Silent Way
Miles Davis At Fillmore

I can't believe that list, but that's the way I feel about his albums these days.

I've just listened to Agharta stupidly much during the last couple of years.

Dasein said:

namepeace said:

I can see why.

You officially done lost your mind.

. . . then so did Miles Davis.

Yet, I'm not making this up: Davis admits in his autobiography that Kind of Blue is kinda overrated and he wanted to get paid, so what did he do? He made an accessible jazz album that features the compositional and improvisational talents of a white pianist (Bill Evans) so white people would buy it!

Okay then, if Miles said it. Do you have a quote? I'm not challenging you I'm just interested in it. I'll get to the a/b eventually.

But Miles Ahead was far more accessible, and arranged by Gil Evans. That album felt more built for crossover audiences.

From the secondary sources I've read, KOB was the culmination of Miles' work towards "modal" sound. It was considered (or at least marketed) as a cutting edge record.

In A Silent Way

Bitches Brew

Milestones

Sketches of Spain

Workin'

*Nefertiti

*Kind of Blue

"Kind Of Blue"...."Jack Johnson"..."Bitches Brew"...."Dark Magus"..."On The Corner".

Kind of Blue

On the Corner

Bitches Brew

In a Silent Way

E.S.P

Hon: Seven Steps to Heaven

Dasein said:

namepeace said:

I can see why.

You officially done lost your mind.

. . . then so did Miles Davis.

Yet, I'm not making this up: Davis admits in his autobiography that Kind of Blue is kinda overrated
and he wanted to get paid, so what did he do? He made an accessible jazz album that features the
compositional and improvisational talents of a white pianist (Bill Evans) so white people would buy it!

.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck...

.

ANYTHING as praised, dissected, analyzed, and just overall revered as 'Kind of Blue' can honestly be tagged as "overrated."

.

Re: "so white people would buy it" -- shit, maybe if Davis brought in an all-white or even MOSTLY white band this might hold some water.

.

So a white dude - who also happened to be a flat-out BRILLIANT motherfucker - plays piano on 4 out of 5 tunes on the record. And THAT'S why it's certified 4x platinum?? I think not.

.

And that's fine if Miles said it himself or implied it or whatever. I read that autobio a long time ago, don't remember that part - but I know he said a LOT of shit in there I didn't necessarily agree with anyway.

Very hard to do, but let me give it a try

1. Dark Magus (contains some of the darkest, most twisted music I've ever heard. Vastly underrated)

2. In A Silent Way

3. Get Up With It

4. Bitches Brew

5. Agharta

Tough one. Probably...

Sketches of Spain

Round About Midnight

Some Day My Prince Will Come

Kind of Blue

In a Silent Way

I'll also give honourable mention to the Dingo film soundtrack, which Miles dropped near the end of his life in collaboration with Michael LeGrand and Chuck Findley. A throwback to Mile's pre-electric sound, this joint is often overlooked, but it serves for me as a quaint, stylistically retrospective goodbye in contrast to Doo-Bop's cheekier, forward-nudging "peace out!"

[Edited 8/8/17 16:04pm]

Phishanga said:

I'm by no means and expert so I couldn't really say, but I find his change of style amazing... to go from "Kind of Blue" to "Around the corner" is amazing.

Me neither but I'm going to give my opinion on this (in no particular order):

Cookin'

Relaxin'

Workin'

Milestones

Kind of Blue

Bitches Brew

Kind of Blue

Sketches of Spain

Nefertiti

and... I'll say Birth of the Cool. Not one of his most popular perhaps, but I like it, probably because its the first Miles album that I was exposed to.

mrpunkfunk said:

Bitches Brew

Kind of Blue

Sketches of Spain

Nefertiti

and... I'll say Birth of the Cool. Not one of his most popular perhaps, but I like it, probably because its the first Miles album that I was exposed to.

You and four have a point . . . BOTC was a defining album for Miles.

Sketches of Spain

Kind of Blue

Jack Johnson

Bitches Brew

Milestones

namepeace said:

mrpunkfunk said:

Bitches Brew

Kind of Blue

Sketches of Spain

Nefertiti

and... I'll say Birth of the Cool. Not one of his most popular perhaps, but I like it, probably because its the first Miles album that I was exposed to.

You and four have a point . . . BOTC was a defining album for Miles.