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These 1957 recordings were the first of Miles Davis's collaborations with arranger Gil Evans for Columbia, renewing a relationship that had begun with the Birth of the Cool sessions in 1949. It was perhaps the most important relationship ever forged between a jazz soloist and an arranger, for Evans excelled at finding fresh material (like Delibes's "The Maids of Cadiz") and then adding subtle voicings and blending unusual instruments to highlight Davis's central voice. Everything Evans does enhances the trumpeter's keen sense of space and his evocative sound. He could construct complex arrangements and make them fly (as on the opening "Springsville," by John Carisi), contrast Davis's voice with tuba or bass clarinet, or create the longing, Spanish-inflected "Blues for Pablo," a precursor to their later Sketches of Spain. --Stuart Broomer