For the Miles Davis initiate who can't afford the Complete Prestige Recordings box and doesn't know where to start with the individual albums, Jazz Showcase makes good sense (exactly the same can be said for the other CDs in Fantasy's Showcase series). Sweeping through the entire chronology of Davis on Prestige, from his earliest sessions prior to the exploitation of the LP format through his first great quintet with John Coltrane, Jazz Showcase touches upon most of the landmarks of that period. Along the way, you'll hear three Davis compositions ("Blue Haze," "Solar," and "Down"), several jazz and pop standards, and the embryonic essence of what made him an icon of cool through the decades. All of this is accomplished without duplicating anything from Fantasy's earlier anthology of Prestige material, Miles Davis and the Jazz Giants. Combine the two if you like for a two-disc Prestige primer, but Jazz Showcase takes precedence because unlike the earlier package, it reaches into the climactic quintet sessions.
© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo