A rehash under any other name,
Solar is a new gathering of material that will be familiar to any half-serious
Miles Davis fan: tracks 1-5 inclusive are the entirety of the 1954 Prestige release
Walkin'; tracks 6-9 were originally released on a 10" Prestige LP, also in 1954; and the 11-minute version of
Milt Jackson's "Bags' Groove" is similarly ubiquitous. The material itself is outstanding: too long dismissed by jazz connoisseurs in favor of
Davis' more cerebral Columbia period, the trumpeter's tough and funky Prestige sides are now seen as a key point in the development of what would soon be known as hard bop, and his collaborators during this period are one of those rare groups deserving of the title "All Stars." However, this is a haphazard budget-line reissue of material that is available in far superior remastered form on the Original Jazz Classics label and elsewhere, and may safely be ignored: there are no rare alternate takes or the like to be found here.