Miles Davis – Milestones – 180g 33RPM Mofi Mono Vinyl

Part of Mobile Fidelity’s Miles Davis catalog restoration series, Milestones has been restored to mono for the first time as to expose the record’s standing as one of the all-time great jazz efforts. Sourced from the original master tapes, this 180g mono LP edition grants each musician their own space in a well-defined, broadened soundstage. Colors, shapes, and dimensions appear in the manner they do when beheld from behind a studio-control room’s window.

If anything, Milestones is as famous for its title track as the players that produced it. The launching pad for many of Davis’ (and later, his contemporaries’) improvisational flights, the singular piece invites the tessellated explorations Coltrane would forever chase as well as the headliner’s argyle solo work, who broaches territories that far exceed what he had done with his bop-rooted past. Every song is a highlight, whether it’s the bravado “No Jackle,” featuring a hot-foot pace and bebop strains, or “Sid’s Ahead,” which continues the album’s blues theme while tossing around edgy harmonics and inside-out structures.

Then there’s “Straight, No Chaser,” the absolutely definitive rendition of Thelonious Monk’s signature piece. Coltrane’s marbled playing pulls at the tune’s lobed borders, Adderley takes liberty with solos, and Davis dances around his mates, at one point quoting “When the Saints Go Marching In” while demonstrating his knowledge of tradition and eye towards the future. A milestone if there ever was. And now, in resplendent mono.