Miles Ahead is an album by Miles Davis that was released in 1957 as Columbia CL 1041. This was Davis' first collaboration with arranger Gil Evans following the groundbreaking Birth of the Cool sessions. Davis and Evans would go on to record the Columbia albums Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain and Quiet Nights, all considered masterpieces of orchestral jazz.
Evans combined the ten pieces that make up the album into a suite, each flowing into the next without interruption; the only exception to this rule was on the title track since it was placed last on side A (this has been corrected on the CD versions.) Davis is the only soloist on Miles Ahead, which features a large ensemble consisting of sixteen woodwind and brass players. Art Taylor played drums on the sessions and the then current Miles Davis Quintet member Paul Chambers was the bassist.
A fifth recording date involved Davis alone (re-)recording material to cover or patch mistakes or omissions in his solos using overdubbing. The fact that this album originally was produced in mono makes these inserted over-dubbings rather obvious in the new stereo setting.
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