Davis’ follow-up to ‘Round About Midnight finds him expanding his 1950s quintet to a sextet with the addition of alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. The group works out on some seriously fierce hard bop tunes, including the title track, “Dr. Jekyll,” and a version of Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser” that’s like injecting rocket fuel straight into that big artery in your thigh. The blues feeling that’s always at the heart of his acoustic work (and a surprising amount of his later electric music as well) is pretty dominant here; yes, the title track is a modal piece (see the writeup on Kind Of Blue for an explanation of modality), hovering in place rhythmically as the solos slowly rise, blossom and then recede. But beyond that, these tracks jump and strut. The opener, “Dr. Jekyll,” is blindingly fast, a sprint that perfectly sets up the next piece, “Sid’s Ahead.” The longest track on the album at 13 minutes, it’s a simmering, swaying blues that really lets John Coltrane dig in; he gets the first solo, and sets the tone for everyone who follows him.

This band — Davis, Coltrane, Adderley, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones — was one of the great assemblages of talent in jazz history. Each man had a unique voice on his instrument, and when they came together, “more than the sum of their parts” doesn’t even begin to cover it. They were even able to elevate low-rent material; the fifth track on this album, “Billy Boy,” is some hippety-skippety bullshit with a melody that sounds like something you’d teach kids in nursery school. But these guys tear into it like dogs on a meaty bone, and when they’re done, the melody may not lose any of its innate corniness, but you don’t mind as much because the solos in between are that ferocious. Milestones is a must-hear.