Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever

Abstract

One of the greatest things about the collaboration between Miles Davis and John Coltrane during the mid to late 1950s was the fact that it occurred in two stages, with a significant break in between (during the year 1957) when Coltrane played with Thelonious Monk. In fact, one of the better things to come out of the Davis/Coltrane collaboration was the Monk/Coltrane collaboration. The trombonist J.J. Johnson described that band as follows: Since Charlie Parker, the most electrifying sound that I've heard in contemporary jazz was Coltrane playing with Monk . . . I had never heard that kind of performance—it's not possible to put into words. I just heard something that I've never heard before and I haven't heard since (Porter 110).