What makes In A Silent Way immediately compelling is its stepping-stone status. It was recorded over a six-month period during 1968 and 1969, and it represents the end of one era and the beginning of another. It was the end of the legendary quintet of Miles Davis, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter, but it was the beginning of the electric period, which introduced a new take on jazz and new musicians to play it. Now, to commemorate what would have been Miles Davis' 75th year, Columbia/Legacy has released The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions. The three-disc set is chock-full of classic Miles Davis, including outtakes, rehearsals, unissued tracks and the original LP configuration of In A Silent Way.

Though it hasn't enjoyed the popular success that its little brother Bitches Brew has, In A Silent Way is a masterpiece in its own right. It's not exactly jazz and it's not rock either; yet the music still has elements of both. The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions is the sound of music morphing into strange almost-shapes that unfold back on themselves. It's music evolving as you listen.

As a collection, the new box set can be listened to as a historical document. Miles Davis, along with the musicians he had been playing with during the years leading up to these sessions, is clearly recognizing the limitations of acoustic instrumentation. Traditional acoustic jazz instruments were no longer good enough. Thus began the search for new sounds, which most likely spawned the post-production tweaking and some of the unique set-ups used during the session. The three-electric piano/organ onslaught of Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul and Chick Corea was certainly a novel concept in jazz, and it's a line-up found on the majority of songs in the collection.

In A Silent Way—the album and the sessions—was a move toward a focus on textures and layered sounds in jazz, and this required new approaches. It's a turn away from the standards of the time; namely, a few soloists carrying a tune via the head and then a series of solos that inevitably led back to the head (free jazz being an exception here). Instead, In A Silent Way focuses on the group effort of building up themes and ideas and then taking those ideas and exploring them further. The result is a moody, even dark, music. But it's not yet the raucous that Bitches Brew would later espouse.

Apart from In A Silent Way, the box set contains songs from three different albums already released by Columbia: Filles De Kilimanjaro, Water Babies and Directions. Filles De Kilimanjaro is still in print and widely available on CD, so the inclusion of the two songs from that album seems to be for the sake of completion. Water Babies and Directions, two rather lop-sided compilations released in the 1970s, have only been released on vinyl in the United States, however, and are rare as a result. Tony Williams clocks in with two truly phenomenal performances on "Dual Mr. Anthony Tillmon Williams Process" and "Two Faced" (both from Water Babies). The early renditions of "Directions Part I & II" are also welcome additions to the set, as they would later become staples of Miles' live shows.

Of the unissued tracks, the rehearsal and unedited versions of "In A Silent Way/It's About That Time" are particularly interesting, as they allow some insight into how the composition came into being. Again, more evolution. But not everybody is happy about outtakes and rehearsal versions being included in the new box set. Junkmedia asked Teo Macero—the man who produced these sessions as well as many other landmark Miles Davis recordings, including Bitches Brew—how he felt about the recent Miles releases:

Miles and Teo in the studio © CBS Records

...I was not consulted regarding the Miles Davis albums that were put out this year or the last several years. [...] I had rejected the reissue program the way they were doing it. I didn't think it was fair to put out all the alternate takes, breakdowns, speeches, etc.

I told them from the beginning that what they should do is to put out a special series, make it available and not try to put back all the things we cut out of the Miles Davis album. I think this is a disservice to the artists, to the people who buy the records and to me, the producer. It's a dishonest way to make a few dollars.

...it is disconcerting to have someone rework my production for some thirty odd years, especially when it comes to editing and mixing. I don't like the sounds of the reissues at all; Miles trumpet doesn't sound the same to me, the mix is atrocious, but there is nothing I can do. I've tried in vain to halt this, but the people in charge are only interested in a quick buck. It is a shame.

While it may be true that Columbia is out to make a "quick buck," The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions offer an insider's look at how the music of Miles Davis was evolving at one of the most creative points of his career. By including the alternate and rehearsal takes, today's listeners are offered a glimpse into the creative process of one of the most influential and experimental jazz musicians of all time.

The box set ends appropriately with the full original LP configuration of In A Silent Way. You've already been given a taste of the mood of the sessions. You have a feeling for the direction the musicians were heading and the goals there were trying to achieve. Now things come around full-circle. But at this point, the actual album version is more subtle than the music that precedes it in the set. It's a fine-tuned version of the raw cuts of the first two discs. It's the way both Teo Macero and Miles Davis wanted it, and that's gotta be worth something.