The prolific Miles Davis rarely ever played with a vibraphonist (I don’t believe he ever did after the 50s), and he played with the legendary Charles Mingus even less often. In July 1955 the two artists were on the cusp of brilliance: Miles was about to form his First Great Quintet, which would eventually feature John Coltrane, and Mingus was only 6 months from recording Pithecanthropus Erectus, arguably his first masterpiece. Miles was in debt and agreed to a hastily-arranged session with Mingus for Mingus’s recently formed Debut label. The resulting album is Blue Moods, a short and oft-overlooked record that features the only full-length collaboration between Miles and Mingus.

Although the two legends had something of a love/hate relationship, the 4 songs on Blue Moods are fairly quiet standards. The album begins with “Nature Boy”, the best-known song of bohemian writer/oddball Eden Ahbez, whose Eden’s Island album is something of a lost exotica treasure. Teddy Charles’ vibraphone creates a deep atmosphere for Miles’ trumpet, and Mingus’s strumming about 4 minutes into the track. Miles’s wonderful interplay with drummer Elvin Jones (perhaps best known for becoming a mainstay in John Coltrane’s 60s bands) about 6 minutes into “There’s No You” is another highlight of this brief album. Perfectly mellow, Blue Moods is both a unique early entry in the discographies of two jazz giants and a go-to for when I want to play something relaxing.