I need to know which are the two finest Miles Davis CDs. Kind of Blue is No. 1, right?

"Finest" is subjective, but few would find fault with your choice.

In March and April 1959, Davis re-entered the studio with his working sextet and Bill Evans to record what is widely considered his magnum opus, Kind of Blue. The album was planned around Evans' piano style. It was also influenced by concepts that Evans had learned while working with George Russell on the earliest recordings of modal jazz and passed on to the sextet. Kelly only played on "Freddie Freeloader", and was not present at the April session. "So What" and "All Blues" had been played by the sextet at performances prior to the recording sessions, but for the other three compositions, Davis and Evans prepared skeletal harmonic frameworks which the other musicians saw for the first time on the day of recording, in order to generate an improvisational approach. The resulting album has proven to be a huge influence on other musicians. According to the RIAA, Kind of Blue is the best-selling jazz album of all time. - Wikipedia

Kind of Blue went triple platinum. H0wever. my choice for "finest" is

Birth of the Cool is an album which collects twelve songs recorded by the Miles Davis nonet for Capitol Records in 1949 and 1950.

Featuring unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music featured innovative arrangements strongly inspired by classical music, and mark a major development in post-bebop jazz. As the title implies, these recordings are considered seminal in the history of cool jazz. - Wikipedia

Miles was one of the very few trumpeters whose influences and abilities approached those of Armstrong but Miles, who died in 1991, left the planet in the early 70s and started playing compositions best described as from another world, for another world. He isn't remembered for those.

Miles Dewey Davis III

Thanks you, DG, for such a quick response. I wanted another Miles Davis CD and 've just ordered "Birth of the Cool" over the Internet on your recommendation. It does feel a tad odd to be ordering an album that was recorded a full fifty years ago, but I've always admired the album cover and that picture.
"Kind of Blue" I know well. The "new" one will have to be pretty special to beat that, in my opinion, but we'll see.

Autumn's so far been mild this year, and there's no heating on in our house as yet. And with my wife in the UK for a few days (visiting family and friends and so on), I don't like to give in to the elements even though this evening seems just that bit cooler. So I opened a bottle of Côtes du Rhône (I've had a hard day - I deserve it) - though it's not a Bordeaux mind, for un ballon de Côtes can easily be drunk chilled - and I scoured my music collecton for something to play. I've a reasonable choice, believe me, but what I yearned for just now was for the "Birth of the Cool" to be delivered, as ordered a few days ago. Only it's not yet arrived.
A shame. The new Springsteen is impressive, and the Stacey Kent and the Patti Scialfa and the cut-price Mozart Piano Conceto No.21 and the new Dylan triple set I've just acquired need studying further, but it was jazz I wanted, and I'm in the mood for Miles Davis. So I opted for the sole Miles Davis CD I do own: my well-worn copy of "Kind of Blue". Mind you, it's not half bad.
And despite the cool (no pun intended), I was riveted. Yes, it's an acclaimed masterpiece, I know, but let me express admiration again here for music that works. The alternate take of "Flamenco Sketches" is included on the CD (not on the original vinyl) as a bonus, and to know that the recording speed of that initial vinyl copy's been perfected now can only induce a nod of satisfaction, even though I didn't notice fifty years back when it was first released (all right, not fifty, for I'm too young to have heard it first time round).
I write these brief comments not as a jazz expert, which I'm not, only as a music fan - and I wish a few more would post here. Ritz has rightly deplored the lack of activity on the classical board, but I would deplore the lack of music posts in general, now that the admirable justin (jusork) seems to be on holiday.
Whatever, Kind of Blue" definitely rules for me this autumn evening. But tell me, please, Mr Postman - where's my copy of "The Birth of the Cool"?

Hey, Colin. I'm always checking in. Nothing's just caught my interest lately in music.

I was thinking about something to recommend to you, as I'm sure there was something recently worth recommending lately. And then, from a webradio I was listening to, came a song by someone named Kurt Elling. The song is called Undune, apparently a cover. Have you heard of him?

Hi, and thanks for the recommendation. No, I don't know Kurt Elling's music but it is a name I have heard before. Checking out his back catalogue on a few web-sites just now, I see it's pretty extensive and I'll certainly give him a listen.
Coincidentally, he's appearing in Paris tonight at the New Morning Jazz Club. Had I known about this post this a few days earlier I might well have got my act together and gone. Only it's too late to book over the Internet now and it could well be sold out as it's a very small (and intimate) venue Coupled with this, my wife flew back in from the UK late last night (the airport's 70 kilometres away), and tomorrow night (Wednesday) we've already got tickets to see the jazz singer Stacey Kent at the Olympia music-hall in Paris (45 kilometres away), so perhaps we'll opt out this time. Am I getting old?

"Round About Midnight" is a good early album to consider also, and "Bitches Brew" is a great album, though much different in attitude than much of his early work... hard to describe the difference for me (I lack the right vocabulary), but it seems more "in your face" and has a more rock-like edge. Some purists do not like it that much. Hard to lose with someone this talented though.

Well, having listened to "Birth of the Cool" several times and in different situations (alone, late at night, in the car), and having read glowing reports on a number of quality music sites and in a number of quality music publications - all of which praise it hugely, I have to admit that I personally was very disappointed after having heard so often the remarkable "Kind of Blue" album. This, to me, still sounds as fresh as the morning.
It must be my fault. I don't even identify with it as being "cool jazz", though perhaps it's cool jazz in a very embryonic state, given when the original recordings on the album were made. No, it's not for me. I'll get around to "Round About Midnight" and "Bitches Brew" one day I hope, and report back eventually. But thanks, anyway, to all.