John McLaughlin, not Jaco Pastorius.
But I’ll go with the original Miles Davis Quintet (Relaxin’ with is my favorite jazz album) or his line-up for Kind of Blue as mentioned by the OP. That and the fact that basically the whole album is first-take improvised with very little preparation beforehand means that they were really clicking. There is a note in “So What”, a high B that Miles holds, that my trumpet playing friend calls “the best note in all of jazz.”
Michael Brecker had a prime?
And yes, Cedar Walton is supercalifragilicious.
Miles Davis (trumpet)
Tony Williams (not only IMO the greatest drummer who ever lived but IMO pound for pound the greatest instrumentalist who ever lived - the Hendrix of drums)
Wayne Shorter (tenor)
Herbie Hancock (Piano)
Ron Carter (bass)
The Miles Davis Quintet c 1964 - 1969 - at their absolute peak on the “Miles Smiles” album
Not to hijack myself, but I’ve read that Miles Davis didn’t particularly care for Bill Evans’ playing, after collaborating for some time.
Anybody know the story to this?
Up there for me too. But probably more significant for jazz as a mass cultural phenomenon – although no one could really have understood at the time – was BG bringing swing music to nationally sponsored radio, with Let’s Dance in 1934.
Just wanted to add that Jimmy Cobb was in the Miles Davis early quintet and I believe played drums on the Kind of Blue album. He’s still alive, by the way. We just saw him play last night at a Lincoln Center Jazz Presents concert here in town. They played only Miles Davis tunes and were terrific.
Of course Miles loved Bills playing. You could argue that the entire concept for “Kind of Blue” came from Evans. He was being influenced by the work of Debussey and Ravel, and their ideas of modality. (see Peace piece 1958) The idea of playing modaly was at the time quite radical. Blue and Green was written by Evans, though Miles often tried to take credit for it. I’ve heard Bill got quite upset when Miles brought in Wynton Kelly to play on All Blues (perhaps the most “bluesy track”) But that’s a different story…
I would like to suggest that these kinds of groups still exist
Considering how Miles felt about most white people (didn’t like um), he must have liked Evans’ playing a hell of a lot to let him into his band.
Yeah, I remember seeing an interview of him wherein he stated that white people can’t play jazz. When asked why, he said “Because they’re always behind the beat”.
/hijack from Olive
Probably one of the best quintets ever!!! Max Roach is one of my idols, and I learned how to play in trio, quartet and quintet from listening to him. He doesn’t overpower, but takes control of the beat.
I’ve played with Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan. I was in a jazz symposium lead by Bill Finnegan, and each of us attending had to bring one of our charts. Since I was playing baritone sax at the time, I had an awesome solo prepared for my piece. Imagine how I felt when I found out Gerry was part of the test band 
Anyway, after the first run through, Gerry was kind enough to say that it was good enough to play again, but he wanted me to play the first solo, and the band would repeat that section again - and he’d take a solo, and then we’d repeat that part until we signaled the band to go to the coda. Well, I did my solo, Gerry soloed, and picked up some of my riffs and expanded on them, my turn again, and I elaborated, and picked up some of his stuff . . . and so on for 15 repeats!!! I learned more about jazz in that 1/2 hr than most people will in a lifetime.
These guys weren’t legends because they had great chops, they were legends because how they treated the next generation. This happened back in 1974, and the most important lesson I learned that day was that you needed to teach as well as perform, something I kept close to my heart, and still practice.
Frank
If you want to hear an old fart talk about the old days, feel free to email me:
/returning to Olive
Is Jimmy Cobb not the only person who played on this album who is still alive?
mm