I find it a somewhat ironic testament to Miles Davis that here we are in 2005 celebrating a major milestone of an artist who, at least on the surface, always seemed reticently nostalgic. However, there is one interesting sidebar to that. In the words of Davis' biographer, Ian Carr, "The truth of the matter is that Miles often looked back, but always moved forward. That's the key."

Davis had been actively recording since the mid 1940s. His earliest efforts included work with Charlie "Bird" Parker's Rebeboppers, Benny Carter, Billy Eckstine, Coleman Hawkins, and Billy Eckstine's orchestra. Davis' rapidly maturing chops led him to form and lead his own nonet by the fall of 1948. This legendary combo created the first definitive Miles Davis musical statement with the groundbreaking Birth Of The Cool (1949). The release of that album also triggered an uncanny and possibly subconscious pattern. Exactly every ten years for three consecutive decades, Davis and his assemblages all but reinvented the boundaries of jazz. Those respective transformations yielded the epics Kind Of Blue (1959) and Bitches Brew (1969).

At the epicenter of Davis' continually renewed creativity was the unprecedented freedom given by Columbia Records. Their relationship began when the label's staff producer George Avakian signed Davis nearly half-century ago, on October 27, 1955. At the time, the trumpet player was under contract with the smaller, independent Prestige imprint. As the story goes, the encounter between Davis and Avakian on July 17, 1955 was quite by chance. Davis was just leaving the stage of the Newport Jazz Festival after a particularly rousing set. While their oral exchange may have been brief, it led to one of the most fruitful associations in the history of recorded music.

To mark the golden anniversary of that fateful meeting, Columbia/Legacy Jazz is in the middle of a year-long homage to the music of Miles Davis. For some, the half-dozen hours of previously unissued concert material to be released this fall on the six-disc Miles Davis: The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 (2005) will be the program's pi?ce de r?sistance. Yet that is merely one phase in the extensive four-part reissue campaign.

Practically fifty years to the day since Miles Davis and George Avakian's agreement at the side of the Newport stage, CrutchfieldAdvisor caught up with Seth Rothstein, Sony Legacy's Vice-President of Jazz Marketing. I like to think of him as the man behind the man with the horn. Rothstein likewise heads up the team whose work with Davis' voluminous catalog has earned no less than eight Grammies. As Rothstein runs down the voodoo that he and his staff have in store for the upcoming months, I'm sure they are making room on their trophy shelf for their next batch of deserved lauds and plaudits.

Here's the score so far:

• Miles Davis & Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (1996) - Best Historical Album, Best Album Notes and Best Boxed Recording Package. (This is only the second occurrence in Grammy history that all three awards have been bestowed upon a single project.)
• Miles Davis Quintet 1965-'68: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (1998) - Best Album Notes.
• Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (1998) - Best Boxed Recording Package.
• Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-1961 (2000) - Best Boxed Recording Package and Best Album Notes.
• The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions (2003) - Best Boxed Recording Package.

On the afternoon of April 20, 2005 we caught up with Rothstein at his Manhattan office. It was there we got him to reveal the secrets behind the series' unparalleled success, as well as their plans for this year's 50th Anniversary and beyond.