The premise of this intriguing compilation is to illustrate how Miles Davis' 1970 LP Bitches Brew was the culmination of the work of Davis and his musicians over the preceding two years, and how this influence changed the jazz landscape in the early 1970s.

Although Davis did not ‘invent’ jazz-rock – it had already been bubbling beneath the surface for three, maybe four years – his stature in jazz was such that In A Silent Way sanctioned change, effectively giving the green light to a new direction of jazz experimentation. Directions In Music is reflective of music that was in turmoil, transition and change during this period, like American society itself, and opens with the title track of In A Silent Way and continues in similar thoughtful mood with Wayne Shorter's ‘Sweet Pea’ (with Chick Corea on drums and vibes) and Lonnie Liston Smith's ‘Astral Travelling’. Side two has a track from John McLaughlin's Extrapolation, recorded shortly before he departed for Tony Williams' Lifetime; Davis' wife, Betty Davis (neé Mabry) sings Cream's ‘Politician Man’ and the Gary Bartz track ‘Harlem Bushman’ concludes record one.

The second disc has Miles Davis' ‘Directions’, Keith Jarrett's ‘Common Mama’, Chick Corea's ‘Song of the Wind’ and Herbie Hancock's ‘You'll Know When You Get There’ all maintaining the theme of linking the work of Miles' former sidemen to Davis' own work of the period. Though Corea's May 1969 ‘Song of the Wind’, while fitting in with the overall musical arc of the selected tracks, is a bit of a reach in the context of ‘the Birth of a New Age of Jazz’, since it is also known as ‘Waltz For Bill Evans’, retrospective rather than forward looking, and recorded as such in 1970 by Joe Farrell on Courage and John McLaughlin on My Goal's Beyond. Interestingly, the John McLaughlin number on this collection (taken from Extrapolation), 'Arjen's Bag', became ‘Follow Your Heart’, also on My Goal's Beyond. Perhaps surprisingly, a key album from this period of transition was Miroslav Vitous' Infinite Search, recorded in October 1969 –Vitous had played with Davis but not recorded with him – a record stuffed full of Miles alumni, including John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and Jack DeJohnette.