John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. This 1975 studio album featuring the music of George and Ira Gershwin.

Miles Davis is backed up by two different groups on these songs taken from various 10-inch vinyl releases, recorded in 1951 and 1953 and released in 1956. The earlier session features Sonny Rollins on saxophone, Bennie Green on trombone, John Lewis on piano, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Roy Haynes. The 1953 session also features Lewis, with Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and Sonny Truitt joining Davis on the front line, backed by the rhythm section of bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Kenny Clarke.

Recorded in 1956, "Tenor Conclave" lives up to its name, bringing together the mighty tenor saxes of John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. All four play on all four tunes, backed by an equally impressive rhythm section of pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor. This album would be re-released under Coltrane's name in 1962.

"Conception" is a compilation album issued by Prestige Records in 1956 as PRLP 7013, featuring Miles Davis on a number of tracks. Miles Davis is but one of the featured performers on this compilation album consisting of various tracks released on 10-inch vinyl and 78s, recorded in New York City between 1949 and 1951. In addition to Davis, other key figures on the album include Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz and Zoot Sims. The tracks had all been previously released by Prestige in discontinued formats, either on 10 inch LPs, or as 78rpm singles.

Booker Ervin's debut as a leader teamed the intense tenor saxophonist with fellow tenor Zoot Sims (one will have little difficulty telling the cool-toned Zoot apart from Booker), trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist George Tucker and drummer Dannie Richmond. Ervin (who has his ballad "Largo" as a feature) performs five originals and "Poor Butterfly"; best are the slow blues "The Blue Book" and the rapid blues "The Book Cooks".

Zoot Sims was known to jazz fans around the world as one of the original "Four Brothers" in the Woody Herman band. He has became known, albeit indirectly, to another generation as the namesake of "The Muppets" cooler-than-cool sax player Zoot with the long blue hair, fedora and the shades. This album concentrates on energetic standards from the swing era arranged for a quartet and features some early impressive piano work from Dave McKenna.

This Blue Note 80 Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.