The Miles Davis Quintet of 1964-1968 is justly celebrated as one of the most important jazz groups of all time. Miles picked four of the most extraordinary young musicians playing at the time — Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Tony Williams on drums — and they created a new sound that remains tremendously influential today.

  Here's an excellent clip from YouTube of an early performance of the quintet performing "Joshua" on tour in Italy in October 1964. Shorter had joined the group only a month earlier, replacing Sam Rivers, who had a few months earlier replaced George Coleman (you can hear the difference by comparing the string of live albums recorded in 1964: My Funny Valentine in February with Coleman, Miles in Tokyo in July with Rivers, and Miles in Berlin in September with Shorter). It's also interesting to note that the drummer, Tony Williams, was all of 18 years old at the time.  If you're interested in hearing more, I would probably start with the Quintet's first studio album, E.S.P., and then turn to Sorcerer. At that point I might switch over to a Shorter-led Blue Note, such as Speak No Evil, which has Freddie Hubbard instead of Miles and Elvin Jones instead of Tony Williams but is a terrific album that really shouldn't be missed.