Porgy And Bess
by Miles Davis

Album
Porgy And Bess by Miles Davis
Year: 1959
Overall rank: 2,152nd   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 202 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 20 albums of 1959 (13th)
Award Top 100 albums of of the 1950s (59th)
Award Best albums of all time (2,152nd)

Listen on Spotify SPOTIFY

Log in or create an account to rate this album, leave comments or join the discussion.

Listen & Collect

Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.

  • Listened Upgrade your listening setup on Amazon(headphones, turntables & speakers)
  • Find vinyl editions of this album on eBay
  • Browse Miles Davis merchandise on Amazon (T-shirts & more)
  • Need a birthday or celebration gift? Browse unique music memorabilia on Amazon

Miles Davis bestography

Porgy And Bess is ranked 12th best out of 127 albums by Miles Davis on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Miles Davis is Kind Of Blue which is ranked number 36 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 20,847.

Miles Davis album bestography « Higher ranked (2,136th)
Cookin' With The Miles Davis Quintet This album (2,152nd)
Porgy And Bess Lower ranked (2,325th) »
Miles Ahead

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

Listen to Porgy And Bess on YouTube

Loading content from YouTube...

Porgy And Bess rankings

Porgy And Bess rankings summary
Overall rank: 2,152nd | 1950s rank: 59th | 1959 rank: 13th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)

Porgy And Bess collection

Porgy And Bess ratings

Average Rating: 
78/100 (from 202 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 202 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 !		09/14/2026 20:25 Foxforce5  Ratings distribution  48575/100
 
95/100
 !		08/05/2026 06:49 Gammarus1979  Ratings distribution  63179/100
 
95/100
 !		06/16/2026 15:22 PauloFernandes  Ratings distribution  1,04292/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.0/100, a mean average of 77.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 13.5.


Please log in or create an account if you want to be able to leave a rating

Porgy And Bess favourites

Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite  | Show all 21 members

haz215
djnizzi
raymondphill
dukeboxkool
Gammarus1979
Cardboardfolder
MaxStorm98
Brandonjtg
matterhornrider
jdenny2018

Porgy And Bess forum mentions

This album has been referenced 17 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From CharlieBarley 03/31/2021 14:47 in What album are you listening to right now?
“What album are you listening to right now?”
View forum topic (11 mentions) →

From dihansse 09/17/2019 20:25 in My discoveries per year
“Back to my original project in which I've set the goal to listen to all the BEA top 2500 I hadn't heard yet and I still have the fifties to cover which mainly consist of jazz, blues, early rock 'n roll and easy listening. I plan to tackle this per artist and if I think it's necessary I will try to…”
View forum post →

From Fischman 01/14/2019 21:57 in A Deep Dive Into My Top 100 Albums ever
“Wildly ambitious Miles Davis strikes again! Miles Davis could do no wrong at this point in his career. Then again, he hardly did any wrong ever. Regardless, Porgy and Bess is Miles' magnificent interpretation of George Gershwin's Opera. Now, I've never listened to the original opera, but I'm sure…”
View forum topic (2 mentions) →

View all forum mentions

Porgy And Bess comments

Showing all 5 comments |
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
85/100
From 10/23/2012 14:28 | #53197 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Gershwin’s music proves perfect for Miles Davis the balladeer, and he really owns it. The result is some of the most lovely moments in jazz. “Prayer,” especially, is emotional, powerful and absolutely beautiful.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 1
Reply
Rating:  
85/100
From 06/06/2015 00:06 | #143133 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
"Summertime" is the early highlight but the sparkling "Here Come De Honey Man", followed by "I Loves You Porgy" bring the album home on an extremely high note.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 0
Reply
Rating:  
90/100
From 10/15/2016 02:41 | #176905 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Smooth and classy but not absolute A grade Miles.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 0
Reply
Rating:  
55/100
From 09/20/2016 04:35 | #175383 | TOP COMMENT Help Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Orchestrated jazz, isn't that an oxymoron?
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 0
Reply
Rating:  
65/100
From 08/26/2019 04:02 | #241685
@Jhef9312

no?
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) · 1
Reply
Anonymous
What do you think of this album? Join the conversation!.
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.

Log in or create an account to rate this album, leave comments or join the discussion.
Best Albums of  1959
1. Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis
2. Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus
3. Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet
4. The Shape Of Jazz To Come by Ornette Coleman
5. Berry Is On Top by Chuck Berry
6. Moanin' In The Moonlight by Howlin' Wolf
7. Little Girl Blue by Nina Simone
8. The Genius Of Ray Charles by Ray Charles
9. Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs by Marty Robbins
10. Chega De Saudade by João Gilberto