"The Complete Miles Davis [ tickets ] Featuring John Coltrane [ tickets ]," the long-delayed, six-CD set, is due from Columbia/Legacy on April 11. The title of "complete" should be qualified, however--the box contains three complete Columbia albums, but not the five earlier albums that group recorded for Prestige Records.

The Columbia quintet albums in the set include ''Round About Midnight,'' ''Milestones'' and ''Kind of Blue.'' In addition, the set also contains alternate takes, miscellaneous tracks, two live sets and conversations. The live material, which was released as albums in the '60s and '70s, are ''Miles and Monk at Newport,'' from a July 1958 performance, and ''Jazz at the Plaza,'' from a September 1958 show. The six hours of music (58 tracks) were produced by Bob Belden and Michael Cuscuna and remastered by Seth Rothstein.

Coltrane joined the Miles Davis Quintet in 1955, after a stint with Dizzy Gillespie. The hard-bop group, which only lasted 18 months, brought together pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones--all future leaders of their own groups. That lineup is featured on '''Round About Midnight.''

In 1957, Coltrane left the band to join Thelonious Monk and to pursue a solo career, but returned in 1958 to the Miles Davis Sextet, which included alto saxophonist Julian ''Cannonball'' Adderly, a future jazz great. That year, the band released ''Milestones,'' considered a milestone by the jazz community.

The next Davis-Coltrane album, 1959's ''Kind of Blue,'' used pianists Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans instead of Garland. The album is considered a classic to this day. Here, Davis introduced his concept of modal improvisation, in which the soloist worked off a predetermined set of scales instead of chord changes. Although the improvisational structure was different, spontaneous interactions were still rich. Incidentally, the band never rehearsed for ''Kind of Blue,'' and the album used all first takes.

The 1955-61 period was chaotic amid Davis' hirings (pianist Evans and drummer Jimmy Cobb, who also played on "Kind of Blue") and firings. Coltrane suffered from heroin addiction at the time, and Garland was unpredictable. Yet the six years proved to be incredibly fruitful for Davis and Coltrane--Coltrane developed as a leader, and both moved jazz in directions still heard today.