1 He's Gone
78 rpm: Fentone 2002
12" LP: Swingtone ST-1010
CD: Uptown UPCD 27.48, Jazz Factory JFCD 22825

2 The Story of Love
78 rpm: Fentone 2002
12" LP: Swingtone ST-1010
CD: Uptown UPCD 27.48, Jazz Factory JFCD 22825

I've listed this session despite plenty of evidence that Davis isn't involved. Many discographies put this session in spring or summer 1946, when Davis was on the west coast with Benny Carter and then Charlie Parker.

Some discographies list two additional tunes ("God's Portrait" and an unknown title) as being issued on Fentone 2001; but Fentone 2001 contained a recording by "The Owl Sextette" from 1948. These additional tunes don't appear in other collections of Mingus' early work. See the extensive notes to the Uptown CD for further speculation about the identity of these mystery tunes.

The dating of this session is difficult. In "An Open Letter to Miles Davis" ( Down Beat , November 30, 1955), Mingus complained, "Remember me, Miles? I'm Charles. Yeah, Mingus! You read third trumpet on my California record dates 11 years ago on the recommendation of Lucky Thompson." That would go back to 1944-45, which seems problematic:

1. According to the notes for Uptown 27.48, the session at which "He's Gone" and "Story of Love" were recorded took place in mid-February 1949 in San Francisco, at which point Davis was in New York playing in Tadd Dameron's Big Ten.
2. Uptown 27.48 lists the trumpet section of "Baron Mingus' Symphonic Airs" as including John Coppola, Vernon Carlson, Allen Smith, and Andy Peele. No sign of Davis -- even in the earlier Los Angeles sessions from 1945-46.
3. If Davis were present at any of Mingus' Los Angeles sessions, it would probably have been one in which Lucky Thompson was involved, since Davis roomed with Thompson while he was in LA. One such session took place in late January. But Davis didn't arrive in LA (as part of the Benny Carter Big Band) until February.
4. According to Ken Vail (Miles' Diary), Davis "gig[ged] around town with Lucky Thompson and Charles Mingus" in April 1946, then recorded these tunes with Mingus in August. Then in September Davis joined Billy Eckstine and worked his way back to New York. (Vail does not include any ads or reviews to substantiate this claim.)

On balance, it's unlikely that Davis is present on any of Mingus' extant studio recordings from the 1940s; but he certainly isn't audible as a soloist.