Miles in the Sky shows Miles Davis evolving towards the long monolithic jam, as displayed on “Stuff” (17 minutes) and “Paraphernalia” (12 minutes), featuring guitarist George Benson.
The album displays a change from traditional piano and guitar sounds with electric instruments.
The drum themselves showed a groove closer to “rock” than the typical post-swing jazz sound portrayed in Miles' previous efforts. It was not clear at all that this evolution would end up in coining a new genre, jazz-rock.
The album’s title was a nod to The Beatles‘ 1967 song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.