Drummer Jimmy Cobb loves to tell the story about a phone call he received from Miles Davis at 6 o'clock one evening at his home in New York.

It was 1958 or so. A few months before, Cobb had filled in on the final sessions of Davis' classic "Porgy and Bess" album, and now the trumpet legend was offering him a position in his band.

"We went over the whole thing and then I said, 'When are you playing next?' and Miles said 'Tonight.' So I said, 'Well, where is it?' and he said he was in Boston. I said, 'How am I supposed to get to Boston tonight?' and Miles said, 'You want the job, don't you?' So I booked the 55-minute shuttle flight they had running at the time, made it to the club, set up and came in during the bridge to "Round Midnight,'" Cobb said with a chuckle.

"Miles always knew what he wanted. He never looked back, always looked forward. I learned that from him."

One could argue that the quartet Cobb is bringing to the Dakota Jazz Club Tuesday and Wednesday night -- 4 Generations of Miles -- is in fact a "look back" at the seminal musician by a group of his distinguished former cohorts. But Cobb and the others -- including guitarist Mike Stern, saxophonist Sonny Fortune, and bassist Buster Williams -- believe that the best way to honor Miles is not to imitate him so much as use his influence as a catalyst for creativity. That's why they see no dissonance in performing his songs without a trumpeter or pianist in the ensemble.

"I actually think it is cool there is no trumpet," says Stern. "We'll play a tune like 'All Blues' or 'There Is No Greater Love' and people will recognize the melody and think of Miles, but then we all have our own thing, too. It's the band expressing itself that's what really matters."

Stern, the group's youngest member and the last to play with Miles (during the 1980s), proved his point on a "4 Generations of Miles" album released in 2003. Renowned primarily as a squalling fusion guitarist, he fit in nicely playing vintage Miles bebop with a trio of greybeards that included Cobb, Ron Carter and George Coleman. Yet Stern didn't compromise his familiar tone and fire to the point where his individual voice was sacrificed.

That said, Stern was especially enthused when the group was able to replace the departing Carter with Buster Williams. "I loved the vibe I had with Ron, but he tended to be a little more conservative, where Buster is wide open. He is a funky mother, I'll tell you, but he can play anything. Everybody in this band can -- Sonny Fortune, too. I would love to get back into the recording studio with this group."

Fortune, the alto saxophonist who played in the funky, electric Davis group of the mid-'70s, has enlisted the bassist in his own ensembles, and, like Stern, praises the range and depth of the entire quartet. But he offers special praise for Cobb, the unsung timekeeper on Miles' "Kind of Blue," John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and dozens of other noteworthy sessions. ("Jimmy was on one of my favorite Wes Montgomery records and sometimes I'll throw in some Wes quotes to remind him," Stern says.)

"I'll give you a scoop: Growing up, my concept of rhythm was formed by [Coltrane drummer] Elvin Jones and by Jimmy Cobb," Fortune says. "So to be in a band with Jimmy Cobb playing the music that Miles Davis liked so much is very special to me.

"I always look for a certain thing from musicians that is like magic; you can't put it on paper. And these guys have it. I met Jimmy back in 1963 and because Buster is from Camden [N.J.] and I'm from Philly I've known him since about 1964, and Mike is a wonderful new surprise."

When record label owner David Chesky sat down with Cobb's wife, Elena Tee Cobb, and came up with the concept of this band (originally entitled the Jimmy Cobb Quartet), the plan was to come up with simpatico players who spanned at least part of the vast legacy of Miles Davis. That has held true through the resulting personnel changes.

As plainspoken and understated in word as he is in music, Cobb sums up 4 Generations of Miles this way: "We're professionals, with an idea of what went on before, and is needed now to capture what we want to do."