  We investigate the chemo-kinematic properties of the Milky Way disc by
exploring the first year of data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic
Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), and compare our results to smaller optical
high-resolution samples in the literature, as well as results from lower
resolution surveys such as GCS, SEGUE and RAVE. We start by selecting a
high-quality sample in terms of chemistry ($\sim$ 20.000 stars) and, after
computing distances and orbital parameters for this sample, we employ a number
of useful subsets to formulate constraints on Galactic chemical and
chemodynamical evolution processes in the Solar neighbourhood and beyond (e.g.,
metallicity distributions -- MDFs, [$\alpha$/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] diagrams, and
abundance gradients). Our red giant sample spans distances as large as 10 kpc
from the Sun.
  We find remarkable agreement between the recently published local (d $<$ 100
pc) high-resolution high-S/N HARPS sample and our local HQ sample (d $<$ 1
kpc). The local MDF peaks slightly below solar metallicity, and exhibits an
extended tail towards [Fe/H] $= -$1, whereas a sharper cut-off is seen at
larger metallicities. The APOGEE data also confirm the existence of a gap in
the [$\alpha$/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] abundance diagram. When expanding our sample to
cover three different Galactocentric distance bins, we find the
high-[$\alpha$/Fe] stars to be rare towards the outer zones, as previously
suggested in the literature. For the gradients in [Fe/H] and [$\alpha$/Fe],
measured over a range of 6 $ < $ R $ <$ 11 kpc in Galactocentric distance, we
find a good agreement with the gradients traced by the GCS and RAVE dwarf
samples. For stars with 1.5 $<$ z $<$ 3 kpc, we find a positive metallicity
gradient and a negative gradient in [$\alpha$/Fe].
