Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (Original Jazz Classics series) [CONCORD JAZZ INC.]

Why you'll love it

This Original Jazz Classics edition is mastered all-analog from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio and pressed in mono on 180g vinyl at RTI, in a Stoughton tip-on jacket with obi. It marks Miles Davis's centennial, with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones alongside him.

This edition

• Original Jazz Classics series
• 180g vinyl
• Mono
• All-analog mastering from the original tapes
• Pressed at RTI
• Stoughton tip-on jacket with obi

About the album

Miles Davis had signed with Columbia but still owed Prestige four albums, so he did the sensible thing and got the lot done in two sittings. On May 11 and October 26, 1956, the quintet set up at Rudy Van Gelder's studio and played their club repertoire more or less straight through, and the tapes became Cookin', Relaxin', Workin' and Steamin'. Cookin' came first, in 1957.

It opens with "My Funny Valentine," Miles on Harmon mute, tender and unhurried, with Red Garland's piano setting the scene. Then the band shifts gear: "Blues by Five" swings easily, Sonny Rollins's "Airegin" kicks up the tempo, and the closing medley of "Tune Up" and "When Lights Are Low" gives John Coltrane room to stretch out, a glimpse of the giant he was about to become. Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones keep the whole thing swinging underneath.

The four albums from those sessions are counted among the finest performances in all of hard bop, and Cookin' is the one most people reach for first. Two days' work, four classic albums. We've had staff meetings achieve less.

Also at Kops: more Miles Davis on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Prestige / Craft Recordings (cat# CR00944), a reissue of the 1957 album.