Miles Davis Quintet: Workin' With The Miles Davis Quintet (Original Jazz Classics series) [CRAFT]

Why you'll love it

This Original Jazz Classics edition was cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, in a replica tip-on jacket. It catches Miles Davis's first great quintet, with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones, at full stretch.

This edition

• Original Jazz Classics series
• 180g vinyl
• All-analog mastering by Kevin Gray from the original tapes
• Pressed at RTI
• Tip-on jacket replica

About the album

Some bands need months to make a record. Miles Davis's quintet needed two days in 1956, May 11 and October 26 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, and walked out with enough music for four albums. Davis had a Prestige contract to wrap up before moving to Columbia, so the group simply played their live set as if the tape weren't rolling. Cookin', Relaxin' and Steamin' came from the same sessions; Workin' arrived in January 1960.

It opens with a gorgeous muted reading of Rodgers and Hart's "It Never Entered My Mind," then Davis's own "Four" and Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way." "Trane's Blues" is a Coltrane tune in all but the credit, nicknamed "Vierd Blues" after the way photographer Francis Wolff said "weird." On "Ahmad's Blues" the horns sit out and Garland, Chambers and Jones play as a trio, a tip of the hat to Ahmad Jamal, and "Half Nelson" comes from the October date. Two quick takes of "The Theme," the band's set closer, bookend the sides.

Bob Weinstock produced, and the loose, live-in-the-room feel is the whole point. Four albums from two days is the sort of productivity that makes the rest of us look at our to-do lists rather sheepishly.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Prestige / Craft Recordings, a reissue of the 1960 album.