Miles Davis: 'Round About Midnight Mono 180g LP Vinyl

Why you'll love it

This pressing restores the original mono mix, remastered on 180g vinyl. It was Miles's first album for Columbia, and DownBeat's Ralph J. Gleason gave it five stars on arrival in 1957.

This edition

Mono mix
Remastered
180g vinyl

About the album

Some record deals start in a boardroom; this one started with a trumpet solo. At the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival, Miles Davis played "'Round Midnight" in an all-star jam with its composer Thelonious Monk, and George Avakian of Columbia was in the audience. His brother Aram persuaded him to sign Davis, and Miles, typically laconic, said he'd just played the way he always played.

Davis formed his first great quintet with John Coltrane on tenor, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, and recorded this album across three Columbia sessions while still finishing his Prestige contract. "Ah-Leu-Cha" comes from the first, in October 1955, and is the quintet's earliest studio recording. "Bye Bye Blackbird," "Tadd's Delight" and "Dear Old Stockholm" followed in June 1956, and "All Of You" and the title track that September at the 30th Street Studio. Avakian produced and wrote the liner notes.

Cadence later called it one of the essential recordings in the history of recorded music. The cover shows Miles in dark glasses, lost in thought and washed in red, which is roughly how we look when someone asks us to pick just one Miles record.

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