Miles Davis Quintet – Great Prestige Recordings

A quintet develops its shared language

Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones formed one of the defining jazz groups of the 1950s. The Great Prestige Recordings brings together five complete albums from their early work. The box begins with Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet and continues through Cookin', Relaxin' and Workin' to Steamin'.

Release dates and recording dates tell different stories here. The first album comes from a November 1955 session. The music for the four subsequent LPs was recorded on two days in May and October 1956, then issued over several years. Keeping that distinction in mind makes it possible to hear the box as a connected chapter in the life of the group.

Two long days in Hackensack

Davis needed to fulfil his Prestige obligations while the next stage of his recording career with Columbia was already taking shape. On May 11 and October 26, 1956, he assembled the quintet at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio, with Bob Weinstock producing. Those two substantial sessions supplied enough music for four albums.

The repertoire ranges from standards to compositions closely associated with modern jazz. Shared experience and familiar material give the musicians a common basis for the performances. Short spoken passages preserved on Relaxin' also offer a glimpse of the work between pieces. They connect the finished record to the studio days from which these separately released albums emerged.

Five players, changing perspectives

Davis's trumpet and Coltrane's tenor saxophone form the front line. Garland's piano, Chambers' bass and Jones's drums keep the exchanges moving. Shift your attention as you listen: first towards the horns, then towards the pianist's accompaniment, and finally towards the relationship between bass and drums. Across five albums there is time to recognise how those relationships recur in different settings.

The instrumentation also changes within the programme. Coltrane sits out “My Funny Valentine” on Cookin', while “Ahmad's Blues” on Workin' belongs to the piano trio. These smaller combinations reveal further possibilities inside the group. Taking the box one album at a time preserves each LP's sequence of tempos, themes and instrumental variations, even where the music shares the same recording dates.

This edition

Analogue Productions AAPJ 035 contains five 180-gram LPs playing at 33⅓ RPM, pressed at Quality Record Pressings. The publisher credits Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio with mastering from the original analog tapes. Individual Stoughton tip-on jackets are housed in a substantial box, accompanied by a twelve-page booklet with an essay by Bob Blumenthal. The set contains the five complete albums Miles, Cookin', Relaxin', Workin' and Steamin', preserving their individual programmes within one collection.

In the magazine: Miles Davis: A History in Records

More by Miles Davis Quintet: Relaxin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet

Artist page: All titles by Miles Davis

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.

Personnel vary on individual tracks: “Ahmad’s Blues” is a trio without Davis and Coltrane; Coltrane also sits out “There Is No Greater Love” and “My Funny Valentine”.