// Essential Listening

The Miles Davis Quintet of 1955-57 was a phenomenon that left many jaws dropping. Their magic and in-the-fast-lane fluidity was best caught onstage, in a live context. One who witnessed the ascent of the group was the normally staid music journalist Ralph Gleason, who later wrote: I heard this band many nights at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, for which I am gratefulthey wailed. And they didnt need to warm upthe sheer intensity of it was thrilling. Fast or slow, they made every bar sound like it had been born in an atom-splitting burst of energy.

The quintet was a phenomenon. At their exuberant, full-throttle best, the group simply had so much to offer: Coltranes raw, edgy at times endless tenor improvisations. Garlands fiery, left-hand chording.Philly Joes exciting cymbal work and propulsive rim shots. Miles subdued, muted trumpet. Chambers adept and soulful bowed solos. Years after the quintets debut, jazz writers were exhilarated by their interactivity. The intricacy of the linkage between the minds of these musicians has never been equaled in any group, in my opinion, wrote Gleason. Prestige president Bob Weinstock lauded them the Louis Armstrong Hot Five of the modern era. In 1956, when Columbia Records wanted to sign Miles away from Prestige, he still had significant time on his 3-year contract. As Columbias George Avakian remembered, Miles brainstormed a win-win situation that made both labels happy: Miles got a crazy idea and it worked. He said Tell Bob Weinstock youd like to record me, and you wont put the masters out until the end of my [Prestige] contract, which would be about two years hence. Meanwhile they can stockpile albums, and when Columbia comes out with my first album, youre going to advertise it and promote it, right? I said, Sure we will. So Prestige will get the benefit of that . . .

Stockpile is exactly what Prestige did: in 1956, over two marathon sessions, Miles and his Quintet performed four albums worth of tunes, most of them from their well-rehearsed live set-list of jazz standards, with no retakes. To this day, the gerund-themed quartet ofCookin,Relaxin,WorkinandSteamin define a high-water mark for small group jazz improvisation.The tunes are also telling of the groups distinctive strengths: their cohesive swing and Coltranes growing confidence on burners like Salt Peanuts, I Could Write A Book, Rollins Oleo, and Miles Tune Up. Their penchant for brisk, mid-tempo numbers that closely followed Ahmad Jamals interpretations of If I Were A Bell and Surrey With The Fringe On Top. Their ability to re-imagine certain structures, like Thelonious Monks Round Midnight, making them their own. The pretty songs: Miles alone with the rhythm section, Coltrane laying out as he often did on the trumpeters ballad features. Miles performances of My Funny Valentine and It Never Entered My Mind proved career-launching and revealed the inner sensitivity he spent a lifetime masking with a street-tough exterior. via Label

Label: Analogue Productions, Prestige
Series: The Prestige Mono Series
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Repress, Mono, 180g
Reissued: 2022 / Original Release: 1957
Genre: Jazz
Style: Bop, Hard Bop, Post Bop

File under: Audiophile Jazz