The Miles Davis Quintet – Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet – Original Jazz Classics 180 Gram Vinyl Record

Description

The Miles Davis Quintet – Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet – Original Jazz Classics 180 Gram Vinyl Record

Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet introduces one of jazz’s most consequential small groups at an early stage in its life. Released by Prestige in 1956, the album brings Miles Davis together with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The six selections draw largely on standards, giving the musicians familiar material through which to establish their shared language. Davis’s economical trumpet phrasing, Coltrane’s more insistent tenor sound and the rhythm section’s responsive swing are already a compelling combination. The music is welcoming on the surface and full of detail within. Recorded in November 1955, the session predates the celebrated 1956 marathon dates that supplied the quartet of later Prestige albums. It lets listeners hear the quintet establishing its balance before that larger body of recordings made the group’s reputation enduring.

“Just Squeeze Me” offers an inviting opening. Its relaxed movement gives Davis space to shape the melody with the measured phrasing that became one of his signatures. Garland’s piano adds clarity and harmonic warmth, while Chambers and Jones keep the time flexible and assured. “There Is No Greater Love” and “How Am I To Know?” continue the first side’s attention to song interpretation. These performances show how much variety a group can find within familiar tunes. The interest lies in the musicians’ choices: how directly to state a melody, when to leave space and how to answer what another player has just contributed.

Coltrane’s presence gives the quintet a distinctive balance. His developing tenor style has a different density and urgency from Davis’s trumpet, so the contrast between their solos becomes part of the group’s identity. Garland connects those voices with a piano approach that is elegant and rhythmically alert. Chambers contributes a firm foundation and melodic awareness, and Jones’s drumming continually adds motion around the beat. Each player has a recognizable role, but the record’s appeal comes from the way those roles fit together. The quintet sounds like five individual musicians learning how to create a sound that belongs to the whole band.

The second side includes the brisk “S’Posin’,” Davis’s “The Theme” and Benny Golson’s “Stablemates.” That selection extends the album beyond ballad interpretation into material that asks different questions of the rhythm section and soloists. “Stablemates,” in particular, brings a jazz composer’s harmonic design into a program otherwise strongly connected to the popular song tradition. The sequence is a useful early chapter for listeners who know the quintet through the later Prestige albums Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’ and Steamin’. It captures the same essential personnel before those celebrated sessions, making the group’s development audible through the repertoire and the interaction of its players.

This Craft Recordings Original Jazz Classics edition presents the album on 180 gram vinyl pressed at RTI. Kevin Gray cut the all-analog lacquers from the original master tapes at Cohearent Audio, and the record comes in a tip-on jacket with an obi. The LP retains the original six-track program, divided evenly between its two sides. Those specific production details make the edition a clearly identified option for collectors of the revived OJC series. More broadly, the album offers a concise introduction to a major Miles Davis lineup: six performances with enough melody to welcome a new listener and enough instrumental conversation to reward a close return.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Track Listing

Side A
Just Squeeze Me
There Is No Greater Love
How Am I To Know?

Side B
S’Posin’
The Theme
Stablemates