Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet Explained

Miles
Type:Album
Artist:Miles Davis
Cover:Miles Davis New Miles Davis Quintet.png
Recorded:November 16, 1955
Studio:Van Gelder (Hackensack)
Genre:Jazz
Length:33:47
Label:Prestige
Producer:Bob Weinstock
Prev Title:Miles Davis and Horns
Prev Year:1956
Next Title:Quintet/Sextet
Next Year:1956

Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet is a studio album by the jazz musician Miles Davis which was released in April 1956 through Prestige Records.[1] [2] It is the debut record by the Miles Davis Quintet, and generally known by the original title Miles as indicated on the cover.

Background

In the summer of 1955, Davis performed a noted set at the Newport Jazz Festival, and had been approached by Columbia Records executive George Avakian, offering a contract with the label if he could form a regular band.[3] Davis assembled his first regular quintet to meet a commitment at the Café Bohemia in July. By September, the line-up stabilized to include John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.[4]

Still under contract to Prestige, an arrangement dating back to January 1951,[5] Davis convinced Avakian to buy out his contract with Prestige.[6] The terms of the deal between Avakian and Weinstock allowed Davis to record for Columbia but not release any of the material until Davis fulfilled his remaining duty to Prestige.[7] Davis took the quintet into Columbia's studio first, on October 26, to record titles that would be issued on Round About Midnight.[8] Three weeks later the quintet entered the studio of Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey, yielding the six titles for this album. During the following year, Davis and his quintet would record enough material over two Van Gelder sessions to yield Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin' and fulfill their contractual obligation to Prestige.

Content

The songs were a mix of pop and jazz standards, items familiar enough to present few problems to the fledgling band, given the Prestige policy of offering no compensation for rehearsal time.[9] "The Theme" would continue to be Davis' standard set closer, and Coltrane does not play on "There Is No Greater Love".

Track listing

Side two

Personnel

See also

Albums recorded by the same personnel:

Notes and References

  1. Book: DeVito . Chris . The John Coltrane Reference . Fujioka . Yasuhiro . Schmaler . Wolf . Wild . David . 2013 . . 9780415634632 . Porter . Lewis . Lewis Porter . New York/Abingdon . 417.
  2. Ackerman. Paul. Paul Ackerman. 28. The New Miles Davis Quintet . . The Billboard Publishing Co. . Cincinnati . May 5, 1956.
  3. [Richard Cook (journalist)|Richard Cook]
  4. Cook, p. 45.
  5. Cook, p. 25.
  6. Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington. Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2008., p. 86.
  7. Cook, p. 47.
  8. http://www.jazzdisco.org/miles-davis/discography/#551026 Jazzdisco.org Miles Davis retrieved 10 August 2011.
  9. Griffin and Washington, p. 160.