The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions is a four compact disc box set of recordings by the Miles Davis Quintet released in 2006 by the Concord Music Group. It collates on three discs the entire set of recordings that made up the Prestige Records albums released from 1956 through 1961 — Miles, Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin'. The track "'Round Midnight" was released on the album Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants. The fourth disc contains live material from a television broadcast and in jazz club settings. It peaked at #15 on the Billboard jazz album chart, and was reissued on December 2, 2016, in a smaller compact disc brick packaging.
| The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Box set by | |
| Released | May 23, 2006 |
| Recorded | November 16, 1955 May 11, 1956 October 26, 1956 |
| Genre | Jazz |
| Label | Concord Music Group |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
In 2019 Craft Recordings, an imprint of the Concord group of labels, released a 32-track version without the fourth disc of live recordings subsequent to the main body of studio recordings in digital hi-res format. It is also available in a set of six vinyl LPs from Craft Recordings in the original 42-track format.
Background
editIn 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.[2] Davis assembled his first regular quintet to meet a commitment at the Café Bohemia in July with Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.[3] By the autumn Rollins had left, and at the recommendation of Jones, Davis replaced Rollins with John Coltrane.[4]
In January 1951, Prestige Records owner and producer Bob Weinstock signed Davis to a one-year contract;[5] Davis would continue to record for the label into 1956. Weinstock gave Davis an advance of $750, but the company's artists' contracts were often manipulative with low royalties, paying nothing for rehearsal time.[6] With his success at Newport and the formation of the Miles Davis Quintet, Davis convinced Avakian to buy out his contract with Prestige.[7]
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.[8] Davis took the quintet into the studio for a session in 1955 followed by two marathon dates in 1956, meeting his contractual obligations efficiently.[9] Prestige released the results of the first date for the album Miles in 1956, his second specifically for the twelve-inch LP format.[10]
Content
editRecording sessions took place at the studio of Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey, three over a twelve-month period 1955 to 1956. Discs one, two, and three contain selections in the order they were taped, all five Prestige LPs assembled from this material. The songs were mostly pop standards, mixed with jazz standards that would have been commonly played by hard bop groups during the 1950s. Disc one, tracks one through six, were recorded on November 16, 1955; disc one, tracks seven through ten, and disc two, tracks one through ten, were recorded on May 11, 1956; and disc two, tracks eleven and twelve, and disc three were recorded on October 26, 1956.[11]
Disc four contains previously unreleased live performances. Tracks one through four are from the first iteration of The Tonight Show, taped on November 17, 1955, the day after the first studio session.[12] Tracks five and six derive from a radio broadcast at the now-defunct Blue Note club in Philadelphia on December 8, 1956.[13] Tracks seven through ten derive from a show at the also defunct Café Bohemia in New York City on May 17, 1958, with Bill Evans in place of Garland. The show was broadcast on the Bandstand USA radio program.[14]
Track listing
editDisc one
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Stablemates" (originally released on Miles) | Benny Golson | 4:51 |
| 2. | "How Am I to Know?" (originally released on Miles) | Dorothy Parker, Jack King | 4:38 |
| 3. | "Just Squeeze Me" (originally released on Miles) | Duke Ellington, Lee Gaines | 6:31 |
| 4. | "There Is No Greater Love" (originally released on Miles) | Isham Jones, Marty Symes | 5:18 |
| 5. | "The Theme" (originally released on Miles) | Miles Davis | 5:45 |
| 6. | "S'posin'" (originally released on Miles) | Paul Denniker, Andy Razaf | 6:09 |
| 7. | "In Your Own Sweet Way" (originally released on Workin' ) | Dave Brubeck | 5:42 |
| 8. | "Diane" (originally released on Steamin' ) | Lew Pollack, Erno Rapee | 7:49 |
| 9. | "Trane's Blues" (originally released on Workin' ) | John Coltrane | 8:33 |
| 10. | "Something I Dreamed Last Night" (originally released on Steamin' ) | Sammy Fain, Jack Yellen, Herbert Magidson | 6:13 |
Disc two
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "It Could Happen to You" (originally released on Relaxin' ) | Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen | 6:37 |
| 2. | "Woody 'n' You" (originally released on Relaxin' ) | Dizzy Gillespie | 5:01 |
| 3. | "Ahmad's Blues" (originally released on Workin' ) | Ahmad Jamal | 7:24 |
| 4. | "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" (originally released on Steamin' ) | Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein | 5:27 |
| 5. | "It Never Entered My Mind" (originally released on Workin' ) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart | 5:22 |
| 6. | "When I Fall in Love" (originally released on Steamin' ) | Edward Heyman, Victor Young | 4:21 |
| 7. | "Salt Peanuts" (originally released on Steamin' ) | Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke | 6:07 |
| 8. | "Four" (originally released on Workin' ) | Miles Davis | 4:23 |
| 9. | "The Theme" (take 1; originally released on Workin' ) | Miles Davis | 2:01 |
| 10. | "The Theme" (take 2; originally released on Workin' ) | Miles Davis | 1:05 |
| 11. | "If I Were a Bell" (originally released on Relaxin' ) | Frank Loesser | 8:15 |
| 12. | "Well You Needn't" (originally released on Steamin' ) | Thelonious Monk | 6:18 |
Disc three
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "'Round Midnight" (originally released on Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants) | Thelonious Monk | 5:25 |
| 2. | "Half Nelson" (originally released on Workin' ) | Miles Davis | 4:45 |
| 3. | "You're My Everything" (originally released on Relaxin' ) | Harry Warren, Mort Dixon, Joe Young | 5:18 |
| 4. | "I Could Write a Book" (originally released on Relaxin' ) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart | 5:11 |
| 5. | "Oleo" (originally released on Relaxin' ) | Sonny Rollins | 6:22 |
| 6. | "Airegin" (originally released on Cookin' ) | Sonny Rollins | 4:24 |
| 7. | "Tune Up" (originally released on Cookin' ) | Miles Davis | 5:41 |
| 8. | "When Lights Are Low" (originally released on Cookin' ) | Benny Carter, Spencer Williams | 7:30 |
| 9. | "Blues by Five" (originally released on Cookin' ) | Red Garland | 10:23 |
| 10. | "My Funny Valentine" (originally released on Cookin' ) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart | 6:04 |
Disc four
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Steve Allen Intro" | 1:52 | |
| 2. | "Max Is Making Wax" (Tonight Starring Steve Allen performance) | Oscar Pettiford | 3:01 |
| 3. | "Steve Allen Intro 2" | 2:06 | |
| 4. | "It Never Entered My Mind" (Tonight Starring Steve Allen performance) | Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart | 2:56 |
| 5. | "Tune Up" (live at the Blue Note, Philadelphia) | Miles Davis | 4:25 |
| 6. | "Walkin'" (live at the Blue Note, Philadelphia) | Richard Carpenter | 5:21 |
| 7. | "Four" (live at the Café Bohemia) | Miles Davis | 4:52 |
| 8. | "Bye Bye Blackbird" (live at the Café Bohemia) | Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon | 6:55 |
| 9. | "Walkin'" (live at the Café Bohemia) | Richard Carpenter | 6:34 |
| 10. | "Two Bass Hit" (live at the Café Bohemia) | Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis | 3:17 |
Personnel
edit- Miles Davis — trumpet
- John Coltrane — tenor saxophone
- Red Garland — piano
- Bill Evans — piano on disc four tracks 7-10
- Paul Chambers — bass
- Philly Joe Jones — drums
Production personnel
edit- Bob Weinstock — original producer
- Rudy Van Gelder — original engineer
- Joe Tarantino — digital remastering
- Greg Allen — reissue art direction
- Abbey Anna, Rikka Arnold, Bill Belmont, Chris Clough, Terri Hinte, Jamie Putnam — reissue project assembly
- Burt Goldblatt, Katherine Holzman Goldblatt, Michael Randolph, Don Schlitten, Chuck Stewart, Ted Williams — photography
- Stuart Kremsky, Cheryl Pawelski, Nick Phillips — reissue compilation
- Bob Blumenthal — reissue liner notes
References
edit- ^ The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions at AllMusic
- ^ Richard Cook. It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-532266-8, pp. 44-45.
- ^ Cook, p. 45.
- ^ Cook, p. 46.
- ^ Cook, p. 25.
- ^ 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. ISBN 978-0-312-32785-9, pp. 85-86, 160.
- ^ Griffin and Washington, p. 86.
- ^ Cook, p. 47.
- ^ Cook, p. 50.
- ^ Both Sides Now discography retrieved 31 December 2016
- ^ The Jazz Discography website retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions liner notes, Concord Music Group PRS500038, 2016.
- ^ The Jazz Discography website retrieved 10 August 2011.
- ^ The Jazz Discography website retrieved 10 August 2011.