Miles Davis – Workin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet (Rudy Van Gelder Remaster) (1959/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:24 minutes | 478 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Artwork: Digital Booklet | © Prestige Records
Recorded: May 11 and October 26 (#7), 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ
Remastered: 2006, Rudy Van Gelder at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet is an album recorded in 1956 by Miles Davis. Two sessions on May 11, 1956 and October 26 in the same year resulted in four albums—this one, Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet, Steamin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet and Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet. Track 2 is a composition written for Davis by Eddie Vinson (see Blue Haze for more details). “Trane’s Blues” (also known as “Vierd Blues”, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Blue Note founder Francis Wolff’s heavily accented verdict on it), also credited to Davis, is in fact a John Coltrane composition (originally titled “John Paul Jones”, and from an earlier session led by bassist Paul Chambers; before the closing statement of theme, Coltrane and Davis play a bit of Charlie Parker’s “The Hymn”). Paul Chambers plays a cello bassline on “Half Nelson”.
Workin’ is the third in a series of four featuring the classic Miles Davis Quintet: Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Red Garland (piano), and Philly Joe Jones (drums). Like its predecessors Cookin’ and Relaxin’, Workin’ is the product of not one — as mythology would claim — but two massively productive recording sessions in May and October of 1956, respectively. Contradicting the standard methodology of preparing fresh material for upcoming albums, Davis and company used their far more intimate knowledge of the tunes the quintet was performing live to inform their studio recordings. As was often the case with Davis, the antithesis of the norm is the rule. Armed with some staggering original compositions, pop standards, show tunes, and the occasional jazz cover, Workin’ is the quintessence of group participation. Davis, as well as Coltrane, actually contributes compositions as well as mesmerizing performances to the album. The band’s interaction on “Four” extends the assertion that suggests this quintet plays with the consistency of a single, albeit ten-armed, musician. One needs listen no further than the stream of solos from Davis, Coltrane, Garland, and Jones, with Paul Chambers chasing along with his rhythmic metronome. Beneath the smouldering bop of “Trane’s Blues” are some challenging chord progressions that are tossed from musician to musician with deceptive ease. Chambers’ solo stands as one of his defining contributions to this band. In sly acknowledgement to the live shows from which these studio recording sessions were inspired, Davis concludes both sets (read: album sides) with “The Theme” — a brief and mostly improvised tune — indicating to patrons that the tab must be settled. In this case, settling the tab might include checking out Steamin’, the final Miles Davis Quintet recording to have been culled from these historic sessions. ~~AllMusic Review by Lindsay Planer
Tracklist:
1. It Never Entered My Mind 05:25
2. Four 07:15
3. In Your Own Sweet Way 05:46
4. The Theme (Take 1) 02:01
5. Trane’s Blues 08:35
6. Ahmad’s Blues 07:26
7. Half Nelson 04:47
8. The Theme (Take 2) 01:02
Personnel:
Miles Davis, trumpet
John Coltrane, tenor saxophone
Red Garland, piano
Paul Chambers, double bass
Philly Joe Jones, drums
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