Miles Davis first album for Columbia Records in 1957 takes its name from the famous Thelonious Monk composition and is considered one of the great Jazz albums of all time, representing the best of Hard Bop Jazz genre and the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration with John Coltrane in the famous Quintet.

• Sony Japan Limited Edition
• Jazz Analog Legendary Collection
• Premium Deluxe Cover
• 180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl
• Pressed at Sony Pressing in Japan
• Mastered by Mark Wilder from Original Master Tapes
• Japanese OBI Strip
• Mono

Miles Davis’ first album for Columbia, ‘Round About Midnight, represents both the beginning of a three-plus-decade relationship with the famed label as well as the start of an extended collaboration with then-unknown saxophonist John Coltrane. As one of the era’s only complete start-to-finish full-length LPs, the 1957 set stands as a hard-bop benchmark—a summation of the styles that came before its creation, an immersion into the period’s cutting-edge strains, and a hint of the rivoluse modalism that would follow.

Historically, few jazz records claim the significance boasted by ‘Round About Midnight.  The album’s creation—and the assembly of Davis’ quintet, which also includes Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones—stems from the headliner’s rousing rendition of the title-inspired track, “’Round Midnight,” a Thelonious Monk standard, at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival. Stunning the audience with an interpretation that witnessed him personalize the composition with a brooding tone made possible via employment of his soon-to-be-trademark Harmon mute, Davis redefined perspective and possibility, taking ownership of the ballad as his own, and further improving upon its reach in the studio. It wasn’t the composer’s only surprise.

'Round About Midnight thrives due to diversity and consistency, a rare combination epitomized by the first-rate selection and astonishing performance of pensive ballads, bebop classics, pop standards, and folk pieces. Witness the counterpoint exchanges during “Ah-Leu-Cha” and its Dixieland shades. Soak up the progressive drama and swinging tempos on “All of You” and “Bye Bye Blackbird.” Delight in the mélange of latticed textures and schematic moods throughout the sequence, here presented in gorgeous fidelity, zeroing in on Davis’ warm, plush, rich, and close-up trumpet timbres and how, by playing his instrument right near the microphone, he infuses the arrangements with the sort of daring intimacy embraced by two lovers.

It was with his interpretation of "'Round Midnight" in the presence of its composer Thelonious Monk at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival that Miles Davis convinced George Avakian to include him in the Columbia catalogue. Coming out of a long depression, Miles went from working with small independent record companies to a very large firm. Unlike the recordings that he still did for Rudy Van Gelder's studio to fulfill his previous contract with Prestige, the production of his first sessions in the Columbia studio was very well planned. Many takes were required in order to select and edit the best solos among them, and the arranger Gil Evans brought a discrete touch to this new version of "'Round Midnight." But, above all, Miles was now the head of a regular quintet whose rhythm section brought him the kind of elegant dynamism that he had envied in Ahmad Jamal's trio, and whose saxophonist would set his music afire for almost five years running, and contrast with his own gifts as a crooner.

Musicians:

Miles Davis, trumpet
John Coltrane, tenor sax
Red Garland, piano
Paul Chambers, bass
Philly Joe Jones, drums

Track Listing:

1. ‘Round Midnight
2. Ah-Leu-Cha
3. All of You
4. Bye Bye Blackbird
5. Tadd’s Delight
6. Dear Old Stockholm

Click here to listen to samples on YouTube.com ♫