Miles Davis All Stars - Walkin' (1976 Japanese Prestige Mono Vinyl LP)

Miles Davis All Stars - Walkin' | Vinyl LP - 1976 Prestige Japanese Pressing (SMJ-6528, mono, Victor Musical Industries)

Miles Davis's Walkin' predates the first quintet by two years. There is no Coltrane, no Garland, no Chambers, no Philly Joe Jones. Instead, the sextet on side A draws from the musicians who built jazz between the end of bebop and the start of hard bop: J.J. Johnson, the trombonist who proved the instrument could keep up with bebop's tempos. Lucky Thompson, a tenor saxophonist whose career ran from Count Basie through Charlie Parker without ever gaining the recognition his playing warranted. Horace Silver, who would co-found the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey within a year and launch a solo career that defined soul-jazz on Blue Note. Percy Heath, the Modern Jazz Quartet's bassist. And Kenny Clarke, who had essentially invented bebop drumming at Minton's Playhouse in the early 1940s and would leave for Paris permanently in 1956.

The title track runs to thirteen minutes and opens with a blues riff that cuts through the harmonic complexity of cool jazz and announces something simpler, harder and more direct. Davis's trumpet carries the melody, and the solos that follow, Johnson's trombone first, then Thompson's tenor, then Silver's piano, build on the blues with an earthy directness that the critics and historians would later name hard bop. "Blue N' Boogie," from the same April 29 session, extends the approach. Side B comes from an earlier session on April 3 with a quintet: Davis, Silver, Heath, Clarke and the altoist Davey Schildkraut replacing the trombone and tenor. "Solar" is a Davis original that became a standard, "You Don't Know What Love Is" is a ballad, and "Love Me Or Leave Me" swings hard. Bob Weinstock supervised and Rudy Van Gelder recorded both sessions at his Hackensack studio. Ira Gitler wrote the liner notes.

This is the 1976 Japanese pressing (SMJ-6528), manufactured by Victor Musical Industries from Prestige's master tapes.