Miles Davis Quintet - Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (1975 Japanese Prestige Mono LP)

Miles Davis Quintet - Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet | Vinyl LP - 1975 Japanese Prestige Reissue (SMJ-6503, Victor Musical Industries, Mono)

By 1956 Miles Davis had already signed with Columbia but was contractually obligated to fulfil his Prestige commitment before releasing anything new. Bob Weinstock, knowing Davis was about to leave, called in the debt: two marathon sessions at Hackensack on May 11 and October 26 produced enough material for four complete albums. Davis brought the working quintet he had been developing since late 1955: Coltrane on tenor, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, Philly Joe Jones on drums. These were not studio musicians assembled for a date, they were a touring band who had played this material night after night, and the recordings sound like it, loose, confident, attentive to each other in the way that only road-tested groups are.

"Workin'" opens with "It Never Entered My Mind," a Rodgers and Hart ballad that Davis plays with a muted trumpet in his most withdrawn, interior mode. "In Your Own Sweet Way" is a Dave Brubeck composition that Davis had recorded before and returns to here with more space than Brubeck's original ever allowed. "Trane's Blues" is exactly what it sounds like, a Coltrane blowing session, his tenor the dominant voice with Garland comping lightly behind him. "Ahmad's Blues" is Garland's tribute to his primary influence, and the resemblance is close enough that you could briefly mistake who is playing. The two takes of "The Theme," the Davis signoff piece, bookend the album.

Rudy Van Gelder recorded these sessions in mono in his Hackensack home studio, and the mono configuration of this pressing is correct and original rather than a compression of a stereo master. This is the 1975 Victor Musical Industries pressing, manufactured under licence from Prestige Records as part of the Prestige Jazz Masterpiece Series.