Released in 1956 as the debut album by the Miles Davis Quintet, “Miles” features a combination of pop and jazz standards. Originally released on Prestige Records, the album features an all-star cast of players with John Coltrane (tenor sax), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums).

This new edition of the album is released as part of the OJC Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with (AAA) lacquers cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. It is presented in a Tip-On Jacket.

Side A:
1. Just Squeeze Me
2. There Is No Greater Love
3. How Am I To Know?

Side B:
1. S’Posin
2. The Theme
3. Stablemates

After his success at the Newport Jazz Festival in the summer of 1955, Miles Davis was back as a leading jazz figure and had the clout to form his own band: The Quintet. Not that many weeks after forming they recorded this album in November for Prestige (the band is credited as The New Miles Davis Quintet, although, in all truth, I am not sure if it is the Quintet or Davis that is new - but yes, it could well be the latter).

In the long view of Davis’s career this is not a major work, but it is so much more than simply an apprentice work for in my humble opinion, it is a mighty fine work of musical art.

Indeed, the two notable things about it are that Davis plays with a consistency, range and assured smoothness that I’m not aware that he had previously matched, and that the band are not just a collection of fine musicians, but already have the mutual understanding that was to make them one of the greatest jazz combos of the 1950s (or of any time, some might argue).

Davis plays mostly with a muted trumpet - an important part of the distinctive Davis sound - and let us never forget the importance of the microphone for Davis, for he could play gently to the microphone, not needing the strength of lungs and technique that all of the previous great trumpet players had to project his personality.

There Is No Greater Love (where if you listen closely enough, you can hear a dog barking) is one of the brooding ballads that provoke images of a figure alone looking out to sea on a frosty morning. Just Squeeze Me is one of the mid-tempo numbers where he plays with that uniquely cool nonchalance. How Am I To Know and S’posin show his relatively new mastery of up-tempo numbers and the penultimate The Theme has some impressive upright bass work in the first minute or so, culminating with a nice drum-led finish.

Overall, the band are just superb throughout. Philly Joe Jones is quiet on the first two tracks, but blistering on the rest. Red Garland is a bit too billowing for my taste on the ballad There Is No Greater Love, but is fine on the others. Paul Chambers plays the clear lines of hard bop bass with gusto and the always-inspiring John Coltrane is great, but in the context of his career he seems slightly tentative, not yet the overpowering musician he would be in a few years time.

In closing, and even if the Quintet was to record much finer records in the near future, this is an excellent beginning and well worthy of this rather wondrous Craft Recordings 180g new vinyl re-release.

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