Workin' With The Miles Davis Quintet (Mono Remastered) Miles Davis Quintet

• 1It Never Entered My Mind05:25
• 2Four07:15
• 3In Your Own Sweet Way05:46
• 4The Theme02:01
• 5Trane's Blues08:35
• 6Ahmad's Blues07:26
• 7Half Nelson04:47
• 8The Theme (Take 2)01:02
• Total Runtime42:17

Info for Workin' With The Miles Davis Quintet (Mono Remastered)

WORKIN was originally released in 1956 and is the third album in a series of four which features the classic Miles Davis Quintet: Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (Tenor Sax), Red Garland (Piano), and Philly Joe Jones (Drums). It is remastered here with new (as well as original) liner notes and includes such tracks as "It Never Entered My Mind," "Four," "In Your Own Sweet Way" and more.

The Miles Davis Quintet of 1955-’57 was a phenomenon that left many jaws dropping. Their magic and in-the-fast-lane fluidity was best caught onstage, in a live context. One who witnessed the ascent of the group was the normally staid music journalist Ralph Gleason, who later wrote:

I heard this band many nights at the Blackhawk in San Francisco, for which I am grateful…they wailed. And they didn’t need to warm up…the sheer intensity of it was thrilling. Fast or slow, they made every bar sound like it had been born in an atom-splitting burst of energy.

The quintet was a phenomenon. At their exuberant, full-throttle best, the group simply had so much to offer: Coltrane’s raw, edgy – at times endless – tenor improvisations. Garland’s fiery, left-hand chording. Philly Joe’s exciting cymbal work and propulsive rim shots. Miles’ subdued, muted trumpet. Chambers’ adept and soulful bowed solos. Years after the quintet’s debut, jazz writers were exhilarated by their interactivity. “The intricacy of the linkage between the minds of these musicians has never been equaled in any group, in my opinion,” wrote Gleason. Prestige president Bob Weinstock lauded them “the Louis Armstrong Hot Five of the modern era.”

In 1956, when Columbia Records wanted to sign Miles away from Prestige, he still had significant time on his 3-year contract. As Columbia’s George Avakian remembered, Miles brainstormed a win-win situation that made both labels happy:

Miles got a crazy idea and it worked. He said “Tell Bob Weinstock you’d like to record me, and you won’t put the masters out until the end of my [Prestige] contract, which would be about two years hence. Meanwhile they can stockpile albums, and when Columbia comes out with my first album, you’re going to advertise it and promote it, right?” I said, “Sure we will.” “So Prestige will get the benefit of that . . .”

Stockpile is exactly what Prestige did: in 1956, over two marathon sessions, Miles and his Quintet performed four album’s worth of tunes, most of them from their well-rehearsed live set-list of jazz standards, with no retakes. To this day, the gerund-themed quartet of Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’ and Steamin’— define a high-water mark for small group jazz improvisation.

The tunes are also telling of the group’s distinctive strengths: their cohesive swing — and Coltrane’s growing confidence – on burners like “Salt Peanuts,” “I Could Write A Book,” Rollins’ “Oleo,” and Miles’ “Tune Up.” Their penchant for brisk, mid-tempo numbers that closely followed Ahmad Jamal’s interpretations of “If I Were A Bell” and “Surrey With The Fringe On Top.” Their ability to re-imagine certain structures, like Thelonious Monk’s “’Round Midnight,” making them their own. The pretty songs: Miles alone with the rhythm section, Coltrane laying out as he often did on the trumpeter’s ballad features. Miles’ performances of “My Funny Valentine” and “It Never Entered My Mind” proved career-launching and revealed the inner sensitivity he spent a lifetime masking with a street-tough exterior.

"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 smoldering 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 acknowledgment 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." (Lindsay Planer, AMG)

Miles Davis, trumpet
John Coltrane, tenor saxophone (except track 1)
Red Garland, piano
Paul Chambers, bass, cello
Philly Joe Jones, drums

Digitally remastered

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Booklet for Workin' With The Miles Davis Quintet (Mono Remastered)