Miles Davis Cookin' With

Cookin' With the Miles Davis Quintet is the first of four classic albums that emerged from two marathon and fruitful sessions recorded in 1956 (the other three discs released in Cookin's wake were Workin', Relaxin' and Steamin'). All the albums were recorded live in the studio, as Davis sought to capture, with Rudy Van Gelder's expert engineering, the sense of a club show · la the Café Bohemia in New York, with his new quintet, featuring tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. In Miles's own words, he says he called this album Cookin' because "that's what we did-came in and cooked." What's particularly significant about this Davis album is his first recording of what became a classic tune for him: "My Funny Valentine." Hot playing is also reserved for the uptempo number "Tune Up," which revs with the zoom of both the leader and Trane.

Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet was recorded in 1956, and is considered by many to be among the best performances and recordings of hard bop jazz. This album is a part of the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters series; these albums have been remastered by Rudy Van Gelder (the original session engineer). Recorded May 11 and October 26, 1956 at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey.

Undeniably one of the best small bands in the history of jazz, the Miles Davis quintet of the mid-1950s made history at the Cafe Bohemia on Manhattan's Barrow Street and in the New Jersey studio of Rudy Van Gelder for Prestige. This is the third in a series of four LPs taped in two marathon studio sessions, done in the style of sets at the Bohemia and producing music of high energy and immediacy. Preceded by Cookin' and Relaxin' , Workin' is a mix of standards and originals, up-tempos and ballads, and a trio number, "Ahmad's Blues." The music this quintet made in the mid-Fifties period will live forever: the excitement of the emerging…

A towering musical figure of the 20th century, saxophonist John Coltrane reset the parameters of jazz during his decade as a leader.