Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
Kandace Springs Sings Billie Holiday
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
To mark the 70th anniversary of Prestige Records, a set of Miles Davis’ quintet recordings spanning 1955 and 1956 has been released on LP, replete with a bonus disc of live performances.
(Photo: Esmond Edwards/Prestige)Come for the 180-gram vinyl, stay for the recording of Steve Allen presenting Miles Davis with a DownBeat award.
In celebration of the Prestige label’s 70th anniversary, Craft Recordings is reissuing Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet, Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’ and Steamin’ in a single package. Though the original LPs were released between 1956 and 1961—a time when jazz was amid a significant self-reckoning—the music on The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions all was recorded between November 1955 and October 1956.
“Every note has a precise musical meaning,” Allen says as he introduces the ensemble on a disc of bonus material.
Resequenced in chronological order, the six-disc set captures Davis’ first great quintet—tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones—swinging through standards. “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “My Funny Valentine” sit alongside Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo” and Benny Golson’s “Stablemates.” But there’s also a frantic appraisal of Dizzy Gillespie’s “Salt Peanuts” and a handful of Davis originals, like the gutsy “Half Nelson.”
“Davis understood the potential of the new, longer 12-inch album format, and used it to create definitive performances in a variety of moods,” historian Bob Blumenthal writes in the liner notes. “The key was contrast, which began with the juxtaposition of Davis’ concision, Coltrane’s complexity, and Garland’s sparkle; extended to the textural variety the rhythm section provided each soloist; and was capped by the distinctive range of the band’s repertoire.”
The bonus disc collects eight performances from Café Bohemia, the Blue Note in Philadelphia and a spot on Tonight Starring Steve Allen, when the host presents Davis with an award from DownBeat. (Davis topped the Trumpet category in the 1955 DownBeat Readers Poll; he and Dizzy Gillespie were co-winners of that category in the 1955 DownBeat Critics Poll.)
Issued as a CD collection in 2006, this new vinyl pressing of The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions was released Dec. 6. For additional information about the set, visit the Craft website. DB
“There’s nothing quite like it,” Springs says of working with an orchestra. “It’s 60 people working in harmony in the moment. Singing with them is kind of empowering but also humbling at the same time.”
Jun 17, 2025 11:12 AM
When it came time to pose for the cover of her new album, Lady In Satin — a tribute to Billie Holiday’s 1958…
James Brandon Lewis earned honors for Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year. Three of his recordings placed in the Albums of the Year category.
Jul 17, 2025 12:44 PM
You see before you what we believe is the largest and most comprehensive Critics Poll in the history of jazz. DownBeat…
Galper was often regarded as an underrated master of his craft.
Jul 22, 2025 10:58 AM
Hal Galper, a pianist, composer and arranger who enjoyed a substantial performing career but made perhaps a deeper…
Chuck Mangione on the cover of the May 8, 1975, edition of DownBeat.
Jul 29, 2025 1:00 PM
Chuck Mangione, one of the most popular trumpeters in jazz history, passed away on July 24 at home in Rochester, New…
“Hamiet was one of the most underrated musicians ever,” says Whitaker of baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett.
Jul 8, 2025 7:30 AM
At 56, Rodney Whitaker, professor of jazz bass and director of jazz studies at Michigan State University, is equally…
