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Miles Davis
'Round About Midnight
Legacy Edition
(Columbia/Legacy)
First Appeared in The Music Box, June 2005, Volume 12, #6
Written by John Metzger
By the time that Miles Davis issued his debut for Columbia Records in 1957,
he already had altered the course of jazz. Still, the album ’Round About
Midnight was something altogether different, something for which the jazz
world wasn’t prepared. For starters, Davis, whose career had taken a remarkably
promising turn with the groundbreaking release of Birth of the Cool,
nearly had succumbed to his addiction to heroin, and as a result, his forward
momentum had begun to falter. It was only after Columbia A&R representative
George Avakian saw Davis perform a breathtaking set with Thelonious Monk at the
1955 Newport Jazz Festival that he was convinced that the trumpeter’s potential
hadn’t been squandered.
What followed was a fruitful relationship that lasted for three decades, and
in that time, Davis never failed to find surprising new spaces to explore with
his music. Indeed, ’Round About Midnight was merely the beginning.
Featuring what is commonly referred to as Davis’ first classic quintet, the set
highlights the full scope of his vision while hinting at the level of sheer
perfection that he would achieve just a few years later on Kind of Blue.
Make no mistake, however, ’Round About Midnight is a masterpiece in its
own right. As with most of Davis’ work, there is an easy-going effortlessness to
the music he and his band concocted. Pushed along by a stellar supporting cast —
which included drummer "Philly Joe" Jones, bass player Paul Chambers, pianist
Red Garland, and a soon-to-be-legendary saxophone player named John Coltrane —
Davis sounded more self-assured and confident than ever. Tackling material that
had wide-ranging appeal — the pop standard Bye Bye Blackbird; the Charlie
Parker-penned, bebop nugget Ah-Leu-Cha; and the Swedish folk tune Dear
Old Stockholm, among them — the collective unveiled a series of textures
that shifted from the grand, blue-toned eloquence of ’Round Midnight to
the sprightly weightlessness of Tadd’s Delight to the rapidly developing
Coltrane-Davis duality, which emerged in full-force on Cole Porter’s All of
You.
Recently repackaged, ’Round About Midnight: Legacy Edition concludes
the first of its two discs with a quartet of previously issued bonus cuts that
were culled from the same sessions: the energetic Two Bass Hit, the
exploratory refrains of Little Melonae, a punchy re-working of Budo,
and a brief but probing examination of Sweet Sue, Just You. More
importantly, however, the new collection includes Davis’ now-fabled performance
of ’Round Midnight at the1955 Newport Jazz Festival while also unveiling
an additional 30-minutes worth of material that was captured in February 1956.
This latter portion represents the first-ever, commercially-available concert
recording by this rendition of Davis’ band, and it immediately is striking as to
how quickly his first classic quintet had coalesced. In particular, Walkin’
— which is delivered at a relaxed stroll, especially in comparison with the
frenzied version on Four & More — highlights the individual personalities
of the musicians and provides an outstanding example of the group’s evolving,
interactive dialogue. Elsewhere, Woody ’N You flows breezily, while the
muted trumpet solo and gentle piano of It Never Entered My Mind are
positively resplendent. Just a few weeks later, Davis’ disbanded his group
temporarily, but the foundation of his future forays undoubtedly was cemented
forever within the framework of ’Round About Midnight.
’Round About Midnight [Original Album] — 
Bonus Materials —
'Round About Midnight: Legacy Edition —
'Round About Midnight: Legacy Edition is available
from Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
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'Round About Midnight [Original Album] is available
from Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005
The Music Box
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