Album of the week: Workin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet

Workin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet. One of Miles greatest albums, made all the more impressive that he and his stellar group recorded four albums worth of material in two 1956 sessions (to fulfill his contract with Prestige Records). While many of his contemporaries were playing a whole lot of notes with not a whole lot of feeling, Miles and company kick off with the exquisite ballad ‘It Never Entered My Mind’, setting a mood that stops me in my tracks every time. Up next is Miles own ‘Four’, and intense track that immediately became a standard. The band cooks, but nobody is trying to showboat; they work together and support each other for remarkable synergy.

The whole album focuses on the brilliance of ensemble playing, where each musician is completely in sync and simpatico with each other. Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums) are so locked in and swinging! As brilliant and groundbreaking as John Coltrane was becoming in this era, he shows beautiful restraint here, but with the unmistakable, majestic presence that was uniquely ‘Trane. Miles himself was at his lyrical best, and his solos tear my heart out.