Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

In two marathon sessions in May and October 1956, MilesMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス recorded enough material for four Prestige albums in two days. He was about to move to Columbia — fulfilling a contract obligation — but what remained was some of the most essential jazz ever captured.

Paul ChambersPaul Chambersポール・チェンバース was called for nearly every important Blue Note session in the late 1950s. His triangle with Red GarlandRed Garlandレッド・ガーランド and Philly Joe JonesPhilly Joe Jonesフィリー・ジョー・ジョーンズ defined the hard bop rhythm section. Coltrane named one of his most famous compositions 'Mr. P.C.' after him.

In just two days (May and October 1956), Miles DavisMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス's quintet marathon-recorded four albums including Cookin' with the Miles Davis QuintetCookin' with the Miles Davis QuintetMiles Davis · 1957. Squeezed between his Prestige contract ending and his Columbia move, those sessions became hard bop's reference point.

Philly Joe JonesPhilly Joe Jonesフィリー・ジョー・ジョーンズ held the drum chair in Miles DavisMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス's first great quintet from 1955 to 1958. Miles famously said he wouldn't hire a band without Philly Joe, and the drummer's drive is preserved on Cookin' with the Miles Davis QuintetCookin' with the Miles Davis QuintetMiles Davis · 1957.

ChambersPaul Chambersポール・チェンバース appears on 14 albums — from 'Round About Midnight'Round About MidnightMiles Davis · 1957 through MilestonesMilestonesMiles Davis · 1958 to Kind of BlueKind of BlueMiles Davis · 1959, the bassist who anchored Miles's late-1950s era.

Hard-bop drummer Philly Joe Jones opens his own 1958 leader date Blues for Dracula not with a drum solo but with a spoken Dracula routine done like an old horror-movie star. The sideman's sideman fronts an entire record built on a monster-movie gag.

Before he settled on the piano, Red Garland fought as a welterweight boxer in the early 1940s. The famously light block chords on 'Round About Midnight (1957) and Milestones (1958) belong to a man who had once earned money with his fists.