The Original Quintet (First Recording)

Miles Davis’ quintet was formed in 1955 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest combos in jazz history. Each of its members were individual creative forces that could have easily been leaders.

The importance of this album can hardly be over-estimated. Recorded and originally released at the beginning of the Miles Davis Quintet’s working association (an association which, as such, survived from late 1955 until the Spring of 1957 when Julian Adderly was added), the album served most importantly as as further re-affirmation of the major talent of Miles Davis which, after a period of decline, had begun to reestablish itself at a Newport concert and on a previous quartet recording for Prestige, The Beginning.

Here, Coltrane, who is heard on all tracks but No Greater Love (he frequently “laid out” on the ballads), Garland, Chambers and Jones, collaborate with Davis on empathetic terms to create evocative music of a very high order; music which in a very real and direct way has already been, and will probably continute to be for some time, a central factor in the continuing evolution of jazz.