Miles Davis - Miles '55: The Prestige Recordings

[mjzee]

Release date August 22:

Miles '55 offers a deeper look at 1955, the year in which jazz icon Miles Davis formed his first great quintet (John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones) and established his influential sound. This 2-CD set collects 16 tracks remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY-winning engineer Paul Blakemore. Included are new liner notes by GRAMMY-winning music historian Ashley Kahn and session notes by Dan Morgenstern. Limited Edition.

[GA Russell]

9 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Release date August 22:

Miles '55 offers a deeper look at 1955, the year in which jazz icon Miles Davis formed his first great quintet (John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones) and established his influential sound. This 2-CD set collects 16 tracks remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY-winning engineer Paul Blakemore. Included are new liner notes by GRAMMY-winning music historian Ashley Kahn and session notes by Dan Morgenstern. Limited Edition.

The first album with Coltrane is a favorite of mine.  Was the Sextet/Quintet album with Jackie McLean from 1955 as well?

[mjzee]

50 minutes ago, GA Russell said:

The first album with Coltrane is a favorite of mine.  Was the Sextet/Quintet album with Jackie McLean from 1955 as well?

Yes, it was: August 5, 1955.  Those tracks are on this package.

[GA Russell]

5 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Yes, it was: August 5, 1955.  Those tracks are on this package.

👍

[felser]

Product.  In how many forms has this material been released on CD?  Isn't this just another collation/configuration of the same old material?  

[jazzbo]

Yes it is. I have the previous set of 1954 material. The remastered sound is excellent.

[Brad]

9 hours ago, felser said:

Product.  In how many forms has this material been released on CD?  Isn't this just another collation/configuration of the same old material?  

Probably more than count be counted. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I have it all already and my ears would not hear any benefit to a new remaster so I won't be picking this one up.

[Brad]

7 minutes ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I have it all already and my ears would not hear any benefit to a new remaster so I won't be picking this one up.

I have all these on RVG Remasters, Prestige 60th Anniversary from Japan and they sound pretty good. 

[jazzbo]

This cd version will likely be the same transfers and mastering as the 60th Anniversary Japanese reissues ('54 was, same engineering credited here).

[felser]

I might be tempted if I could replace the entire Chronicle box with these (and anticipated 1956 set) but starting in 1954 leaves a hole for the 1951-1953 recordings.  I do have the Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions box (pretty much a perfect set) along with the Chronicle box, which covers everything for me with the Quntet box being upgraded duplicates.  My ideal would be another 4-CD box covering the sessions not on the Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions box.  They got it right for Coltrane, with the leader, co-leader, and sideman boxes.  Those were perfect boxes to me.   Fantasy was starting to do great reissue work right before they sold out to Concord.

[JSngry]

Who is the market for this?

[jlhoots]

3 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I have it all already and my ears would not hear any benefit to a new remaster so I won't be picking this one up.

+1

[jazzbo]

I feel very grateful that my ears still can discern such things.

[bertrand]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Who is the market for this?

People who were not born when Fantasy/OJC was reissuing this material on CD for the first time. Or, more specifically, the subset of that group that still collects CDs as opposed to collecting vinyl or downloads, or just listening on YouTube, Spotify, Bandcamp, etc. Both those people.

[Д.Д.]

It probably costs so little to do these reissues of 70-year old material that business case behind them is most likely just "why not".   

[Brad]

3 hours ago, bertrand said:

People who were not born when Fantasy/OJC was reissuing this material on CD for the first time. Or, more specifically, the subset of that group that still collects CDs as opposed to collecting vinyl or downloads, or just listening on YouTube, Spotify, Bandcamp, etc. Both those people.

Or people who are just discovering him, perhaps after listening to him on vinyl. There are some who purchase both forms. 

[RiRiIII]

On 6/10/2025 at 6:08 PM, felser said:

I might be tempted if I could replace the entire Chronicle box with these (and anticipated 1956 set) but starting in 1954 leaves a hole for the 1951-1953 recordings.  I do have the Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions box (pretty much a perfect set) along with the Chronicle box, which covers everything for me with the Quntet box being upgraded duplicates.  My ideal would be another 4-CD box covering the sessions not on the Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions box.  They got it right for Coltrane, with the leader, co-leader, and sideman boxes.  Those were perfect boxes to me.   Fantasy was starting to do great reissue work right before they sold out to Concord.

Agreed. These boxes are wonderful. 

[bertrand]

8 hours ago, RiRiIII said:

Agreed. These boxes are wonderful. 

If I magically took over at Concord, I would reissue titles as boxes containing multipe LPs in slimline cardboard cases at a budget price. This is happening with Atlantic, for example.

The first two would be:

1) Complete Emily Remler Concord dates, featuring all her leader dates and maybe the duo with Coryell. The record with Richie Cole on Milestone could fit in as well. Does she have any other dates under the Concord umbrella? Maybe a couple of sidemen dates. Will check Lord later.

2) Everything by Larry Young under the Concord umbrella. 3 leader dates (with the extra tune from Groove Street), a session with Booker Ervin, the Jimmy Forrest date, the Etta Jones date and the tracks with Gildo Mahones. Anything else?

I would also put out the complete Lee Morgan Take Twelve. I am sure there are extra titles: different tunes (for which I have lead sheets) and possibly alternates.

PS: Barry Harris claimed the song was called Take Twelve because they needed that many takes, but in fact the title existed before the Morgan date.

 

 

[Stefan Wood]

On 6/10/2025 at 11:08 AM, felser said:

I might be tempted if I could replace the entire Chronicle box with these (and anticipated 1956 set) but starting in 1954 leaves a hole for the 1951-1953 recordings.  I do have the Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions box (pretty much a perfect set) along with the Chronicle box, which covers everything for me with the Quntet box being upgraded duplicates.  My ideal would be another 4-CD box covering the sessions not on the Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions box.  They got it right for Coltrane, with the leader, co-leader, and sideman boxes.  Those were perfect boxes to me.   Fantasy was starting to do great reissue work right before they sold out to Concord.

I like the old Chronicle box. 

[jazzbo]

I do too. There are many better sounding alternatives though, these two recent releases among them.

[felser]

54 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

I do too. There are many better sounding alternatives though, these two recent releases among them.

Honest question, is the sound difference substantial?  If so, I could be persuaded to purchase these recent releases.

[jazzbo]

To me, on my system, it is. I haven't done a comparison on any other's system. I make no bones about being an audiophile, something that seems to attract a lot of disdain here, and I have spent a LOT of money on my system so that I can hear differences. If in general you don't hear improvements in reissues in your system, you may not here.

[Д.Д.]

16 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I make no bones about being an audiophile, something that seems to attract a lot of disdain here, and I have spent a LOT of money on my system so that I can hear differences. If in general you don't hear improvements in reissues in your system, you may not here.

You keep bringing up the apparent "disdain" (and "a lot" of it, no less) much more often than said "disdain" has been expressed by anybody here.

Regarding Miles '55 sound quality, I listened to the two available tracks on Apple Music, and the sound is terrific.          

[jazzbo]

Not my experience. (I think I've mentioned it thrice perhaps, and felt it many times over the years). Glad to be wrong and glad it is not felt that way by others.

Edited Sunday at 12:09 PM by jazzbo