The 1st Great Quintet captured in a live radio broadcast
September 29, 1956
Café Bohemia, New York City, New York
Miles Davis- trumpet
John Coltrane- tenor saxophone
Red Garland- piano
Paul Chambers- bass
Philly Joe Jones- drums
with Guy Wallace- announcer
A Gal in Calico (Leo Robin-Arthur Schwartz) 0:00
Stablemates (Benny Golson) 4:46
How Am I to Know? [incomplete] (Dorothy Parker-Jack King) 8:37
closing titles 11:42
From Bandstand U.S.A.
Presented by Guy Wallace
A Mutual Network radio broadcast
1956 saw Miles Davis building on the successes of the previous year. After his career reviving performance at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival he signed a recording contract with the major Columbia Records label. He was finally in a position to recruit a regular working band. John Coltrane was a distinctive but then somewhat raw tenor player who had worked with the bands of Earl Bostic and Dizzy Gillespie; pianist Red Garland had the same swinging elegance and sophisticated chord voicings that Miles admired in Ahmad Jamal; Paul Chambers, with his surefooted harmonic sense and supple rhythm, was one of the great bassists in jazz; finally, Philly Joe Jones was a driving, propulsive drummer that could push the band hard, or calm the waters with subtle brush work. Together, they were quickly established as one of the greatest outfits in jazz, a reputation that continues to this day.
In May and October there were two marathon recording sessions to complete Miles's obligations to Prestige Records, producing enough material for more than four albums. There were also sessions for Miles's debut Columbia LP, 'Round About Midnight. And, a sign of Davis's new maturity as a soloist, three weeks after this broadcast he fronted a session of Third Stream recordings with John Lewis & Gunther Schuller's Jazz And Classical Music Society (they can be found here: • Miles Davis & The Jazz... )
Jimmy Garofolo bought the Café Bohemia at 15 Barrow Street in Greenwich Village in 1949. In early 1955 he was approached by Charlie Parker, offering to play at the club as settlement for an unpaid bar bill. Garofolo agreed, although Bird passed away before fulfilling the commitment. But the idea stuck and for the next five years the Bohemia became a thriving jazz venue, hosting Charles Mingus, Kenny Dorham, George Wallington, and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, who recorded a two volume live album for Blue Note that included future Davis saxophonist Hank Mobley in the line up.
Before the original venue closed its doors in 1960 (a revamped Bohemia reopened at the same location in 1990) the Miles Davis quintet played the Bohemia often, occasionally being broadcast from the club by the Bandstand U.S.A. program on the Mutual Network, the source for a number of recordings. There were also some famous photographs taken by Marvin Koner, tinted by the distinctive red strip light that ran across the stage ceiling, one of which ended up on the cover of 'Round About Midnight.
All of these three titles had been recorded for Prestige and these are the only known live recordings of all three. A Gal In Calico had been recorded at the June 1955 session that produced The Musings Of Miles. That version was for a quartet of Miles, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and the debut for both Red Garland and Philly Joe, making this version with Trane the only known quintet rendition. The remaining tunes were recorded with the quintet in November 1955 at the session for the LP Miles (also known as The New Miles Davis Quintet). Stablemates was penned by the brilliant composer and saxophonist Benny Golson while touring with Earl Bostic, an ABA structure with an unusual 14-8-14 bar form. The tempo and energy level is way up from the studio version but feels a little ragged as a result. In common with the LP recording this version is horns all the way. How Am I To Know dates back to 1929 and is one of a number of songs Miles played that had been recorded by Frank Sinatra, this one while in the orchestra of Tommy Dorsey. Trane gets only a single chorus and the LP's piano solo is omitted in favour of an arco bass solo from Chambers. All three tunes feel a bit truncated, possibly to fit the constraints of the broadcast, but there's some terrific playing to be heard.
These radio broadcast recordings are in pretty decent sound, albeit lacking any extreme high end, which makes them sound a little dusty. This one suffers somewhat from a poor mix, with Jones's drums very prominent and Miles a little swamped, especially when playing with his mute. I did some extensive re-EQing which has helped restore the dynamics somewhat, and brings out Miles's trumpet a bit. Brief though these broadcasts are, they offer a fascinating glimpse of the quintet in a club setting and vital documentation of what was a superb year for Miles.