For Miles Davis’ centennial year, Craft Recordings has reissued all the quintet ensemble tracks Davis recorded for the Prestige label in the year 1956.

This newly-remastered set comprises three pieces recorded on March 16 with Sonny Rollins, Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor, and the two marathon sessions, May 11 and October 26, with the working quintet of John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Mastering engineer Paul Blakemore restored the original master tapes with Plangent Processes, making this release the first time these recordings have been transferred at high resolution (24/192) with tape flutter correction.

The performances recorded at the May 11 and October 26 sessions were intended to fulfill Miles’ contract with Prestige at the same time as he was beginning to record under a new contract with Columbia. Prestige label owner Bob Weinstock issued tracks from these two sessions over four LP releases: Cookin’ (1957), Relaxin’ (1958), Workin’ (1959), and Steamin’ (1961), to cash in on Miles’ growing success as a Columbia Records artist.

The dates were unprecedented, both in the quantity of releasable material produced, and in the control exerted by the bandleader over the repertoire. It was common practice at that time for a label executive or an A&R man to choose, or at least consult on the choice of repertoire for the recording. Not so in these sessions. Jack Chambers, in his biography Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis, describes the May 11 date:

“The quintet assembled at Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio and Davis called out the titles one after the other, as if they were playing an extended nightclub set.”

The analogy to a nightclub set is pertinent. The band had been playing engagements since September 1955. Some audiences were disappointed not to see Sonny Rollins in the tenor chair, but regular work and the camaraderie of the group during that early period encouraged John Coltrane’s development. By the time they recorded the May 11 session, everything was in place. Red Garland’s Chopin-esque introduction to “It Never Entered My Mind” shows the impact of Ahmad Jamal on the Quintet’s approach to ballads. “‘Trane’s Blues”, and the up-tempo tunes offered Coltrane space to demonstrate that countless hours of solitary practicing with method books had advanced his playing in a new direction, distinct from other contemporary hard bop tenors and from his own earlier influences.

All the tunes recorded that day and in the subsequent October 26 session were captured in single takes. Only such a well-rehearsed band could have pulled it off. Credit to Rudy Van Gelder’s nerves: once the mics were in position, with tape rolling for single takes, there was no room for adjustment or correction.

Curiously, no complete series of SACDs of the May 11 and October 26 sessions was issued by the same mastering engineer and record company. Three of the Prestige albums were remastered and issued on Analogue Productions SACDs, one of them more than once:

Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (remastered by Doug Sax); and Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Davis Quintet: Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, and Miles Davis Quintet: Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (remastered by Kevin Gray).

Cookin’, Relaxin’, and Workin’ were issued by Universal Japan on SHM-SACD. There are also two other US-released SACDs: Steamin’ (Mobile Fidelity) and Relaxin’ (Fantasy). Neither, in my opinion, surpasses the quality of the Analogue Productions versions.

For this review, I compared the 2026 Craft 24/192 remasters with Analogue Productions and Universal Japan SACD versions (in DSF file format), and the 2019 Craft 24/192 release The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions. DSF and hi-res PCM download tracks were played from solid state drives connected via USB cable to a Mac Mini computer running Audirvāna Origin. To make the comparison between the SACD tracks and 24/192 files a closer match in format, Audirvāna was set to convert the 24/192 files to DSD64.

My findings: the 2026 Craft 24/192 transfers by Paul Blakemore are fuller in lower midrange frequencies and mastered at slightly lower gain than the 2019 Craft “Legendary” set. The 2026 Craft set sounds better focused, with a more forward presentation of the snare, cymbals, and high horn notes, compared to Kevin Gray’s AP SACDs.

Especially well-served by Blakemore’s mastering are the quiet ballads from both sessions. Those tunes sounded good in every release, and are pleasurable to hear in the new transfers.

A demonstration of Davis’ musical direction of the ballads took place at the October session, at the start of “You’re My Everything”. After a brief warmup on his trumpet, he chides the band members for talking: “Hold on. When you see the red light on, everybody’s supposed to be quiet.” Then, one measure into Red Garland’s piano intro, he whistles for him to stop. “Block chords, Red. Alright, Rudy?” Just in case Garland was unconvinced, Miles repeats, “block chords, Red.” A new intro is begun immediately by Garland, pointedly and forcefully, playing block chords with skillful rhythm choices, including a stop after the first beat of the fourth measure to cue Miles’ entrance. When bassist Paul Chambers enters, he plays chords on his instrument, which allows Garland to hold back and play fewer notes. It’s an example of Davis’ ability to shape the band’s interpretation with just two words.

It is interesting to compare John Coltrane’s tenor sax sound in the Miles ‘56 sessions vis-à-vis Coltrane '58: The Prestige Recordings. In the 1956 sessions (and this is one of few drawbacks of the increased clarity of Blakemore’s new transfer), Coltrane’s sound is quite harsh; Van Gelder appears to have applied a lot of reverb to soften it.

In 1957 RVG installed a custom-made Rein Narma mixing board with three-band EQ on each of 10 channels, wired to match his high-output Neumann microphones. On John Coltrane: Blue Train, recorded in September 1957, and Coltrane '58: The Prestige Recordings, the timbre of the tenor sax is much rounder and warmer, and all the instruments are captured with greater transparency. That mixing board is a critical component of the "Van Gelder sound" that jazz listeners treasure.

Should collectors who already own “The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions” 24/192 release, which appears to have been sourced from 24/192 transfers done in 2006 by Joe Tarantino for the CD box set released that year, or who own all the AP SACDs and Universal Japan SHM-SACDs, bother to spend money for Miles ’56?

If you’re a Miles Davis completist and a computer audio system user, the answer is yes.

Equipment used for this review:

24/192 and DSF files stored on solid state drives
Mac Mini server running Audirvāna Origin
exaSound e32 Mk II DAC
Unison Unico tube/hybrid integrated amp
Focal 1007 BE stand mount loudspeakers

Further information about the Rein Narma mixing console: https://rvglegacy.org/technical-paper/

Copyright © 2026 Mark Werlin and HRAudio.net

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