Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Analogue Productions CPRJ 7094 SA
Mono Hybrid
Jazz
Miles Davis (trumpet)
John Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Red Garland (piano)
Paul Chambers (bass)
Philly Joe Jones (drums)
These SACD jackets feature printed wraps mounted to chipboard shells, producing an authentic, "old school" look and feel. Some people call these "mini LP" jackets.
Cookin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet is the first classic album of four total that emerged from two marathon and fruitful sessions recorded in 1956 (the other three discs released in Cookin’s wake were Workin’, Relaxin’ and Steamin’). All the albums were recorded live in the studio, as Davis sought to capture, with Rudy Van Gelder’s expert engineering, the sense of a club show á la the Café Bohemia in New York, with his new quintet, featuring tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. In Miles’s own words, he says he called this album Cookin’ because “that’s what we did—came in and cooked.” What’s particularly significant about this Davis album is his first recording of what became a classic tune for him: “My Funny Valentine.” Hot playing is also reserved for the uptempo number “Tune Up,” which revs with the zoom of both the leader and ’Trane.
Originally released in 1957.
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2. Blues By Five
3. Airegin
4. Tune Up
5. When Lights Are Low
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Comment by Downunderman - March 17, 2021 (1 of 2)
This one was released in 2014 and used a new mastering by Kevin Gray.
I have not heard the other SACD versions, but here is a lift from the old site that may be useful:
Review by acousticsguru January 12, 2015 - "Compared this to the recent SHM-SACD. The APO sounds as if from session tapes, very transparent, having said that, there are tape flaws such as the sudden volume drop in "Blues By Five" that are a bit annoying. Even so, the Japanese release, presumably from an analogue copy of the production master in seemingly much better shape, has some of the nasality of an analogue copy of the era, and it's clearly less wide-band (at both ends of the spectrum, and although the high-cut treble sounds more like an old Miles LP, it's really bothering after while, not just the cymbals, but also making the bass sound "submerged"), even though EQ appears to have been applied to correct this (a production master of the era was meant to cut an LP, not for flat transfer to high-resolution digital). I'd imagine that the SHM-SACD sounds closer to the original LP (which I don't have for comparison) - no matter, as it sounds "colored". The APO sounds more realistic. To me, not even a fair contest. Unless the idea were to make an old recording sound "old" (the SHM-SACD does that). Having said that, the Kevin Gray remasterings of these Prestige albums (I've yet to hear Steamin') push clarity/fidelity (exposing the state the tapes are in) to an acceptable limit. I'm afraid these are going to be the sonically best incarnations we'll ever hear of these legendary recordings (Relaxin' in particular is one of my all-time favorite Miles and/or Coltrane albums)."
Comment by Mark Werlin - March 25, 2021 (2 of 2)
Kevin Gray's AP SACD of "Relaxin'" (reproduction mini-LP cover), which I have in my collection, is typical of Gray's excellent remastering. He preserves the original sound on tape, without adding intrusive EQ or gain boost sometimes used in the Japanese SHM-SACDs and Esoteric SACDs I've heard.
Alan Yoshida's JVC XRCDs of Cookin' and Relaxin' were transferred from original master tapes, and they compare favorably to Kevin Gray's AP SACDs.