Craft Recordings is proud to announce Miles ’55: The Prestige Recordings, a 16-track retrospective spotlighting a series of landmark 1955 sessions recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s storied Hackensack, NJ studio for Prestige Records.
Featuring selections from Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Davis and Milt Jackson Quintet/Sextet, and The Musings of Miles, among others, Miles ’55 showcases one of jazz’s most important ensembles: the “First Great Quintet” comprised of then-relatively unknown players, including tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones, plus the likes of Milt Jackson, Ray Bryant, and Oscar Pettiford. That year marked a pivotal turning point for Davis, as he began to find his voice as a trumpet player and confidence as a bandleader, with his live performances hinting at the mythical figure he would soon become. These foundational recordings not only set the stage for the trumpeter’s future classics but also showcased the burgeoning genius of his soon-to-be legendary bandmates.
Arriving August 22, Miles ’55 will be available as a 2-CD set, 3-LP set pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and in both standard and hi-res digital audio. All audio has been remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY-winning engineer Paul Blakemore, with lacquers cut for the vinyl version by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio while physical editions of the collection offer a new essay by GRAMMY-winning music historian Ashley Kahn (author of Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece), as well as insightful session notes by GRAMMY-winning writer, Dan Morgenstern. The complete collection is available to pre-order, while the track “There Is No Greater Love” can be streamed today.
The collection builds on Craft’s Miles ’54 box set, which was released to broad acclaim last fall.
