1958 · Album
Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Recorded May 11 and October 26, 1956 · Rudy Van Gelder's studio, Hackensack, New Jersey · Prestige Records
Four Takes, One Afternoon, Pure Swing
Miles and the quintet caught something real here—no overdubs, no second chances, just five musicians in a room.
Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet arrived in 1957 as one of four albums pulled from just two marathon studio sessions in 1956. The concept was born from necessity: the musicians were paying for studio time themselves, which meant no wasted takes, no luxurious retakes. You can hear that pressure and clarity in every track. This wasn't a carefully constructed statement or a concept album. It was five players working through material with the efficiency of a working band that had played together enough times to know exactly where each person was going.
What made these sessions special was the sheer telepathy on display. The interplay between the horns and rhythm section has a conversational ease that sounds almost casual until you realize how precisely calibrated it all is. AllMusic's Lindsay Planer caught this in his review, noting the band's ability to react with ingenuity and precision, each solo maintaining its consistency without deviation. The album sits comfortably in Miles's catalog—not a peak statement like Kind of Blue, not an early landmark like Birth of the Cool, but a document of a working unit at its best. If you're already familiar with Miles and want to hear the quintet in a looser, more immediate setting than some of his later studio work, this one rewards repeated listening. The conditions that made it—the time pressure, the tight budget, the musicians' own skin in the game—gave it a directness that planned perfection sometimes lacks.
Who's playing
Paul Chambersdouble bass
Red Garlandpiano
John Coltranetenor saxophone
Miles Davistrumpet
Philly Joe Jonesdrums
Where next?
More by Miles Davis
All 59 albums →
The musicians on this record
Giant Steps 1960
John Coltrane
plays tenor saxophone here
plays tenor saxophone here
Kenny Drew Trio 1957
Philly Joe Jones
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
Red in Blues-Ville 1959
Red Garland
plays piano here
plays piano here
