Round About Midnight

'Round About Midnight was Miles Davis' debut recording for Columbia, and it really feels like both a beginning and an ending. It marks the start of his recording career with the label that would go on to release most, if not all, of his essential work. It also introduced a remarkable new band featuring Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, Red Garland, and an all but unknown tenor player named John Coltrane.

The title track, 'Round About Midnight, was chosen for its distinctive muted trumpet arrangement, and had already made a huge impact when it debuted at the Newport Jazz Festival the previous summer to a thunderous reception.

In another sense, this session was an ending too. By the time the album was released, Davis had already broken up the band. It would reform a year later as a sextet with Cannonball Adderley, though it was a tense period.

Musically, this record still sounds as unusual and beautiful as it did when it first appeared in 1956. Davis had already helped lead two major shifts in jazz, cool jazz and hard bop, and here he was starting to edge towards another direction that would not be fully defined for another two years.

Alongside the lyrical and harmonic beauty of 'Round About Midnight, a version many would argue stands as the definitive take, even over Monk's own, there are the sharp contours of Charlie Parker's 'Au Leu-Cha', with its Bluesology jumping out of every chord change in Red Garland's left hand. Coltrane's solo is especially striking in contrast to Davis' own. He takes an angular approach, finding the heart of the mode and building a melody in harmonic counterpoint to the changes without ever sounding outside.

On Cole Porter's 'All of You', Davis quotes from Louis Armstrong's 'Basin Street Blues' in the solo that takes out the tune, and Coltrane has rarely sounded so respectful of a melody.

180g heavyweight gatefold