'Round About Midnight is a 1957 studio album by jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis, and his debut for Columbia Records, recorded in three sessions at the label’s legendary 30th Street Studio in New York between October 1955 and September 1956. It documents the first great Miles Davis Quintet—Miles on trumpet with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums—playing a mix of bop standards and ballads including Ah‑Leu‑Cha, Bye Bye Blackbird, Tadd’s Delight, Dear Old Stockholm, All of You, and the title track, Thelonious Monk’s 'Round Midnight. Compared to the quick, first‑take Prestige dates that immediately preceded it, the album was assembled from multiple takes chosen and spliced by producer George Avakian, resulting in a polished, front‑to‑back cohesive statement that critics at the time hailed as “modern jazz conceived and executed in the very best style.”Musically, 'Round About Midnight is often cited as a landmark of hard bop: the performances “snap and sparkle,” with a bright yet warm recorded sound and a balance of intricate ensemble writing and spacious, emotionally charged solos. The definitive title track—featuring Davis’s hushed, muted‑trumpet reading of Monk’s melody and a now‑classic arranged interlude leading into Coltrane’s tenor solo—became the way many musicians learned to play the tune, and helped cement the cool, inward‑looking public image captured by the iconic album cover of Miles in sunglasses under red club lights. In retrospect, the record is often described as both an artistic breakthrough and a commercial turning point, introducing Davis to a broader mainstream audience and setting the stage for the succession of Columbia albums—Milestones, Kind of Blue, and beyond—that would define much of modern jazz.
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