'Round About Midnight

They Say...

Review by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

The reissue of 'Round About Midnight is the definitive presentation of one of Miles Davis' greatest recordings. As is Legacy's wont, once an anthology box set is issued -- in this case The Complete Columbia Recordings: Miles Davis & John Coltrane -- the individual recordings are released with bonus tracks. This reissue features the original album as sequenced, with the addition of four cuts from the same sessions. Given that this was Miles Davis' debut Columbia recording, it was both a beginning and an ending. First, this is the label that issued most of his important recordings. It is also the first offering from an exciting new band that had within its ranks Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, pianist Red Garland, and John Coltrane. The date was also an ending, because by the time of the album's release, Davis had already broken up the band, which re-formed with Cannonball Adderley a year later as a sextet. Musically, this sound is as unusual and beautiful as it was when issued in 1956. Davis had already led the charge through two changes in jazz -- both cool jazz and hard bop -- and was beginning to move in another direction here that wouldn't be defined for another two years. The title track, with muted trumpet, was premiered at the Newport Jazz Festival the previous summer to a thunderous reception. Charlie Parker's "Au Leu-Cha" is edgy, with deep blues leaping from every chord change from Red Garland's left hand. Coltrane's solo here too is notable for its stark contrast to Davis' own: he chooses an angular tack where he finds the heart of the mode and plays a melody in harmonic counterpoint to the changes but never sounds outside. Cole Porter's "All of You" has Davis quoting from Louis Armstrong's "Basin Street Blues" in his solo that masks the melody, while in his own, Coltrane has never respected a melody so much. But it's in "Bye Bye Blackbird" that listeners get to hear the band gel as a unit, beginning with Davis playing through the head, muted and sweet, slightly flatted out until he reaches the chorus and begins his solo on a high note. Garland is doing more than comping in the background; he's slipping shapes into those interval cracks and shifting them as the rhythm section keeps "soft time." When Coltrane moves in for his break, rather than Davis' spare method, he smatters notes quickly all though the body of the tune and Garland has to compensate harmonically, moving the tempo up a notch until his own solo can bring it back down again. Of the bonus material, it's interesting, but the only stunner is Jackie McLean's "Little Melonae" -- recorded before its composer could put it in the can. The band comes out blazing, but it's Coltrane with the surprise in quoting various Dizzy Gillespie solos.