Name: Round About Midnight
Brand: Miles Davis

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

88697491962

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2018-11-13

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Sony

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

886974919629

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Miles Davis

Genre GB

Jazz

Label GB

Trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and one of the most important figures in jazz music history. Miles Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in his five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz. Born on May 26, 1926 in Alton, Illinois, USA and passed away on September 28, 1991 in Santa Monica, California at the age of 65. He is best known for his seminal modern jazz album "Kind of Blue" (1959), which remains the highest selling jazz album of all time with six million copies sold.Miles Davis studied at an academic school for musicians in NYC where he met Charlie Parker and they started playing together from 1945. In 1948, Miles Davis formed his own ensembles and collaborated with Gil Evans to create The Miles Davis Nonet. Their recordings from 1949 to 1950 resulted in the album "Birth of the Cool" (1957) and laid the foundation for their future collaborations.A pioneer of 'Hard Bop' in the mid-1950s, Miles Davis constantly pushed boundaries throughout his career. In the late 1960s, he ventured into experimenting with electronic instruments and incorporating rock and funk rhythms into his music. Despite health problems leading to a hiatus from playing in the mid-1970s, he made a comeback with an 'electronical' sound in 1980.

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Given that 'Round About Midnight was Miles Davis' debut Columbia recording, it was both a beginning and an ending. Certainly the beginning of his recording career with the label that issued most if not all of his important recordings; and the recording debut of an exciting new band that had within its ranks Philly Joe Jones, Paul Chambers, pianist Red Garland, and an all but unknown tenor player named John Coltrane. The title track was chosen because of its unique rendition with a muted trumpet, and debuted at the Newport Jazz Festival the summer before to a thunderous reception.

The date was also an ending of sorts 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, but it was a tense year. Musically, this sound is as unusual and as 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. Besides the obvious lyrical and harmonic beauty of "Round About Midnight" that is arguably its definitive version even over Monk's own, there are the edges of Charlie Parker's "Au Leu-Cha" with its Bluesology leaping from every chord change in 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 takes out the tune, and Coltrane has never respected a melody so much.

Round About Midnight

Music GB