Miles '56 (Mono Remastered 2026) Miles Davis

• 1 In Your Own Sweet Way (March 16, 1956 Version / Remastered 2026) 04:34
• 2 No Line (Remastered 2026) 05:40
• 3 Vierd Blues (Remastered 2026) 06:50
• 4 In Your Own Sweet Way (May 11, 1956 Version / Remastered 2026) 05:43
• 5 Diane (Remastered 2026) 07:49
• 6 Trane's Blues (Remastered 2026) 08:33
• 7 Something I Dreamed Last Night (Remastered 2026) 06:14
• 8 It Could Happen To You (Remastered 2026) 06:31
• 9 Woody'N You (Remastered 2026) 05:01
• 10 Ahmad's Blues (Remastered 2026) 07:23
• 11 Surrey With The Fringe On Top (Remastered 2026) 09:03
• 12 It Never Entered My Mind (Remastered 2026) 05:23
• 13 When I Fall In Love (Remastered 2026) 04:25
• 14 Salt Peanuts (Remastered 2026) 06:08
• 15 Four (Remastered 2026) 07:12
• 16 The Theme (Take 1 / Remastered 2026) 01:59
• 17 The Theme (Take 2 / Remastered 2026) 01:04
• 18 If I Were A Bell (Remastered 2026) 08:16
• 19 Well, You Needn’t (Remastered 2026) 06:20
• 20 ‘Round Midnight (Remastered 2026) 05:23
• 21 Half Nelson (Remastered 2026) 04:46
• 22 You're My Everything (Remastered 2026) 05:18
• 23 I Could Write A Book (Remastered 2026) 05:09
• 24 Oleo (Remastered 2026) 06:17
• 25 Airegin (Remastered 2026) 04:27
• 26 Tune Up (Remastered 2026) 05:43
• 27 When Lights Are Low (Remastered 2026) 07:30
• 28 Blues By Five (Remastered 2026) 10:27
• 29 My Funny Valentine (Remastered 2026) 06:03
• Total Runtime 02:55:11

Info for Miles '56 (Mono Remastered 2026)

Released to celebrate Miles Davis’ centennial, Miles ’56: The Prestige Recordings brings together recordings from 1956, the year Davis recorded his most influential work on Prestige. With cuts from the four albums recorded with Rudy Van Gelder, “Cookin,” “Relaxin,” “Workin” and “Steamin”, this collection includes the first great quintet of Davis, Coltrane, Garland, Chambers, & Jones. Remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY-winning engineer Paul Blakemore.

For trailblazing trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis (1926 – 1991), 1956 was a pivotal year, centered around his first consistent group, The Miles Davis Quintet. Formed just a few months earlier, the band—known as the “First Great Quintet”—featured a who’s who of rising stars, including tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Together, they would become a defining force of the hard bop era.

“The group simply had so much to offer,” writes Ashley Kahn. “Depending on what tune they were engaging, and who was soloing, the group’s sound could change energy and effect, such was the flexibility and contrasting styles of its members…. Collectively, the band was able to breathe as one, in a natural, imprecise way. The group could deliver fire and, just as effectively, stillness—which Miles was famously responsible for.”

After recording their debut album in November 1955 (Miles: The New Miles Davis Quintet), the quintet further honed their sound through non-stop touring, playing packed residencies across North America, while, at home in New York, they maintained a regular presence at the West Village hotspot, Café Bohemia. Their setlists, Kahn shares, “reflected a ‘ballads, burners and blues’ mix of material,” including standards like “My Funny Valentine” and “Surrey With the Fringe on Top;” bebop mainstays, such as “Woody’N You” and “Salt Peanuts;” and tunes by contemporaries, including Sonny Rollins’ “Oleo,” Thelonious Monk’s “Well You Needn’t” and Ahmad Jamal’s “Ahmad’s Blues.” Davis’ originals were also regularly sprinkled into the mix, including “Half Nelson” and “Four.”

By now, Davis’ profile had grown significantly, attracting attention from the press, his peers, and record labels. While still under contract with Prestige, Davis signed to Columbia Records, with the full blessing of the independent label’s founder, Bob Weinstock. To fulfill his contractual obligations with Prestige, he scheduled two marathon sessions at Rudy Van Gelder’s storied Hackensack studio, where he would record enough material for several years’ worth of albums. The sessions, which took place on May 11 and October 26, were treated by the quintet as live gigs, as they performed the set lists that they had perfected over the preceding months, including the aforementioned selections. The subsequent recordings captured the quintet’s on-stage magic with a palpable sense of immediacy.

Kahn writes, “Most tunes feature the quintet, but as they would onstage, they stretched to include the bands-within-the-band idea; for example, Coltrane laying out as Miles led the rhythm section on ‘My Funny Valentine,’ and Garland taking over with a piano trio version of ‘Ahmad’s Blues.’” He adds, “Other than a second try at ‘The Theme,’ these were all first takes. Like the final set on a Tuesday night, they hit it, quit it, and went home.”

The tracks they recorded in May and October would be released as four iconic albums: Cookin’ (1957), Relaxin’ (1958), Workin’ (1960), and Steamin’ (1961)—each with a full title that includes “with the Miles Davis Quintet.” One outlier, the Thelonious Monk-penned “’Round Midnight”—which would become a signature tune for Davis—appeared on 1959’s Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants.

Additionally, Miles ’56 includes the trumpeter’s other Prestige session that year, captured on March 16th and featuring Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Art Taylor (drums). The session—which marked the bandleader’s final studio date with Rollins and his sole recorded collaboration with Flanagan—includes two Davis originals (“Vierd Blues,” “No Line”) plus the Dave Brubeck-penned “In Your Own Sweet Way,” all of which appeared on the 1956 LP, Collectors’ Items.

The impact of the 1956 quintet recordings could be felt immediately upon release, as critics welcomed them with open arms and young jazz musicians sought to emulate Davis’ approach to improvisation. Their lasting influence, however, still reverberates. “Many of the tunes and arrangements from the quintet’s 1956 sessions can be heard in the repertoire of contemporary jazz ensembles,” notes Kahn. “In approach and attitude, this music…continues to inspire and build student improvisers, providing them a solid foundation to take a leap and find their own way to push the music forward.”

While this iteration of the quintet would only spend a brief time together, they played a crucial role in shaping Davis as an artist, helping him come into his own as a bandleader and find his voice as a musician. As 1956 closed, Davis was primed to embark on a new chapter—one that would find his star ascending to unbelievable heights. He would continue to innovate for decades, shaping the sounds of post-bop and fusion, while experimenting with electronic elements, funk, rock, pop, and African rhythms well into the late 1980s. Today, his vast catalog continues to resonate far beyond the world of jazz.

Miles Davis

Digitally remastered

Please note: we do not offer the 192 kHz version. Our spectrum analysis did not reach the required frequency range. Fundamentally, we offer 96kHz.

Trumpeter Miles Davis grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were affluent, and had the means to support his musical studies as a boy. He began playing the cornet at age nine, and received his first trumpet at around twelve or thirteen. He studied classical technique, and focused mainly on using a rich, clear tone, something that helped define his sound in later years.

As a teenager, he played in various bands in St. Louis, which was rich with jazz, as big bands often stopped there on tours throughout the Midwest and southern states. The most important experience he had was when he was asked to play in the Billy Eckstine band for a week as a substitute. The group included Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sara Vaughan. After playing with these stars, Davis knew he had to move to New York to be at the heart of the jazz scene.

In Pursuit of Parker:

In 1944 Davis moved to New York City where he had earned a scholarship to study trumpet at the Juilliard School of Music. Upon arriving however, he sought after Charlie Parker, and meanwhile spent all of his time in jazz clubs listening to bebop. He was transfixed on the music, and grew utterly bored with his classical studies. After less than a year at Juilliard, he dropped out and tried his hand at performing jazz. Although not particularly stunning, his playing was good enough to finally attract Charlie Parker, and Davis joined his quintet in 1945. He was often criticized for sounding inexperienced, and was compared unfavorably to Dizzy Gillespie and Fats Navarro, who were the leading trumpeters at the time. Both boasted stellar technique and range, neither of which Davis possessed. In spite of this, he made a lasting impression on those who heard him, and his career was soon set aloft.

Cool Jazz and a Rise to Fame:

Encouraged by composer and arranger Gil Evans, Davis formed a group in 1949 that consisted of nine musicians, including Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan. The group was larger than most bebop ensembles, and featured more detailed arrangements. The music was characterized by a more subdued mood than earlier styles, and came to be known as cool jazz. In 1949 Davis released the album Birth of the Cool (Captiol Records). Change of artistic direction became central to Davis’ long and increasingly influential career. After dabbling in hard bop as a leader on four Prestige recordings featuring John Coltrane, he signed with Columbia records and made albums that featured Gil Evans’ arrangements for 19-piece orchestra. These were Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain, and Quiet Nights. He rose in popularity with these recordings, in part due to his signature sound, which he often enhanced by using a Harmon mute.

Kind of Blue and Beyond:

In 1959 Davis made his pivotal recording, Kind of Blue. It was a departure from all of his previous projects, abandoning complicated melodies for tunes that were sometimes only composed of two chords. This style became known as modal jazz, and it allows the soloist expressive freedom since he does not have to negotiate complex harmonies. Kind of Blue also featured John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Bill Evans. The album is one of the most influential in jazz, and is Columbia Records’ best-selling jazz record of all time. In the mid 1960s Davis changed directions again, forming a group with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter. This group was known for the excellence of each individual member, and also for its unique performance approach. Each night the tunes would sound different, as the musicians would sometimes only loosely adhere to the song structures, and often transition from one right into the next. Each player was given the chance to develop his solos extensively. Like all of Davis’ previous groups, this quintet was highly influential.

Late Career:

Despite health problems, drug addiction, and strained personal relationships, Davis continued to play, changing his approach with each new project. In the late 60s and 70s, he began to experiment with electronic instruments, and grooves that were tinged with rock and funk music. Two famous recordings from this period are In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. By the time the 1980s rolled around, Davis was not only a jazz legacy, but a pop icon, whose music, persona, and fashion style were legendary. Davis died in 1991, as perhaps the most influential jazz artist ever. His vast body of work continues to be a source of inspiration for today’s musicians. (Jacob Teichroew, About.com Guide)

This album contains no booklet.