REVINYLIZATION - OJC rises (yet) again

Liner notes from jazz albums of the 1950s and 1960s can be shot through with naivete, hipsterism (usually faux), and callousness toward the abundance of musical talent then working. Few though are as shortsighted as the original essay by Jack Maher on the back of 1960's Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. Opening with "Miles Davis is the most maligned and idolized musician in modern American jazz today.

- ROBERT BAIRD

He is at once the saint and the sinner," he goes on to cite a dynamic that literally all musicians experience, especially when playing live: "He has been accused of being lackadaisical and unconcerned about his playing. When the spirit moves him, he plays with warmth and lyric beauty, at other times he plays with vague disinterest."

Once the tape was running, however, Miles rarely missed a step. Among all of Davis's recording triumphs, the pair of sessions with Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey, his May and September 1956 sessions with saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones, remain among his finest moments on record. The 24 tracks of hard bop captured in first takes were cut into four albums with similar apostrophe-accented titles: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (released July 1957), Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (March 1958), Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (January 1960), and Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (July 1961). All were released on the Prestige label, two of them before the release of Miles's landmark 1959 album Kind of Blue (on Columbia) and two of them after. While each album has its devotees, Workin', which with eight tracks is the longest of the four, still shines just a little brighter than the rest.