''Miles Davis Quartet'' (PRLP 161) is a 10 inch LP album by

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

, released in 1954 by

Prestige Records Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz music ...

. The first four tracks that comprise Side 1 were recorded at New York's WOR Studios, on May 19, 1953. The last three, heard on Side 2, were recorded nearly a year later, at New York's Beltone Studios, on March 15, 1954. The May 19, 1953 session features bassist and composer

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

on one track, playing piano. This was to be Davis' final studio session until he finally kicked his

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

habit for good nearly a year later. The March 15, 1954 session Davis was the second of two Davis recorded immediately after successfully quitting his

habit. He used exactly the same quartet he had also recorded with seven days earlier for his third

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

session, released as '' Miles Davis Volume 3'' (BLP 5040). Davis says in his autobiography that he arranged the two sessions quickly after returning to New York, as he needed money fast, and both Blue Note's

Alfred Lion Alfred Lion (born Alfred Löw; April 21, 1908 – February 2, 1987) was a German-born American record executive who co-founded the jazz record label Blue Note in 1939. Lion retired in 1967, having sold the company, after producing recordings by le ...

and Prestige's

Bob Weinstock Bob Weinstock (October 2, 1928 – January 14, 2006) was an American record producer best known for his label Prestige Records, established in 1949, which was responsible for many significant jazz recordings during his more than two decades o ...

had given him a fair chance earlier when his reputation was in decline. This was the beginning of a new three-year contract with Prestige, which Davis would still be committed to when he signed a better deal with Columbia at the end of 1955. After the 10" LP format was discontinued, the seven tracks were all included on the 12" album ''

Blue Haze ''Blue Haze'' is a compilation album of tracks recorded in 1953 and 1954 by Miles Davis for Prestige Records. Overview The album is a reissue in 12" format of the 10" LP '' Miles Davis Quartet'' (PRLP 161), with " I'll Remember April" added. ...

'' (PRLP 7054). A vinyl reissue of the album in ten inch format was released for Record Store Day Black Friday, November 25, 2011.Record Store Day Black Friday reissue
discogs.com, accessed May 21, 2014

Track listing

Personnel

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American civil rights activist and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(Side one, 1–3) *

– piano (Side one, 4) *

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...

– piano (Side two) *

Percy Heath Percy Heath (April 30, 1923 – April 28, 2005) was an American jazz bassist, brother of saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975. Heath played with the Modern Jazz Quartet througho ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

(Side one) *

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

– drums (Side two)

References

1954 albums Miles Davis albums Prestige Records albums Albums produced by Bob Weinstock {{1950s-jazz-album-stub