**** Miles Davis Quintet -- Cookin' With the Miles Davis Quintet
There's a fellow that I know on the Freaks list who likes a saxophonist named John Coltrane. Because I really respect the guy, I picked up a Coltrane album when I was in Winnipeg last month and couldn't get into it because it was a compilation and Coltrane was kind of all over the place through his career. So I popped off an email and got recommendations of a better path to follow, which included this CD. The Miles Davis Quintet was Miles Davis (trumpet) Coltrane on sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. This is a ridiculously short album at 33 minutes, with four songs, but they're all pretty good. "My Funny Valentine" is a melancholy tune that follows the original fairly well. "Blues by Five" is a blues tinged ten minute song that remains firmly rooted in classic jazz. "Airegin" has nice interplay between Coltrane and Davis and the 14 minute "Tune-Up/When the Lights are Low" that closes the album features amazing performances by all players. Given that I'm not a big fan of straight jazz, I'm a bit surprised that I like this album as much as I do, but I think that's more out of respect for the virtuosity displayed than any deep appreciation of the musical style.
Reviews by A. D. Jensen
