Miles Davis - Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings - 4 x 180g Vinyl LPs

2026

Miles Davis - "Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings" [180g 4 LP] Released to celebrate Miles Davis' centennial, Miles '56 collects together recordings from the year that Davis recorded his most influential work on Prestige. With cuts from "Cookin," "Relaxin," "Workin" and "Steamin," this collection includes the Quintet of Davis, Coltrane, Garland, Chambers, and Jones. Released on 4-LP and remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY-winning engineer Paul Blakemore. 

The set is pressed on 180gram vinyl and includes new liner notes by GRAMMY-winners Ashley Kahn and Dan Morgenstern. 

Limited Edition.

https://trackingangle.com/music/miles-davis-56 :

It’s important to understand that these mid-50s mono recordings were made with the microphones Van Gelder had at the time, as good as some of them were (Neuman U47), a modified tape deck (Ampex 300-C), and a console (Altec 230B) fed by questionable A/C with equalization curves that needed to be adhered to at the time.  

So, as good an audio engineer as Van Gelder was, Howarth at Plangent Processes had the opportunity to improve on what he describes as “an authority and authenticity that further honors the performance”. In our conversation, he mentioned that along with the speed stabilization, he corrected for artifacts like phase shifts, intermodulation distortion and mitigation of the microphones' resonances. This was suitably achieved with the latest version of his hardware and software while transferring the 30 ips Scotch 111 tape, which is reportedly in great shape.

 I am not a digital vinyl snob, nor do I assume anything before I have a chance to experience it myself. So, I listened objectively on a system I am very familiar with in a listening room that has not changed in decades.  

I can say, that after careful comparisons, there was a notable improvement in emotional connection and authority with this new reissue. The result is that Kevin Gray, Paul Blakemore and Craft, with their implementation of Plangent Processes in transferring the master tape, have provided the modern-day record collector, and seasoned enthusiasts alike, with a reasonably priced option for gathering this important era in jazz history together on brand-new high-quality audio media. Recommended.

Davis always brought his best and played according to his own way of doing things. His hard bop style in 1956 was no different. His treatment of warhorse standards could always be identified by his poetic and lyrical phrasing punctuated by the improvisations his band members became famous for. 

Randy Wells