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Miles Davis was so smooth that he along with Coltrane and buddies made veteran musicians look rough around the edges. No jazz enthusiast should do without these albums and no poser wanting to appear to be knowledgeable of jazz should do without these albums. Round About Midnight is exactly the type of album that lives up to the hype. Miles Davis was so groundbreaking and was so dominant in directing jazz tendencies that every single album begs to be listened to, but among his elite are Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain, Bitches Brew and Round About Midnight. That way, they'll know what to listen for and become educated with excellence. Like most of the best of Miles, this album is best served chilled, with a nice bottle of wine and some great company.
Don't get wrong, the playing from this quintet is top-notch, but these tunes I mentioned are not worthy compared to the rest of the album. Let first say that I love Miles Davis' early work, but I found "Round About Midnight" to be one of his weakest albums in his entire early discography. Tunes like "Ah-Leu-Cha," "Two Bass Hit," (which at times sounds like a knock-off of Monk's "Epistrophy") and "Tad's Delight" really bring this album down to a mediocre level. "Round About Midnight" is an example of how you could go wrong with John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones. All outstanding musicians, but they seemed to be very disconnected on this recording.
Not to negate what the future Davis groupings were but this one definitely had something that could not be replicated. I've got a lot of Miles' Cds and this is probably the one I listen to the most. I'll keep this short. A well balanced unoffensive classic jazz album. All the songs are great on it and I love Coltrane's work on this one too. I agree with others that say this is their favorite quintet. Recommended for Jazz pros and Jazz newbies alike. Soulful
It's really hard to disagree with most of the reviewers; this is Miles at his lyrical and contemplative best, and John Coltrane is really spicing the things up with his rough tenor; contrasting the leader's horn very effectivelly.And yes, this is the album that has both the magnificent version of Monk's 'Round Midnight and the beautiful and extremely creative version of children song Bye Bye Blackbird. But there is also boppish Ah-Leu-Cha, sentimental and ironic All of You.Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on the bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums are a rhythm section at the same time powerfull and subtle, ideal for supporting and inspiring the horns.
All of You and Bye Bye Blackbird have really great piano. 'Round About Midnight was Miles Davis' Columbia debut LP and one of his calmest recordings ever. Bye Bye Blackbird is my favorite song here, it has the best piano. The first song 'Round Midnight is an excellent old '50s song, recorded on 9/10/1956. The next song which was the first session Ah-Leu-Cha is excellent, recorded on 10/26/1955. All the songs in this album are excellent as well as other Miles Davis. Get this with Kind of Blue and you can enjoy a relaxing late 1950s.
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