Miles Davis – At Newport 1958 (Music On Vinyl)

Miles Davis' At Newport 1958 captures the Newport Jazz Festival set that introduced a crucial new Davis band onstage for the first time in July 1958. With John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb in place, this is the lineup that would reach the studio about six months later for Kind of Blue, which gives the album real historical weight beyond its festival setting.

The music is valuable not just as a preview of what came next, but as a complete snapshot of the sextet in motion. Live versions of "Ah-Leu-Cha," "Straight, No Chaser" and "Bye Bye Blackbird" show how sharply the group could balance speed, swing and space, with the solos and internal interplay left intact rather than trimmed into a highlights package. Bill Evans' presence is especially striking, while Coltrane and Adderley push the front line with very different kinds of intensity.

This concert had a piecemeal release history: part of it surfaced in 1964 alongside Newport performances by the Thelonious Monk Quartet, and the full set later appeared on CD in 2001. This Music On Vinyl edition matters because it brings the entire seven-track performance to vinyl for the first time, turning an often-scattered document into a satisfying one-LP listen. For anyone tracing Miles Davis' late-1950s transition, it is a vivid stop between the first great quintet and the modal shift just ahead.

Features

• 1xLP, 180g, Music On Vinyl
• Complete 1958 Newport Jazz Festival performance on vinyl for the first time
• Includes insert with liner notes by Bob Blumenthal