For Miles Davis’ centennial year, Craft Recordings has reissued all the quintet ensemble tracks Davis recorded for the Prestige label in the year 1956.

This newly-remastered set comprises three pieces recorded on March 16 with Sonny Rollins, Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, and Art Taylor, and the two marathon sessions, May 11 and October 26, with the working quintet of John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. Mastering engineer Paul Blakemore restored the original master tapes with Plangent Processes, making this release the first time these recordings have been transferred at high resolution (24/192) with tape flutter correction.

The performances recorded at the May 11 and October 26 sessions were intended to fulfill Miles’ contract with Prestige at the same time as he was beginning to record under a new contract with Columbia. Prestige label owner Bob Weinstock issued tracks from these two sessions over four LP releases: Cookin’ (1957), Relaxin’ (1958), Workin’ (1959) and Steamin’ (1961), to cash in on Miles’ growing success as a Columbia Records artist.

Because there is so much written material available about these sessions, I’ll forego the pleasure of adding to the body of amateur critical reviews. It’s enough to say that the sessions produced many outstanding tracks and a few less than stellar performances (especially by John Coltrane), and that all the tunes were recorded in single takes. Only such a well-rehearsed band could have pulled it off.

Curiously, no complete series of SACDs of the May 11 and October 26 sessions was issued by the same mastering engineer and record company. Three of the Prestige albums were remastered and issued on Analogue Productions SACDs, one of them more than once:

Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (remastered by Doug Sax); and Miles Davis Quintet: Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Davis Quintet: Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, and Miles Davis Quintet: Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet (remastered by Kevin Gray).

Cookin’, Relaxin’, and Workin’ were issued by Universal Japan on SHM-SACD. There are also two other US-released SACDs: Steamin’ (Mobile Fidelity) and Relaxin’ (Fantasy). Neither, in my opinion, surpasses the quality of the Analogue Productions versions.

For this review, I compared the 2026 Craft 24/192 remasters with Analogue Productions and Universal Japan SACD versions (in DSF file format), and the 2019 Craft 24/192 release The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions. DSF albums and hi-res PCM download albums are stored on SSDs connected via USB cable to a Mac Mini computer running Audirvāna Origin. To make the comparison between the SACD tracks and 24/192 files a closer match in format, Audirvāna was set to convert the 24/192 files to DSD64.

My findings: the 2026 Craft 24/192 transfers by Paul Blakemore are fuller in lower midrange frequencies and mastered at slightly lower gain than the 2019 Craft “Legendary” set. The 2026 Craft set sounds more focused, with a more forward presentation of the snare, cymbals, and high horn notes, compared to Kevin Gray’s AP SACDs.

Particularly well-served by Blakemore’s mastering are the quieter pieces from both sessions. John Coltrane was still in the throes of heroin addiction in 1956, and Miles had him sit out on ballads which Miles played with his Harmon mute. Those tunes sounded good in every release, and are especially pleasurable to hear in the new transfers.

It is interesting to compare session engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s mic’ing of Coltrane’s tenor sax in the Miles ‘56 sessions vis-à-vis Coltrane '58: The Prestige Recordings. I think RVG made improvements in his microphone kit, and perhaps the mixing board, between 1956 and 1958. In the 1956 sessions (and this is one of few drawbacks of the increased clarity of Blakemore’s new transfer), Coltrane’s sound is quite harsh; Van Gelder appears to have applied a lot of reverb to soften it. By 1957, on John Coltrane: Blue Train and certainly by the sessions on Coltrane '58: The Prestige Recordings, the sound of the tenor is much rounder and warmer.

Should collectors who already own “The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions” 24/192 release, which appears to have been sourced from 24/192 transfers done in 2006 by Joe Tarantino for the CD box set released that year, or who own all the AP SACDs and Universal Japan SHM-SACDs, bother to spend money for Miles ’56?

If you’re a Miles Davis completist and a computer audio system user, the answer is yes.

Equipment used for this review:

24/192 and DSF files stored on solid state drives
Mac Mini server running Audirvāna Origin
exaSound e32 Mk II DAC
Unison Unico tube/hybrid integrated amp
Focal 1007 BE stand mount loudspeakers

Copyright © 2026 Mark Werlin and HRAudio.net

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