We first heard Davis on his best-known album, Kind of Blue; this week, with ’Round About Midnight, we wind back the clock just a few years before that landmark release. Recall that Kind of Blue was a pioneering exercise in "modal jazz;" by contrast, ’Round About Midnight is more transitional: we hear some of Davis' last mainstream work in bebop/hard bop alongside experiments in a "cooler" style that would eventually lead to him advancing the frontiers of jazz.

There's lots to love in this album: for me, Davis & Coltrane generally steal the show (their interplay and tone on "Bye Bye Blackbird"—Coltrane's in particular—are a real highlight), but the rest of this "first great quintet" each has their moments too, like the piano at ~5:45 in "All of You," the bass solos in "Little Melonae," or the drums at the end of Budo (which instantly called Art Blakey to mind for me, though it's actually "Philly Joe" Jones).

Of those many delights, the track that particularly stood out to me on first listen was "Ah-Leu-Cha." "Ah-Leu-Cha" is a Charlie Parker composition;¹ we're firmly in bebop territory here (and the lively tempo comes in strong contrast to the relaxed "’Round Midnight" that precedes it). Fascinatingly though, Parker's original recording was noticeably more relaxed than what's on this album—and in at least one live performance, Davis counts the group in on a truly blistering tempo. Listen for yourself (for a simulated K-hole, repeatedly listen to the last one, then immediately drop back down to the first):

• Slow (relatively speaking!): original Parker recording
• Medium: ’Round About Midnight
• Ludicrous speed: Miles & Monk at Newport
  • To me, this one is frenetic but not awful; I'm generally Team Faster Is Better. At least one critic disagrees: as Jack Chambers writes on page 288 of his epic biography of Davis: "The sextet's performance is substandard. Davis' most conspicuous contribution comes in tapping out overzealous tempos on all tunes, including a breakneck tempo on Ah-Leu-Cha that reduces the ensemble to shambles."²
  • Love it or hate it, this has been on the official Miles Davis YouTube channel for nearly a decade and has hardly 500 views (~1% of which are from me)—that seems wildly low.

(Hat tip to Deep Groove Mono, for breaking down the relevant Ah-Leu-Cha history in this very helpful post.)

Overall, I'm still not sure where to place ’Round About Midnight—in many ways, it feels like an album caught between worlds. If I want nothing but hard bop, I'd sooner reach for The Messengers, and if I really want to cool off, there's no beating Kind of Blue. But if all you're looking for is some great jazz from a formidable quintet, and you're not too picky on subgenres, you could do a lot worse than ’Round About Midnight.

Favourite track: Ah-Leu-Cha