More of the Music of Miles Davis
- A Green Haze like you’ve never heard, with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on all FOUR sides of these vintage Mono pressings – fairly quiet vinyl too
- Spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience – talk about Tubey Magic, the liquidity of the sound here is positively uncanny
- This Prestige Two-Fer simply combines two complete Miles Davis titles recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in 1955 – ‘The Musings of Miles’ and ‘Miles’
- The 1976 transfers of tape to disc by David Turner are superb in all respects – this is remastering done right
- 4 stars: “… it is for the excellent rhythm sections and the playing of Miles Davis that this two-fer is highly recommended.”
- If you’re a fan of Miles, this All Tube MONO Recording from 1955 belongs in your collection.
This is vintage analog at its best, so full-bodied and relaxed you’ll wonder how it ever came to be that anyone seriously contemplated trying to improve it.
This IS the sound of Tubey Magic. No recordings will ever be made like this again, and no CD will ever capture what is in the grooves of this record. Based on what I’m hearing my feeling is that most of the natural, full-bodied, smooth, sweet sound of the album is on the master tape. I suspect that all that’s needed to get the vintage sound correctly on to disc is simply to thread up that tape on a reasonably good machine and hit play.
The fact that nobody seems to be able to make an especially good sounding record these days — certainly not as good sounding as this one — tells me that in fact I’m wrong to think that such an approach would work. Somebody should have been able to figure out how to do it by now. In our experience there is almost no one working today who can make a record that sounds like this.
What the Best Sides of Green Haze Have to Offer Is Not Hard to Hear
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1955
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space
No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
Talk About Timbre
Man, when you play a Hot Stamper copy of an amazing recording such as this, the timbre of the instruments is so spot-on it makes all the hard work and money you’ve put into your stereo more than pay off. To paraphrase The Hollies, you get paid back with interest. If you hear anything funny in the mids and highs of this record, don’t blame the record.
This is the kind of record that shows up audiophile BS equipment for what it is: Audiophile BS. If you are checking for richness, Tubey magic and freedom from artificiality, I can’t think of a better test disc. It has loads of the first two and none of the last.
Warning: Stereo Editorial Follows
The same is true for audio equipment as I’m sure you’ve experienced first-hand. Some stereos can bore you to tears with their dead-as-a-doornail sound and freedom from dynamic contrasts. Other stereos are overly-detailed and fatiguing; they wear out their welcome pretty quickly with their hyped-up extremes.
As Goldilocks will gladly tell you, some stereos are just right; they have the uncanny ability to get out of the way of the music. Some equipment doesn’t call attention to itself, and that tends to be the kind of equipment we prefer here at Better Records.
After forty-plus years in this hobby I’ve had my share of both. 90% or more of the stuff I hear around town makes me appreciate what I have at home. I’m sure you feel the same way.
What We’re Listening For on Green Haze
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
- Tight punchy bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
The Players
- Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers – Bass
- Philly Joe Jones – Drums
- Red Garland – Piano
- John Coltrane – Tenor Saxophone
Must Own Jazz Records
These are recordings that belong in any serious Jazz Collection. Others that belong in that category can be found here.
Side One
Will You Still Be Mine?
I See Your Face Before Me
I Didn’t
Side Two
A Gal In Calico
A Night In Tunisia
Green Haze
Side Three
Just Squeeze Me
There Is No Greater Love
How Am I To Know?
Side Four
S’posin’
The Theme
Stablemates
AMG 4 Star Review
This two-LP set combines together sets originally known as The Musings of Miles and simply Miles but could have been jointly retitled “The Birth of a Quintet.” The great trumpeter is featured in top form with pianist Red Garland, bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Philly Joe Jones on two of his originals and four standards for the first session, and with Garland, Jones, bassist Paul Chambers and a tentative-sounding tenor-saxophonist named John Coltrane on five standards and the initial version of Benny Golson’s “Stablemates” a few months later. Since Coltrane is not heard from much here, it is for the excellent rhythm sections and the playing of Miles Davis that this two-fer is highly recommended.