You’re holding in your hands the first of three volumes dedicated to the recordings made by Miles Davis, between 1956 and 1958 at Café Bohemia, located at 15 Barrow Street, Greenwich Village, New York City.

The restaurant (misspelled Restraurnt on the sign) was managed by the Italian-American Jimmy Garofalo, and was opened in 1955. In a very short time the Café Bohemia became a sort of Mecca for Jazz modernists, and several albums were recorded there by some of the most interesting artists at the time (Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Kenny Dorham, George Wallington). By the way, Oscar Pettiford, (who was the artistic director for the Jazz Club at the beginning) dedicated his own composition to the restaurant, calling it Bohemia After Dark.

Moreover, the Café Bohemia was one of the headquarters of the Mutual Network Bandstand U.S.A. Radio Broadcasts. Every week the emcee Guy Wallace, often surrounded by guests, was recording and broadcasting some incredible live acts directly from the Bohemia. And Miles Davis was part of these shows eight times between September 15, 1956 and May 17, 1958.

Here you’ll find, for the first time in history, the whole bulk of Miles’ recordings (around 120 minutes, released into three volumes) which were broadcast by the Mutual Network.

Some of this material was published throughout the years on unofficial records, but most of these tracks are issued here forthefirsttime.Inanycase,thematerialisreleasedwith the best possible sound quality and with corrected speed (most of the previous releases were running at the wrong speed,outoftune).

We hope you’lljumpintothistimeand space machine, aswetriedtoreproducethesoundofthaterainthemostfaithful way. To improve and philologically respect that world of sound, we have decided to also leave all the announcements (by Guy Wallace and his guests) in their full version.

Some very interesting and unpredicted aspects emerge from these announcements, which will help the listener to better feel that era, both socially and historically.

So, turn the radio on and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the second half of the 50s with the previously unheard music of the Miles Davis Quintet at its best.

Miles Davis (tp); John Coltrane (ts); Red Garland (p); Paul Chambers (b); Philly Joe Jones (d)
Guy Wallace (Radio Broadcast announcer)