The Miles Davis Quintet – Relaxin' With The Miles Davis Quintet (LP Vinyl)

Recorded in a single marathon session at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio in May 1956, this date captured the first great quintet at a creative peak just before Davis would sign with Columbia and shift the conversation entirely. What makes "Relaxin'" feel so alive decades later is exactly that, the looseness implied in the title was real; these musicians had been playing together on the road long enough that the interplay between Davis and a young Coltrane sounds less like a recording session and more like a very good night on the bandstand.