• ‘Round About Midnight was Miles Davis first LP for the Columbia label. Davis had signed with that major record company following his unexpected success at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival, where he played an outstanding version of Thelonious Monk’s “’Round Midnight” with the composer. Miles was still under contract with Prestige when he made these first Columbia sessions, which had to wait in the vaults a few months before being issued in order to let Miles fulfil his arrangement with his previous label. The album was enthusiastically received from the start, with Ralph J. Gleason giving it five stars in his Down Beat review. “First, let me say that you should buy this LP immediately”, wrote Gleason. “Perhaps even two copies, since you may wear out one playing it and you will want another. This is the kind of album to which one returns time and time again because it is, in its way, a perfect thing, a slice of modern jazz conceived and executed in the very best style.”