'Round About Midnight

Columbia released it on March 4, 1957 according to Wikipedia; Sound On Sound gives March 18, so the date is contested. George Avakian produced and Frank Laico engineered at the Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York. The first session, on October 26, 1955, was the quintet's first studio recording and produced Ah-Leu-Cha and three unused numbers; the rest came in June and September 1956. The quintet was Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums.

It was not a commercial success on release. DownBeat's Ralph J. Gleason gave it five stars in 1957 and AllMusic does too; The Penguin Guide to Jazz called it a footnote to the Prestige sessions, and Ralph Berton in Record Changer found it conservative. It is now seen as a high point of hard bop. A 2001 Columbia/Legacy reissue added Two Bass Hit, Little Melonae, Budo and Sweet Sue Just You, and a 2005 two-disc edition added a live disc with the 1955 Newport performance of 'Round Midnight at 6:00.