'Round Midnight

'Round Midnight is the first track on 'Round About Midnight, Miles Davis's first Columbia album. The album credits Monk, Hanighen and Williams and runs the song at 5:58. Thelonious Monk composed it, copyrighted on September 24, 1943 as I Need You So, in C minor, with words by Thelma Murray; Bernie Hanighen later wrote lyrics, copyrighted April 13, 1945 as Grand Finale. Monk probably wrote it around 1940 or 1941. Cootie Williams recorded it first, on August 22, 1944, after Bud Powell urged him, and claims the eight-bar interlude; Monk first recorded it on November 21, 1947 for Blue Note. The introduction now standard was written by Dizzy Gillespie for his arrangement of I Can't Get Started.

Davis played it at the 1955 Newport Jazz Festival with Monk on piano, Zoot Sims, Gerry Mulligan, Percy Heath and Connie Kay. His Harmon-muted solo led George Avakian to him; Davis was still under contract to Prestige, and agreed to record for Columbia for release once that contract expired.

The recording

The studio track is from 1956, at the Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York, a former church that engineer Frank Laico called Studio C. Wikipedia lists album sessions on October 26, 1955 and June 5 and September 10, 1956 without saying which produced this song; a reissue listing and MusicBrainz place 'Round Midnight and All of You on September 10, 1956. George Avakian produced. Davis plays trumpet, John Coltrane tenor saxophone, Red Garland piano, Paul Chambers bass and Philly Joe Jones drums.

Laico described the studio's sound to Sound On Sound: a Neumann U47, a U49 on Davis, a basement echo chamber, and deliberate leakage between microphones, which he said was what made the sound worth listening to; Davis said of the U49 that he liked it very much. Critic Eugene Holley Jr. called this the album's standout track, as summarized on Wikipedia. It is one of the most recorded jazz standards written by a jazz musician, with hundreds of covers. Monk's quintet version entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993, and Bertrand Tavernier's 1986 film Round Midnight had a soundtrack by Herbie Hancock. Setlist.fm counts 32 plays by Miles Davis. The upload is the label's official audio, which does not state which pressing it is.