Craft Recordings’ Original Jazz Classics Marks The Centennials Of Miles Davis And John Coltrane With Seminal Album Reissues

Available for pre‑order today and out August 14, Cookin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet and Coltrane will be released on 180‑gram vinyl and in Hi‑Res Audio

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Los Angeles, CA (June 24, 2026) – Craft Recordings’ Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series returns with a pair of seminal releases from two jazz icons. Continuing the year-long celebration of the centennials of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, OJC will reissue The Miles Davis Quintet’s Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet and John Coltrane’s Coltrane on August 14.

Originally released on Prestige in 1957, both albums capture pivotal moments in the careers of two of jazz’s most influential artists. These new editions feature all-analog (AAA) mastering from the original tapes by Cohearent Audio, 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI, and Stoughton Tip-On jackets with obi strips. Both are available for pre-order today and will also be released digitally in 192/24 hi-res audio.

Read on to learn more about each title below.

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The Miles Davis Quintet — Cookin’ with The Miles Davis Quintet

The quintet — which also featured John Coltrane (tenor sax), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Philly Joe Jones (drums) — stands among the most celebrated groups in jazz history. Music critic Ralph Gleason, a founding editor of Rolling Stone magazine and co-founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival, once gushed, “The intricacy of the linkage between the minds of these musicians has never been equaled in any group, in my opinion.” Cookin’ is one of the four albums to emerge from the Quintet’s legendary 1956 sessions at the storied Van Gelder Studio. 

Recorded without rehearsals and in a single take, the fittingly titled Cookin’ features Davis at a pivotal moment in his artistic evolution, unleashing the full dynamic range of his trumpet. As All About Jazz observed, “He plays his ass off… ranging high and low with Olympian poise and, at times, unprecedented ferocity.”

To that end, you’d be hard-pressed to find any lull on this unforgettable album, which proffers four superlative tracks. Cookin’ is a dexterous yet unflappable revelation, beginning with the silky, levitating “My Funny Valentine,” and closing with the swinging “Tune Up/When Lights Are Low.” “Without a doubt, a highlight not only of this mammoth session, but also the entire tenure of Miles Davis’ mid-’50s quintet,” AllMusic raved. “All the elements converge upon this fundamentally swinging medley.” As any collector will attest: If ever an album were a keeper, it’s this one.

 

John Coltrane – Coltrane

Coltrane recorded this, his first solo LP, in 1957 at Van Gelder’s Studio — a year after the saxophonist contributed to the Miles Davis Quintet’s exceptional Cookin’. By the end of that same year, Coltrane would join the Thelonious Monk Quartet.

But first, he released Coltrane. Highlights include the rousing bop offering “Straight Street” and the virtuosic, escapist “Chronic Blues.” Most of the tracks, starting with “Bakai” (which dances with discord before giving way to effortless groove), are breathless and cerebral — a testament to Coltrane’s vibrant vision, matched by his formidable technical prowess. “This is a very fine record, one of the best of the year, for experienced jazz fans,” the San Francisco Chronicle declared, before adding, with a bit of snark: “It is not recommended for those who want pretty sounds.” Other tracks, including “While My Lady Sleeps,” offer a velvety counterpoint to the album’s more adventurous moments.

Joining Coltrane here are Johnnie Splawn (trumpet), Sahib Shihab (sax), Red Garland (piano), Mal Waldron (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Albert “Tootie” Heath (drums), all of whom help level up and counterbalance the album’s flirtations with melody and confrontation. “[Coltrane] is a player in what is over-loosely termed the ‘hard’ school of modern jazz in that he plays with fierce, propulsive urgency, possessing a tone and attack that is bluntly direct,” HiFi Stereo observes. “Harmonically, he is consistently adventurous, and in overall conception, he has become unusually absorbing.”

Throughout 2026, the Coltrane Estate is marking the 100th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth with COLTRANE 100, an ambitious, year-long global celebration honoring an artist whose work permanently reshaped the language, ambition, and purpose of music. Explore COLTRANE 100 events, music, official merch, and more at johncoltrane.com.

Since relaunching in 2023, OJC has continued to earn critical acclaim for its reissues of landmark jazz recordings. Reviewing the OJC edition of Bill Evans’ Sunday at the Village Vanguard, PopMatters enthused, “The bright, inventive performances are captured perfectly in these new vinyl releases...” Discussing the OJC reissue of Mal Waldron’s Mal/2,  Analog Planet wrote, “Even better than those hard-to-find originals from the 1950s...trust me, you’ll want this.” Meanwhile, Tracking Angle awarded a perfect score to Bill Evans’ Waltz for Debby, calling it “the best-sounding of all the pressings...the whole line will be worth watching and buying quickly before they sell out.”

Created in 1982 under Fantasy Records, Original Jazz Classics was relaunched in 2023. The series has reissued more than 850 jazz albums to date, drawing from a transformative jazz catalog that includes thousands of groundbreaking albums originally released by Prestige, Galaxy, Milestone, Riverside, Debut, Contemporary, Jazzland, and Pablo.

Click here to pre-order/pre-save these new titles, including a bundle featuring both, or click here to shop the complete OJC collection.

 

Tracklists:

The Miles Davis Quintet – Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet

Side A

1. My Funny Valentine
2. Blues by Five

Side B

1. 1. 1. Airegin
      2. Tune Up/When Lights Are Low

 

John Coltrane – Coltrane

Side A

1. 1. Bakai
   2. Violets for Your Furs
   3. Time Was

Side B

1. 1. Straight Street
   2. While My Lady Sleeps
   3. Chronic Blues

 

 

About Craft Recordings:

Craft Recordings is home to one of the largest and most essential collections of master recordings and compositions in the world. Its storied repertoire includes landmark releases from icons such as Joan Baez, John Coltrane, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Celia Cruz, Miles Davis, Isaac Hayes, John Lee Hooker, Little Richard, R.E.M., and Joan Sebastian. Plus, the catalog recordings of celebrated contemporary acts including A Day to Remember, Daddy Yankee, Evanescence, Alison Krauss, Nine Inch Nails, Taking Back Sunday and Violent Femmes, to name just a few. Renowned imprints with catalogs issued under the Craft banner include Fania, Fantasy, Fearless, Musart, Nitro, Panart, Prestige, Riverside, Rounder, Specialty, Stax, Vanguard, Varèse Sarabande, Vee-Jay and Victory, among many others. Craft creates thoughtfully curated packages, with a meticulous devotion to quality and a commitment to preservation—ensuring that these recordings endure for new generations to discover. Craft is also home to the Billie Holiday and Tammy Wynette estates which preserve and protect their respective names, likeness and music through day-to-day legacy management of these cultural trailblazers. 

Craft Recordings is the catalog label team for Concord. For more info, visit CraftRecordings.com and follow on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

 

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