"Blues by Five" from Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet is a medium-tempo blues in B-flat composed by Red Garland, featuring extended solos from all four principal voices in the legendary first great quintet. Recorded in 1956 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, the track moves at 175 BPM with Miles Davis opening the solo section with eight trumpet choruses of spare, melodically inventive playing. John Coltrane follows with seven tenor saxophone choruses that hint at the harmonic explorations he would soon pursue more aggressively. Garland contributes five piano choruses in his distinctive block chord style, and Paul Chambers rounds out the solos with five arco and pizzicato bass choruses. The blues was the common ground on which all five members of this quintet met most naturally, and this performance captures them in relaxed but focused interplay. The marathon session that produced this track also yielded enough material for three additional albums, a testament to the group's remarkable consistency and rapport. Davis's muted trumpet tone on the blues is particularly affecting, conveying emotion through space and silence as much as through notes played. The track exemplifies the first quintet's ability to transform familiar material into something fresh and personal through the sheer force of individual musical personalities.
