"Surrey with the Fringe on Top" is a masterful reinterpretation of Richard Rodgers's show tune from Oklahoma!, recorded by Miles Davis for his 1956 Prestige album Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet. Set in a 40-bar AABAC form in B-flat at approximately 127 bpm, the tune's unusual extended structure gives the soloists extra room to develop ideas. Davis opens with a single chorus of muted trumpet that transforms the Broadway melody into something unmistakably jazzy, his phrasing reshaping the tune's contours with characteristic ingenuity. John Coltrane follows with two substantial choruses of tenor saxophone, his playing more relaxed and melodic than on the faster tracks, revealing a lyrical side that his reputation for intensity sometimes obscures. Red Garland closes with two elegantly swinging piano choruses. The medium tempo and the tune's warm harmonic landscape bring out the quintet's most conversational mode, with the musicians seeming to talk to each other through their instruments. Steamin' was recorded during the same famously productive sessions that yielded Relaxin', Cookin', and Workin', and this track captures the group in a particularly relaxed and communicative mood.
