The story behind puzzle No. 52
Miles Davis · Bags' Groove · Prestige · 1954 (released 1957)
Christmas Eve, 1954, in a New Jersey studio: Miles Davis, Milt Jackson and Thelonious Monk recorded a blues that gave its name to one of Davis's best-loved albums.
Davis recorded Bags' Groove on December 24, 1954, at Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, for Prestige. The band was Milt Jackson on vibraphone, Thelonious Monk on piano, Percy Heath on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums.
Two takes appear on the album Bags' Groove, which Prestige released in 1957.
Milt Jackson wrote the tune. Bags was his nickname.
The rest of the album comes from a different session with Sonny Rollins, whose three tunes on it, Airegin, Oleo and Doxy, all became jazz standards.
It's a slow-burning blues. Listen to Jackson's vibraphone, which rings and hums in a way no other instrument does.
Notice how much room Monk leaves behind the soloists, and how his own solo turns the blues inside out.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Play Oleo from the same album, then revisit Blue Monk (puzzle No. 39), recorded three months earlier.
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