Craft Recordings' OJC Series to Reissue Miles Davis, Coltrane & A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS, the best-selling jazz album of all time, joins the OJC series for the first time.
Craft Recordings' acclaimed Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series returns October 9 with three essential recordings spanning foundational hard bop, a pivotal early chapter in John Coltrane's career and one of the most beloved albums in jazz history. Continuing the year-long celebration of the centennials of Miles Davis and John Coltrane (Coltrane 100), OJC will reissue The Miles Davis Quintet's Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet and John Coltrane's John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio. Joining them is Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown Christmas, making its Original Jazz Classics debut and newly certified 6X Platinum by the RIAA as the best-selling jazz album of all time.
As with all OJC releases, these new editions feature all-analog (AAA) mastering from the original master tapes and are presented in faithfully reproduced tip-on packaging with an obi. The Davis and Coltrane releases are pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at RTI with lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, while Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas is pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at QRP with lacquers cut by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab.
Each title will also be available digitally in 192/24 hi-res audio. All three are available to pre-order/pre-save, individually or as a bundle.
The Miles Davis Quintet — Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet
Recorded during two marathon 1956 sessions at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack, NJ studio, Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet captures one of the defining groups of the hard-bop era at full strength. Davis is joined by John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums—the lineup now known as Miles' First Great Quintet.
The May 11 and October 26 sessions yielded enough material for four albums—Cookin', Relaxin', Workin' and Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet—an extraordinary body of work recorded as Davis prepared to move from Prestige to Columbia. Originally released in 1958, Relaxin' balances the group's instinctive interplay with Davis' unmistakable lyricism, from the opening take of 'If I Were a Bell' and standards 'You're My Everything' and 'I Could Write a Book' to the driving 'Oleo' and Dizzy Gillespie's 'Woody'n You.'
John Coltrane – John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio
Recorded in 1957 and originally released the following year, John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio finds Coltrane stepping further into his own as a leader while surrounded by musicians with whom he had already developed a formidable chemistry. Joining him are fellow Miles Davis Quintet members Red Garland on piano and Paul Chambers on bass, with Art Taylor on drums.
Opening with the expansive 'Traneing In,' the album moves between Coltrane originals—including 'Bass Blues'—and standards such as 'You Leave Me Breathless' and Irving Berlin's 'Soft Lights and Sweet Music.' The session was later reissued in 1961 under the title Traneing In and remains a vivid document of Coltrane at a crucial point in his rapid artistic development.
Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas
Few jazz albums have become as deeply woven into popular culture as A Charlie Brown Christmas. Originally released by Fantasy Records in 1965 as the soundtrack to the beloved PEANUTS television special, Vince Guaraldi Trio's holiday classic has introduced generations of listeners to jazz through compositions including 'Linus and Lucy,' 'Christmas Time Is Here' and 'Skating,' alongside Guaraldi's distinctive interpretations of traditional favorites.
More than 60 years later, the album's reach continues to grow. Recently certified 6X Platinum by the RIAA, A Charlie Brown Christmas is now the best-selling jazz album of all time. Guaraldi is joined across the sessions by bassists Fred Marshall and Monty Budwig and drummers Jerry Granelli and Colin Bailey, creating a soundtrack whose warmth, sophistication and unmistakable swing remain inseparable from the holiday season.
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.
Tracklist
The Miles Davis Quintet – Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
Side A
1. If I Were a Bell
2. You're My Everything
3. I Could Write a Book
Side B
1. Oleo
2. It Could Happen to You
3. Woody'n You
John Coltrane – John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio
Side A
1. Traneing In
2. Slow Dance
Side B
1. Bass Blues
2. You Leave Me Breathless
3. Soft Lights and Sweet Music
Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas
Side A
1. O Tannenbaum
2. What Child Is This
3. My Little Drum
4. Linus & Lucy
5. Christmas Time Is Here (instrumental)
Side B
1. Christmas Time Is Here (vocal)
2. Skating
3. Hark, The Herald Angels Sing
4. Christmas Is Coming
5. Für Elise
6. The Christmas Song
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.
