Walkin'

Walkin' (PRLP 7076) is a Miles Davis compilation album released in March 1957 by Prestige Records. The album compiles material previously released on two 10 inch LPs in 1954, including all of Miles Davis All-Star Sextet and most of Miles Davis Quintet. Here credited to the "Miles Davis All-Stars", the songs were recorded on April 3 and 29, 1954, by two slightly different groups led by Davis. Both sessions were recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's home studio.

History
The April 3 session was a quintet with David Schildkraut on alto saxophone, which produced the three tracks on side two. Schildkraut, the only musician not credited on the cover, was a frequent sideman and soloist with the bands of Stan Kenton, Pete Rugulo, Johnny Richards, and Ralph Burns. Two of these tracks were originally released on the 10" LP Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige PRLP 185. The earlier release also included "I'll Remember April", recorded at the same time, now found on the Prestige album Blue Haze (PRLP 7054). Another tune from this session, "Love Me or Leave Me", was previously unreleased and substituted here for "I'll Remember April".

The April 29 session, which makes up all of side one, was a sextet with J. J. Johnson on trombone and Lucky Thompson on tenor saxophone. The rhythm section was identical to the earlier session. These two tracks were originally issued on the 10" LP Miles Davis All-Star Sextet PRLP 182. The album's title track, a staple of Davis's live set for many years, was key to the emerging hard bop approach developed in the mid-1950s, Davis providing it with an anthem. The composition has been attributed by various sources to Jimmy Mundy, Miles Davis, and Gene Ammons. The copyright registration listed the composer as Richard E. Carpenter, a businessman and artist manager who had professional relationships with Mundy and Tadd Dameron, and was not known to be a musician or composer.

"Solar" was attributed to Davis and copyrighted in his name in 1963. Evidence revealed in 2012 showed that it is nearly identical to "Sonny", a piece written by guitarist Chuck Wayne in the 1940s, so Wayne is regarded as the composer of "Solar".

Personnel

 * Miles Davis – trumpet
 * Lucky Thompson – tenor saxophone on side one
 * J. J. Johnson – trombone on side one
 * David Schildkraut – alto saxophone on side two
 * Horace Silver – piano
 * Percy Heath – bass
 * Kenny Clarke – drums