Article Contributed by Shore Fire Media
Published on January 31, 2026
Sixty years after Miles Davis and his Second Great Quintet detonated expectations across seven sets in a basement club in Chicago, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 is out today as a definitive physical edition—available now via Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment. Widely hailed as one of the most illuminating live documents in jazz history, the complete Plugged Nickel performances capture Davis alongside Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron C
Originally issued in 1995 as a limited-edition Mosaic Records LP box set and out of print for nearly three decades, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 is now available as a 10LP box set and 8CD box set, cut from digital and presented in deluxe packaging. The 10LP edition recreates the Mosaic musical presentation while expanding the story for a new era: a newly designed slipcase houses ten individual LP jackets and a 40-page booklet featuring new liner notes by Syd Schwartz and classic contextual writing by Bob Blumenthal, alongside archival photography and production credits that underscore the set’s stature as a cornerstone in Davis’ recorded legacy.
The performances themselves are a study in controlled risk. In December 1965, the quintet arrived at the Plugged Nickel with a well-worn repertoire—standards, ballads, blues—and proceeded to turn it inside out. Across “My Funny Valentine,” “Stella By Starlight,” “Walkin’,” “So What,” “All Blues,” and more, the group bends tempo, fractures form, and reassigns roles mid-phrase, making even familiar material feel newly dangerous. Schwartz’s new notes explore the band’s radical spirit and the mythic aura surrounding the engagement, writing, “The Plugged Nickel tapes don’t just capture great performances. They document a band revolutionizing improvisation in real time, welcoming surprise, discarding certainty, and turning ‘wrong’ notes into revelations.”
“The collection’s reputation has only grown since its original release. MOJO calls it “an act of seductive deconstruction,” while UNCUT finds it “exhilarating in its dense majesty.” Today, it stands not only as a towering achievement of modern improvisation, but as an essential chapter in the story of Miles Davis as a bandleader: restless, rigorous, and always in pursuit of the next sound. It offers what Aquarium Drunkard calls “the ability to revisit the exact moment that five musicians rewrote the language of modern music.”
