This genuinely rare item is not to be confused with the more frequently reissued 1963 St. Louis set included as bonus material on the Manchester Concert reviewed below, and featuring Herbie, Ron, Tony and George Coleman. The present music, previously thought to be from 1956, shows the famous Coltrane edition on peak form, playing for Miles' hometown crowd and recorded from local radio. The sound isn't great (more tweaking is recommended for the first session than the one a week later) and there are brief edits in the music (possibly to excise station IDs), but the historical interest outweighs such considerations. This was only shortly before Miles fired Trane and, soon after, Philly Joe on account of their drug abuse but, interestingly, the tenorman sounds much more coherent than on some of the previous year's studio tracks. Miles, of course, is so idiosyncratically commanding that he's almost beyond criticism, whereas the entire rhythm section is just as amazing as we've always been told. In each broadcast, there's a trio number for variety (‘A Foggy Day’ and ‘Billy Boy’) and some of the announcements are subject to editing too, but it's still great.