Miles Davis, John Coltrane and A Charlie Brown Christmas Get New AAA OJC Vinyl Reissues

Jazz collectors have hardly suffered from a shortage of Miles Davis and John Coltrane reissues in 2026, but Craft Recordings has made a convincing case for revisiting both catalogs during their centennial year. The next Original Jazz Classics wave arrives October 9 with Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet and John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, along with the first OJC edition of Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas.

The formula will be familiar to anyone who has followed the revived OJC series. All three albums are sourced from the original master tapes using all-analog mastering, pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and housed in Stoughton tip-on jackets with obi strips. The Miles Davis and John Coltrane titles were cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed at RTI, while A Charlie Brown Christmas was cut by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab and pressed at Quality Record Pressings. All three will also be available in 24-bit/192kHz digital editions.

Each LP is priced at $39, while Craft is offering the three together for $102. The digital editions are $10 each.

Our recent reviews of Craft’s $39 OJC editions of Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet and John Coltrane’s 1957 Coltrane found both pressings to be excellent examples of what the revived series is doing right. Craft has stuck with an approach that makes sense: original tapes, experienced mastering engineers, established pressing plants and proper jackets without turning every important jazz album into a $125 luxury object.

Miles Davis — Relaxin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet

Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones walked into Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio twice in 1956 and generated enough material for four Prestige albums: Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’and Steamin’. Seventy years later, that remains a fairly ridiculous display of musical efficiency.

Originally released in 1958, Relaxin’ catches Davis’ First Great Quintet operating with the confidence of a working band rather than five musicians assembled for a recording date. “If I Were a Bell,” “You’re My Everything” and “I Could Write a Book” leave plenty of room for Miles’ economy and Garland’s elegant touch, while “Oleo,” “It Could Happen to You” and Dizzy Gillespie’s “Woody’n You” reveal how quickly this group could change gears without making the music feel forced.

There is also some useful context for collectors. Craft previously issued Relaxin’ as a limited Small Batch One-Step pressing, mastered by Bernie Grundman and originally priced at $99. That edition used a very different production process and presentation. The new OJC is the more conventional proposition: Kevin Gray, original tapes, AAA mastering, RTI, a Stoughton jacket and a $39 price.

Having recently reviewed Craft’s OJC edition of Cookin’, I would not dismiss the less expensive route as some kind of consolation prize. That pressing demonstrated just how much performance Craft and RTI can deliver at this price point, and Relaxin’ gives collectors another piece of the same historic 1956 sessions without requiring a boxed set or premium One-Step purchase.

Where to Buy:

• Price: $37.99 at Amazon
• Release Date: October 9, 2026
• Mastering: AAA from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Vinyl: 180-gram black vinyl pressed at RTI
• Packaging: Stoughton tip-on jacket with obi
• Digital: 24-bit/192kHz hi-res audio

John Coltrane — John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio

Coltrane’s second selection in this October batch is arguably the more interesting choice because it catches him in one of the most important transitional periods of his career.

Recorded in 1957 and released by Prestige the following year, John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio reunited the saxophonist with Miles Davis Quintet bandmates Red Garland and Paul Chambers, with Art Taylor on drums. Prestige subsequently reissued the album in 1961 under the much more familiar title Traneing In.

The title might suggest a supporting role, but Coltrane is very much the center of gravity. The expansive “Traneing In” gives him room to push against Garland’s more lyrical piano language, while “Slow Dance,” the Coltrane original “Bass Blues,” “You Leave Me Breathless” and Irving Berlin’s “Soft Lights and Sweet Music” move between hard bop, blues and standards without turning the session into a stylistic grab bag.

Its timing also makes the album fascinating. We recently reviewed Craft’s OJC edition of Coltrane’s self-titled Prestige debut, recorded in May 1957, and that record already captures a musician rapidly separating himself from the pack. John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio sits within the same extraordinary period when his playing was becoming more harmonically aggressive and unmistakably personal.

With Coltrane’s 100th birthday falling on September 23, the number of anniversary releases has become substantial, ranging from individual albums to Rhino’s sprawling six-LP John Coltrane 100 collection. The OJC approach is considerably simpler: one complete Prestige album, properly mastered and pressed, without trying to summarize a career that changed jazz in barely more than a decade.

Where to Buy:

• Price: $37.99 at Amazon
• Release Date: October 9, 2026
• Mastering: AAA from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
• Vinyl: 180-gram black vinyl pressed at RTI
• Packaging: Stoughton tip-on jacket with obi
• Digital: 24-bit/192kHz hi-res audio

Vince Guaraldi Trio — A Charlie Brown Christmas

And then there is Charlie Brown.

A Charlie Brown Christmas has been issued in enough vinyl configurations to keep an entire pressing plant busy through the holidays, but this version is notable for a very specific reason: it is the album’s first release in the Original Jazz Classics series.

It also arrives following another remarkable milestone. The 1965 soundtrack was recently certified 6X Platinum in the United States, representing six million album sales and streaming equivalents and making it the best-selling jazz album of all time. That puts a Vince Guaraldi soundtrack created for a half-hour animated television special ahead of some fairly serious competition.

The music hardly needs seasonal assistance at this point. Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy,” “Christmas Time Is Here,” “Skating” and “Christmas Is Coming” coexist naturally with his interpretations of “O Tannenbaum,” “What Child Is This,” “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” Beethoven’s “Für Elise” and “The Christmas Song.” Guaraldi is joined across the sessions by bassists Fred Marshall and Monty Budwig and drummers Jerry Granelli and Colin Bailey.

This OJC edition is also produced differently from the Davis and Coltrane LPs. Matthew Lutthans cut the lacquers AAA from the original master tapes at The Mastering Lab, with the 180-gram vinyl pressed at QRP. The album receives the same Stoughton tip-on jacket and obi treatment as the other October releases.

For collectors already staring at several copies of A Charlie Brown Christmas, another colored or novelty pressing might be difficult to justify. The OJC edition has a much clearer purpose: a straightforward audiophile black-vinyl edition centered on the mastering, pressing quality and original album presentation.

Where to Buy:

• Price: $37.99 at Amazon
• Release Date: October 9, 2026
• Mastering: AAA from the original master tapes by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab
• Vinyl: 180-gram black vinyl pressed at QRP
• Packaging: Stoughton tip-on jacket with obi
• Digital: 24-bit/192kHz hi-res audio

The Bottom Line

Craft Recordings has spent much of 2026 demonstrating that a jazz centennial does not have to mean another compilation with familiar artwork and a new sticker on the front.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is the curveball, and probably the release with the broadest audience. The best-selling jazz album of all time finally joining Original Jazz Classics feels almost overdue, but Craft has at least given collectors a reason to consider buying it again: original tapes, Matthew Lutthans, QRP and none of the visual gimmicks that have accompanied some of its other recent editions.

Three famous records being reissued again is not inherently news. Three carefully produced AAA editions at $39 each, including the first OJC release of one of the most culturally important jazz albums ever recorded, is a considerably better argument.

Pricing & Availability

All three Original Jazz Classics releases arrive October 9, 2026 and are available for preorder from Craft Recordings for $39 each, or get the complete bundle for $102.

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