In the month he arrived in New York, a seminal event in the emerging style of hard bop took place with the recording of the Art Blakey Quintet at Birdland.

All three would be prominent figures in hard bop, Blakey and Silver with the original Messengers and Brown co-leading his quintet with Max Roach.

The March 15 session took place at Beltone Studios in New York, a quartet date with Horace Silver and Art Blakey of two Davis originals and one pop standard.

[6] The April 29 date with trombonist J.J. Johnson, saxophonist Lucky Thompson, and Silver comprised but two long jams, the first on the Dizzy Gillespie jazz standard "Blue 'n' Boogie," along with the studio version of Davis' hard bop anthem, "Walkin'."

The final date on Christmas Eve featured Davis backed up by the Modern Jazz Quartet with Thelonious Monk substituting for John Lewis.