It comprises recordings of seven performance sets over the two nights by the second great Davis quintet at the now-defunct Plugged Nickel nightclub in Chicago.

A single-disc sampler, Highlights from the Plugged Nickel (catalogue CK 67377) was released by Legacy on November 14, 1995, and was reissued on February 1, 2008.

The box set provides the complete recordings to the concerts originally released as At Plugged Nickel, Chicago, Vol.

[6] By late fall, the quintet was finally back together, playing gigs in Philadelphia, Detroit, New York, and Washington, D.C., then travelling to Chicago for a 2 week engagement (December 21 to January 2) at the Plugged Nickel.

"[14] Hancock wrote that when he finally mustered the courage to listen to the recordings, he was surprised: "There was so much going on, and it sounded so little like what I remembered, that I was shocked.

The box set has been awarded a rare crown by the Penguin Guide to Jazz, concluding that "these are genuinely historic recordings.

"[18] AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow awarded the album 5 stars, calling the music "continually fascinating" and "[o]ne of the top releases of 1995".

[15] Writing for All About Jazz, C. Michael Bailey stated: "All of the pieces performed at the Plugged Nickel were a look at the old stuff through radically different glasses".

"[19] Don Heckman, in a review for the Los Angeles Times, wrote "What makes this collection... arresting is the manner in which Davis and his sidemen reached into such expansive improvisational areas while performing a program that, with the exception of 'Agitation,' consisted of standards and material from earlier repertoire...

This two-night window on Davis, performing at the peak of his skills in partnership with one of his finest groups, provides both an invaluable historical document and a constantly mesmerizing listening experience.

"[20] In a column reviewing Davis' "20 best albums", John Fordham ranked the Plugged Nickel recordings #6, and called them "[m]aybe the best-ever representation of 'the second great quintet' at work.

Superbly recorded... the set finds Miles, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams reinventing small-band jazz with an all-but-psychic flexibility of timing and on-the-fly harmonising.

"[22] Keith Waters wrote that the tracks "show the group moving even further towards free jazz and abstraction in the context of standard tune improvisation.

By counterintuitive I mean: Shorter seems to use the unusual notes in a chord or voice-leading moment to connote other harmonic areas, keys and scales, and somehow always manages to resolve the dissonance tunefully but almost never in the way you expect.

It helps that his dialogue with the rest of the band is telepathic, with each interesting harmonic, melodic and rhythmic choice leading to an intelligent and emotive response.