Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is widely proclaimed to be the best jazz album of all time. To me, such a declaration seems to downplay so many other jazz records that are phenomenal and hugely influential in their own ways. If I were able to take only one Miles album – much less any jazz album – to that mythical desert island, I’d probably even go with this one instead.
Maybe it’s more pertinent to ask: Which jazz album should be the cornerstone of any jazz record collection?
Such a jazz album should have a cool, confident swagger: “So What”
Such a jazz album should swing: “Freddie Freeloader”
Such a jazz album should have a whimsical, emotional quality to it: “Blue In Green”
Such a jazz album should maintain a reverence for the blues: “All Blues”
Such a jazz album should incorporate exotic flavors: “Flamenco Sketches”
And most of all, a cornerstone jazz album should be performed by musicians who have the wherewithal, creativity and commitment to render all of the above: Miles Davis (trumpet), Cannonball Adderley (alto sax), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Bill Evans (piano) and Wynton Kelly (piano) – every one of these legends at or near their towering peaks.
However, Kind of Blue incorporates all these attributes because of its reverence to great jazz of the past: the pioneering, improvising nature of Armstrong; the elegance and sophistication of Duke Ellington; the modernist harmonics of Charlie Parker; and the reserved cool of Miles Davis’ own music that he introduced a decade earlier.
By using these building blocks, a new form of jazz was forged – one where the songs and solos are built around an overarching key, not the chord changes. That form became known as modal jazz, which would dominate much of the jazz in the ’60s and remains a major part of the overall genre today.
On January 19, 2009, Sony’s Columbia/Legacy imprint offered fresh insights into these historic sessions, releasing a two-disc edition in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Kind of Blue sessions.
[SOMETHING ELSE! INTERVIEW: Jazz legend Jimmy Cobb recalls his spur-of-the-moment decision to join the Miles Davis band, and signature moments with Wes Montgomery and Dinah Washington.]
Of course, Columbia – and later Sony – had already reissued this classic many times and in many forms. In fact, just the September before, Sony introduced a super-deluxe 12-inch box set containing the originally released five tracks, various brief “studio sequence” tracks, and the only alternate take from the sessions, that of “Flamenco Sketches.” Furthermore, that box set came with a second disc, which contained Miles Davis’ only other five studio recordings with his Evans-Coltrane-Adderley-Chambers-Cobb sextet. This same configuration would go on and wow concert-goers at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival just three months later. The final track is a live version of “So What” taped live in 1960 without Evans and Adderley, but with the addition of Kelly.
That box set also came with a 60-page bound book that’s filled with exclusive photos, complete discographical annotation and essays reflecting on the recordings by a couple of noted authorities on Miles. All contained in a 12-inch slipcase box. If that seemed like a bit much, the Legacy Edition struck the perfect compromise. You didn’t get the 12-inch box or the fancy book, but there remained both discs with the same tracks and an attractive booklet filled with rare pictures and well-written liner notes. All for the coin of what many regular-release CDs go for.
The most significant of all these enhancements is that second disc, though. While those five additional studio tracks and the one live cut have been issued before, to get them in their logical chronology and juxtaposed with the original Kind of Blue tracks, you previously had to spring for expensive box sets like that aforementioned $70 set. These bonus tracks give the original album more context by providing a window into where this band stood in its rapid development leading up to and immediately following the watershed recordings.
The five 1958 studio recordings were performed just a couple of months after the sessions that produced the fine transitional Milestones, but the replacement of Red Garland and Philly Joe Jones with Billy Evans and Jimmy Cobb, respectively, had already moved the band down the path that would lead to Kind of Blue. Even as the adherence to improvising within the melody remained the order of the day, the hot, urgent playing found on much of Milestones cooled down considerably.
“On Green Dolphin Street” sets an understated, lean mood that would soon predominate Miles Davis’ music until the mid-1960s. The other three songs, including two takes of “Fran-Dance,” would also represent softer tones that were not yet quite down to the extremely mellow mood of King of Blue, but the band was on their way there.
By contrast, the April 1960 live recording of “So What” was rendered with a quickened tempo. By the following year, John Coltrane as a leader would heat up this tune to the point that it became a new song: Re-christened as “Impressions,” it became a launching pad for some of his most fiery solos.
There’s so much that can be said of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue that a mere review can’t begin to describe its significance. I will usually delve into individual performances, but in this case, that’s a whole ‘nother discussion. Besides, while it may be an empty cliché to say about other records, here it really is best just to listen for yourself. One can write a book or essay on this one record and in fact, many have. In fact, the Legacy Edition itself contains a 2,500-word essay adorned with additional photos, all contained on a pdf file within Disc 1.
That’s all fine and good, but ultimately – as Miles Davis himself would surely concur – such talk is cheap. The music is where everything that needs to be said is said. Kind of Blue speaks a whole encyclopedia set of what jazz is truly about.
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I’ve gotten a lot of people started in jazz by giving them “Kind of Blue” and telling them that they should start their further research by accumulating sides from each of the musicians featured on it, then taking off from there.
You can’t really go wrong, although it probably makes sense to proceed carefully with Traine, at least at first. Cannonball’s funk stuff is accessable, even though I prefer “Something Else”; Bill Evans’ work is always pleasing, and always rewards deeper listening, Wynton Kelly is frequently overlooked but terrific, Paul Chambers is a rock.
Would it be my desert island Miles? Maybe not. Maybe I’d go with “Miles Ahead”. “Bitches Brew” or “Jack Johnson”? Maybe something from the Wayne Shorter years? Tough call.
I agree that the Legacy Edition is the perfect compromise for those of us who already own several (!) copies of Kind of Blue but want to hear the new stuff without the altar-like purchase of the super-duper deluxe limited box edition. I can’t wait to hear it.
Bill, Kind of Blue is a great place for people to start with jazz, isn’t it? For most people who don’t listen to jazz regularly, they have a notion of what it is. Kind of Blue stays within that paradigm on first listen but subtly shapes that impression.
And that’s exactly on pointe as well — going through the sidemen. I’m glad to hear jazz proliferation strategies are alive and well, and this is a great album for it!
As for albums I revere higher than even this one, I’d have Money Jungle and Ellington/Coltrane immediately on top. As far as Miles goes, I am a huge fan of Ascenseur Pour L’echafaud and the Plugged Nickel sessions.
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