Miles Davis's Kind of Blue
January 2009 | Blues
Few records manage to make as substantial an impact on the music world as Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue. A landmark record that heralded the birth of modern jazz, it's one of those rare things: a record that's influence truly transcends its own genre and touches upon every other sphere of music.
From rock, to dance, R&B and hip-hop, there aren't many respected musicians who won't admit to "Kind Of Blue" having a long lasting impact on their music. Rapper Q-Tip likens the album to The Bible, stating that "Every home should have one". The infamous rock critic Lester Bangs said of Davis that he "has always had something so emotionally compelling in his playing that he changed our lives". Ashley Khan, author of "Kind Of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece", has commented that, even decades after its release, "'Kind of Blue' is the premier album of its era, jazz or otherwise."
Behind the music -behind its mystique- lay five great musicians, led by Miles Davis. From the gentle piano-led subtleties of So What and the bowed-bass of Blue In Green on side one, to the wandering sax solo of All Blues on side two, Davis was creating more than music; he was creating a work of art, a painting of a musical landscape far beyond its time.
In the studio, arranger, composer and musician Davis was joined by a stellar cast indeed: John Coltrane on tenor sax, Bill Evans (who re-joined Davis especially for the recordings) on piano, Jimmy Cobb on drums, Canonball Adderley on alto-sax with Paul Chambers providing the gentle walking bass tones. The sextet he assembled is widely viewed as being the most accomplished group of musicians ever - in turn, the stability they provided Davis enabled him to reach new heights.
But "Kind Of Blue" was no over-rehearsed set of cobbled together pieces - much if its appeal lies in the apparent simplicity of its grooves (which, on closer inspection, turn out to be more complex), and their freedom to wander wherever they feel like, in accordance with Davis's philosophy on music - one of his maxims being "Don't play what's there, play what's not there.". Putting the record into some kind of context, it was a progression from the experimentations of Milestones, and marked his adoption of the avant-garde modal style of jazz which would later inform his 1960s recordings.
Indeed, Evans' commented at the time that many of the performances were spontaneous, improvised - and that Davis typically only conceived many of the arrangements hours before recording sessions began. "You will hear something close to pure spontaneity in these performances," he stated in the original liner notes for the album, "The group had never played these pieces prior to the recordings and I think without exception, the first complete performance of each was a 'take'".
The recently released Legacy Edition contains some choice alternate takes and live cuts - the studio chatter on outtakes of "Freddie Freeloader" and "So What" being of particular interest... Whether you're a newcomer to jazz or a long time admirer "Kind Of Blue" won't disappoint - it is a record worthy of every superlative you can conjure.
Dig in, baby.
