TITLE:
Kind of Blue
ARTIST:
Miles Davis
PERSONNEL: Miles Davis(t), Julian Adderley(as), John Coltrane(ts), Wyn Kelly(p, Freddie Freeloader), Bill Evans(p), Paul Chambers(b), James Cobb(d).

TRACK LISTING:
1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue In Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. Flamenco Sketches (Alternate Take)

Original Release Date: 1959

Kind of Blue is a jazz album that has transcended the genre of jazz and become one of a handful of recordings whose very existence changes everything. That Miles Davis acheived this more than once in his career serves as evidence to even the most casual observer of jazz that he was one of its mystics, its visionaries. As pointed out by Ashley Kahn in the excellent book Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, "Copies of the album are passed to friends and given to lovers. The album has sold millions of copies around the world, making it the best-selling recording in Miles Davis's catalog and the best-selling classic jazz album ever. Significantly, a large number of those copies were purchased in the past five years, and undoubtedly not just by old-timers replacing worn vinyl: Kind of Blue is even casting its spell on a younger audience more accustomed to the loud-and-fast esthetic of rock and rap." The album is perenially hip, listened to by cool, brooding Clint Eastwood characters in both Play Misty for Me and Line of Fire. It also casts a kind of Zen calmness, perhaps due in part to its one-take mythology and the enigmatic liner notes written by pianist Bill Evans.

The album doesn't so much announce itself as kind of waft in on a cloud of Evans' piano and Paul Chambers' bass until Chambers locks onto the melody of So What, punctuated first by piano, then by the entire ensemble.

The piece is simply a modal setting offering 16 bars on one scale, 8 on a second, and returning to the first scale for the final 8. Davis solos first, sounding relaxed and setting a tone for the album with a solo that paints broad brushstrokes that nonetheless form a finished painting. Coltrane follows up with a solo that demonstrates he's not far from the breatkthrough of Giant Steps--he sounds completely at home running modal scales and heating up the solo with rhythmic variations. Adderley, fresh from his triumph (with Davis) on his Somethin' Else recording, manages to sound bluesy and funky even within the more abstract framework afforded by the changes here. Evans finishes off with a nice block-chord solo punctuated by horns.

Freddie Freeloader is a fairly straight-forward blues and allows the soloists to stretch out in a familiar form, each showing their individuality and mastery of their instrument. Evans is particularly good here, as is Coltrane. Blue In Green brings us into ballad territory, with the familiar muted Davis trumpet sound presenting the gorgeous theme.

Paul Chambers' bass accompianment is especially beautiful and shows why the bass is so integral to this type of mood piece. All Blues is described by Evans as "a series of five scales, each to be played as long as the soloist wishes until he has completed the series."

If my descriptions of the solos and structure of the pieces sounds perfunctory and gives little of the flavor of the album, well that's because really, the proof is in the hearing. Listening to this album will immerse you at once in a world that is dark, brooding, sophisticated, very cool, sexy, and langorous. Bottom line is: if you don't have this record in your collection, you don't have a collection. It's the Sargent Pepper of jazz, really, good for relaxing, drinking, meditating, making love, and just plain listening. So get it--and dig it. Oh, and buy someone you love a copy.