Product Description

With BIRTH OF THE COOL, Miles Davis distilled a new tonal palette for jazz. As early as 1954, Miles reacted to the escalating chordal complexity of hard bop by fashioning an evocative blues based on a simple scalar pattern ("Swing Spring"). KIND OF BLUE was the ultimate fulfilment of this approach,with Miles providing his collaborators little more than outlines for melodies and simple scales for improvisation. By emphasising the blues and the improvisor's melodic gifts, KIND OF BLUE precipitated a major stylistic development--modal jazz.
Charles Mingus had experimented with pedal points throughout the 1950s, and the melodic freedom of Ornette Coleman's Atlantic sides was also predicated on freedom from chord changes. But KIND OF BLUE was to prove the most influential, enduring work of its kind. There was just such a vibe about these 1959 sessions--Miles' lyric genius and burgeoning stardom, the innovative voicings and rarefied touch of pianist Bill Evans, the electrifying presence of Coltrane and Cannonball--that some thirty-plus years after its initial release, KIND OF BLUE is still recognised as Davis' point of departure towards jazz's less-explored regions.
Bill Evans' translucent chords and Paul Chambers' famous bass line heraldthe revolution that is "So What": Davis and Evans' taut, coiled lyricism stands in sharp relief to the saxophonists' labyrinthine elation. The fat, shimmering beat of the classic Evans/Chambers/Cobb rhythm team is an oasis of calm throughout the childish blues "Freddie Freeloader". Often credited to Davis, "Blue In Green" is an Evans masterpiece, in which the rhythmic oasis becomes a smoky mirage for Davis' minor reveries on muted horn. The waltzing "All Blues" is one of thesmoothest, most swinging grooves in the history of jazz, while "Flamenco Sketches" reflects Miles fascination with the earthy melodies and brooding metaphors of the Iberian peninsula...a harbinger of his next masterpiece, SKETCHES OF SPAIN. KIND OF BLUE remains Miles Davis' most evocative piece of musical haiku.

Track Listing

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #500 in Music
• Released on: 1997-04-07
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is the one jazz record owned by people who don't listen to jazz, and with good reason. The band itself is extraordinary (proof of Miles Davis's masterful casting skills, if not of God's existence), listing John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans (or, on "Freddie Freeloader", Wynton Kelly) on piano, and the crack rhythm unit of Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Coltrane's astringency on tenor is counterpoised to Adderley's funky self on alto, with Davis moderating between them as Bill Evans conjures up a still lake of sound on which they walk. Meanwhile, the rhythm partnership of Cobb and Chambers is prepared to click off time until eternity. It was the key recording of what became modal jazz, a music free of the fixed harmonies and forms of pop songs. In Davis's men's hands it was a weightless music, but one that refused to fade into the background. In retrospect every note seems perfect, and each piece moves inexorably towards its destiny. --John Szwed

Customer Reviews

this is a superb jazz album classic!!
im open to all music mainly eccept rap hip hop dance not my kind of thing each to there own!! but this is a classic jazz album its fab im not a massive jazz lover but love some jazz charles mingus,countbasie,frank sinatra,nat king cole,ray charles,duke ellington i like jazz thats simple not too all over the place eg john coultrane a love supreme its good in parts but goes off in places its awfull in parts i like this album more simple buy it!! classic!!

music lover
jazz lover? non jazz lover? rock fan? indie?? metal??
whatever ... labels i laugh at them.
i love music and no music ive ever heard conveys melancholy quite like 'blue in green'...heartbreaking beautiful brilliant

Speechless
As a non-aficionado of jazz, I bought this album with mixed feelings. Excitement at the prospect of listening to a true masterpiece, mixed with a certain amount of scepticism...surely it can't be THAT good...can it?

I must admit, I look for a bit more out of my music. Being transported to another plane, however, is something I rarely experience. But then Kind of Blue is not an ordinary album. The skill and inherent ability of the players shines through, but it's so much more than the sum of its parts. It's one of those rare things, in that it's a album you could listen to all day and yet never grow bored.

You can't describe Kind of Blue...you just know you've never really heard anything like it before. You're not likely to forget this album in a hurry either. It is fabulous. Buy it immediately, settle down in a chair, open a bottle of something, and let yourself be transported by the visions of a group of masters at work.