60 years of Kind of Blue

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I'm more on San Antone's side here. I think Kind of Blue is the greatest record ever made, period, but you are all of course entitled to your (incorrect and blasphemous) opinions.

When I first heard the alternate take of "Flamenco Sketches" many years ago, I was astounded: it was just as good as the "official" take, the two saxophonists' solos in particular. I love the way Coltrane creates tension by rising repeatedly up to one particular note before finally resolving it with one single note above the repeated one. (Sorry, I don't have the knowledge to describe it in more technical/musical terms.) Sometimes I even prefer this alternate take to the "official" one.

I know many of you will have seen this before, but here's the band (sans Adderley, with Wynton Kelly on piano) on a TV production in 1959. Among other things it's notable for being one of the very few performances of "So What" (in fact I can't think of another one) in something close to the original album tempo - it wasn't long at all before Miles began performing it at a much faster tempo, for what reason I don't know. Anyway, the magic was clearly still present here: just listen to Miles' solo, for example.The first time I heard it, I almost wept.

https://www.youtube.com/v/nGvfBNywa3g

I won't repeat my opinion. We don't need to agree on everything (or anything.) Great you like it, and great I like others. Even if we agree, we may not be really agreeing. As I said before, the TV version of So What is excellent. Miles' solo evinces his genius. I prefer the performance to So What in the album. Thank you for your insightful and thoughtful comment.

As for "greatest jazz record," possibly/arguably I may say Charlie Parker's Koko or Basie' s Atomic Basie, but I am not sure.

[SimonNZ]

Something I hadn't been aware of until recently was that if you were buying Miles albums at the time of release the Prestige era wasn't distinct from the Columbia era the way it is to us now. I had somehow assumed that Prestige had more or less flooded the market with the four albums recorded at the Workin/Steamin"Cookin/Relaxing sessions, but in the early 60s you would have experienced Cookin as a new release after Round About Midnight, Relaxin (and Bags Groove) after Miles Ahead, Workin after Milestones, Porgy and Bess and Kind of Blue (!!), and Steamin after Sketches of Spain

[Artem]

I used to find it confusing as well until I began paying attention to recording dates as opposed to release dates.

[Mirror Image]

I think Kind of Blue is put up on a pedestal to the point where, for many listeners or so it seems, it has somehow clouded their judgement of his other output. Don't get me wrong I love Kind of Blue, but I don't listen to it as much as say Miles Smiles or Sorcerer or any of the Miles-Gil Evans collaborations. Of the electric period, In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew are my favorites or, at least, the ones I return to the most.

[Artem]

Kind of Blue was the first jazz CD I bought and it led me to discover Miles Davis music. Being a more regular listener of rock music at the time, I immediately fell in love with In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, On the Corner. However, the more I listened to jazz music, especially John Coltrane, the more I felt like returning to Kind of Blue.

[Mirror Image]

Kind of Blue was the first jazz CD I bought and it led me to discover Miles Davis music. Being a more regular listener of rock music at the time, I immediately fell in love with In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, On the Corner. However, the more I listened to jazz music, especially John Coltrane, the more I felt like returning to Kind of Blue.

There's no question that Kind of Blue is a stellar album, but I tend to like the slower, more moody pieces on it like Blue in Green and Flamenco Sketches for example. So What and Freddie Freeloader are my favorites of the more uptempo pieces.

[André]

If a Venn diagram was drawn between Blues and Jazz, how big would be the overlap ?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

If a Venn diagram was drawn between Blues and Jazz, how big would be the overlap ?

Fundamentally different music. Jazz incorporates many formats including blues, bossa, popular, asian, classical, etc.

[André]

One of my favourite jazz singers:



I love comparing versions of classics such as My Funny Valentine: Sarah Vaughan, Eileen Farrell, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald... so many variations of voice and mood.

[André]

Fundamentally different music. Jazz incorporates many formats including blues, bossa, popular, asian, classical, etc.

Jazz is so varied, there are dozens of sub-genres. Is blues just a sad, slowish type of jazz?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I like this song (and this version).

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Jazz is so varied, there are dozens of sub-genres. Is blues just a sad, slowish type of jazz?

Blues is beyond singularity. Blues is ambivalent. It is simultaneously sad AND happy, beautiful AND ugly, and sacred AND profane.

As for format, three chords I, IV, and V are in twelve bars. It could be fast or slow.  Elvis' Hound Dog is based on blues form.

Blues is my very favorite music.

[JBS]

Jazz is so varied, there are dozens of sub-genres. Is blues just a sad, slowish type of jazz?

In addition to what DBK said, blues often uses distinctive scales, in which certain notes are microtonally flattened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_scale

[André]

I'm afraid musical technicalities are beyond my reach, but I do know that I love women singing the blues. For some reason it zeroes in on a soft spot within. Many of them also sang jazz, hence my questioning about the overlap between genres.

[San Antone]

I'm afraid musical technicalities are beyond my reach, but I do know that I love women singing the blues. For some reason it zeroes in on a soft spot within. Many of them also sang jazz, hence my questioning about the overlap between genres.

Jazz is an outgrowth of the blues.  Many jazz improvisations are based on the 12-bar blues form, with harmonic substitutions but rooted in the folk blues tradition of 3 four bar phrases:

I (4 bars)
IV (2 bars) / I (2 bars)
V (2 bars) / I (2 bars)

There are many variations of this simple chord progression.  Further, there are 8-bar and 16-bar blues forms.

Also for a majority of the history of jazz, no matter what song form a jazz musician bases his improvisation on, a majority of the time he will incorporate scales and harmonic movement that includes blues elements, e.g. flatted thirds and sevenths.

Finally, IMO, no blues; no jazz.

Here's a good article on the influence of blues on jazz.

[KevinP]

I accept the argument that this has a valid claim as the greatest jazz recording, and if someone claims that it's the best complete, long-form musical statement ever, I wouldn't roll my eyes at them. I do, however, feel it's been bastaridised by Starbucks and coffeeshops and restaurants, to the point where I don't need to ever put it on myself anymore.

I have a slightly odd history with the disc. In those pre-internet days, we didn't have anyone telling us that this was the pinnacle of all jazz, amd I had already amassed several Miles Davis albums without having so much as even hearing of this one. Then one day, in the car with my parents, Freddie Freeloader came on, and I thought, 'Surely, this is Miles Davis.' and a few minutes later, 'Definitely Coltrane' and then 'Cannonball!' Finally, the DJ announced the song title, and I went out and bought the album that contained it (about $4.99 for the cassette tape at K-Mart). I spent the next summer--I was in high school--transcribing every solo.

Whenever someone is new to jazz, they're always recommended to start with this one. I will sometimes tell them not to. If you start at the top, you can only go down from there. I'm glad I worked up to it.

[AnotherSpin]

The first time I heard Kind of Blue was in the mid-70s on an audio cassette recording. Getting the original LP at that time was impossible, so I simply copied the recording from one cassette to another and was happy. Some years later, in the early 90s, friends brought a CD from abroad. For me, this album by Davis has always stood apart; there's some mysterious quality to it. Of course, I've seen it many times on top lists, but for me, rankings are meaningless. Anyway, outstanding achievement, second to none.

[Mookalafalas]

The first time I heard Kind of Blue was in the mid-70s on an audio cassette recording. Getting the original LP at that time was impossible, so I simply copied the recording from one cassette to another and was happy. Some years later, in the early 90s, friends brought a CD from abroad. For me, this album by Davis has always stood apart; there's some mysterious quality to it. Of course, I've seen it many times on top lists, but for me, rankings are meaningless. Anyway, outstanding achievement, second to none.

  Not too different from my experience. I checked a really scratched up copy out of the library around 1983. I made my own cassette, and played it happily for years. (Bill Evans' "Everybody Digs Bill Evans" on the flip side). I used to have a cassette player that could auto-reverse and play both sides of a tape. I often put that tape on and let it play all night...

[AnotherSpin]

Not too different from my experience. I checked a really scratched up copy out of the library around 1983. I made my own cassette, and played it happily for years. (Bill Evans' "Everybody Digs Bill Evans" on the flip side). I used to have a cassette player that could auto-reverse and play both sides of a tape. I often put that tape on and let it play all night...

Best night dreaming ever...