Miles Davis - Kind of Blue CLASSIC ALBUM REVIEW
CLASSIC ALBUM #1: THE FIRST IN A NEW SERIES THAT I WILL OCCASIONALLY ADD TO. THESE ALBUMS ARE NOT RANKED OR SCORED BECAUSE THEY’RE, WELL, CLASSIC.
The other day, I watched Miles Ahead, a biopic on legendary jazz performer Miles Davis. That really didn’t influence my review, I’m just saying that Don Cheadle plays a great Davis and should be much more appreciated in the acting world outside of being Rhodey. As stated above, I’m starting a little classic album review series. It’s something that can get me writing about other albums I like and listen to outside of the new releases that I pretty much only cover outside of a few exceptions. I figured I should start off with something for the masses, something that people could say ‘Oh, yeah. That album IS a classic’ before I get into the more opinionated reviews. So, let’s get into Miles Davis’ 1959 masterpiece Kind of Blue.
I know, I know. It’s pretty cliche to put this album on a classic album list or a greatest albums of all time list, but hear me out on why I explain this. Imagine a jazz supergroup walking into a studio: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb. This happened in early 1959, and unless there was some witchcraft going on, I don’t think they knew the impact they’d have on jazz as a whole. This all-star team, led by Davis, ended up attaining this creative freedom that was cool and new. This was also a new era for Davis, who was using modal scales instead of the standard blues chord progressions when looking at improvisation and composition. At the time, this was very experimental and radical for the genre. Davis had composed these hours before the studio sessions, and because of that, it seems like the studio versions have this spontaneity that could make it feel like a live album.
I’d also like to point out another aspect of Miles Davis that I found to be very interesting. During an interview with Ben Sidran in 1986, Davis actually disregarded the impact that Kind of Blue and even Birth of the Cool had on jazz. Davis said that Kind of Blue was “done in that era, the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It's over… What I used to play with Bill Evans, all those different modes, and substitute chords, we had the energy then and we liked it. But I have no feel for it anymore, it's more like warmed-over turkey.” A few years later, in 1990, when Shirley Horn told Davis to think about playing the gentle ballads again, he denied and said that “it hurt my lip.”
Kind of Blue isn’t an album that’s gonna blow you away on first listen. Hell, when I listened to it for the first time, it bored me. As I listened to it more and learned more about its history, it became more and more apparent that I’m not exactly getting it. I understood it was a classic, but it didn’t click for me. Once it finally did, though, it all made sense.
Because of its impact on jazz, the banding of a jazz supergroup, and how good each song is on its own and as a whole, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is a CLASSIC.
Listen here
YouTube Music
Kind of Blue is a Columbia Records release.
The other day, I watched Miles Ahead, a biopic on legendary jazz performer Miles Davis. That really didn’t influence my review, I’m just saying that Don Cheadle plays a great Davis and should be much more appreciated in the acting world outside of being Rhodey. As stated above, I’m starting a little classic album review series. It’s something that can get me writing about other albums I like and listen to outside of the new releases that I pretty much only cover outside of a few exceptions. I figured I should start off with something for the masses, something that people could say ‘Oh, yeah. That album IS a classic’ before I get into the more opinionated reviews. So, let’s get into Miles Davis’ 1959 masterpiece Kind of Blue.
I know, I know. It’s pretty cliche to put this album on a classic album list or a greatest albums of all time list, but hear me out on why I explain this. Imagine a jazz supergroup walking into a studio: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb. This happened in early 1959, and unless there was some witchcraft going on, I don’t think they knew the impact they’d have on jazz as a whole. This all-star team, led by Davis, ended up attaining this creative freedom that was cool and new. This was also a new era for Davis, who was using modal scales instead of the standard blues chord progressions when looking at improvisation and composition. At the time, this was very experimental and radical for the genre. Davis had composed these hours before the studio sessions, and because of that, it seems like the studio versions have this spontaneity that could make it feel like a live album.
I’d also like to point out another aspect of Miles Davis that I found to be very interesting. During an interview with Ben Sidran in 1986, Davis actually disregarded the impact that Kind of Blue and even Birth of the Cool had on jazz. Davis said that Kind of Blue was “done in that era, the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It's over… What I used to play with Bill Evans, all those different modes, and substitute chords, we had the energy then and we liked it. But I have no feel for it anymore, it's more like warmed-over turkey.” A few years later, in 1990, when Shirley Horn told Davis to think about playing the gentle ballads again, he denied and said that “it hurt my lip.”
Kind of Blue isn’t an album that’s gonna blow you away on first listen. Hell, when I listened to it for the first time, it bored me. As I listened to it more and learned more about its history, it became more and more apparent that I’m not exactly getting it. I understood it was a classic, but it didn’t click for me. Once it finally did, though, it all made sense.
Because of its impact on jazz, the banding of a jazz supergroup, and how good each song is on its own and as a whole, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is a CLASSIC.
Listen here
YouTube Music
Kind of Blue is a Columbia Records release.
Comments
Post a Comment