Kind of Blue Tracks
1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue in Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. Flamenco Sketches [Alternate Take][*]
Kind of Blue 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
This album's legendary status has led people over the last twenty years to proclaim it the greatest jazz album of all time and to say things like "if you want to know what jazz is, listen to KIND OF BLUE." I have no quarrel with people who say things like that. However, if you are not a big jazz fan but want to listen to some great jazz, I do advise you to think twice any time you hear lots of people calling something "the greatest of all time." There are way too many jazz albums and different types of jazz for claims like that to be justified. No single album can define jazz, not even an album as great as KIND OF BLUE. I only say this because I was surprised at first that not all of my friends who I have lent jazz albums to say that KIND OF BLUE is one of their favorites. If this isn't your favorite, listen to other types of jazz. Miles Davis himself went through at least five different musical phases: bebop, cool jazz, orchestral jazz, modal jazz, and fusion. You might prefer one of his other styles. And that is just one jazz musician. There are many styles of jazz, and no single player could ever delve into more than a handful of them.
So KIND OF BLUE is probably the greatest modal jazz album ever. Modal jazz was a style developed by people who got tired of the super fast chord changes of bebop and started playing for several measures at a time on a single chord so the soloists could explore more possibilities on each chord. The result is a style of music that usually sounds very mellow due to the slow chord changes yet has extremely fast playing. The format is perfect for the two sax players: John Coltrane, who played as if he was in a frenzy to express all the musical ideas going through his head, and Cannonball Adderley, who was perhaps at his best while showing just how many ideas could work over the simplest of musical forms.