| Modal Jazz | Cool Jazz |Throughout a professional career lasting 50 years, Miles Davis played the trumpet in a lyrical, introspective, and melodic style, often employing a stemless Harmon mute to make his sound more personal and intimate. But if his approach to his instrument was constant, his approach to jazz was dazzlingly protean. To examine his career is to examine the history of jazz from the mid-'40s to the early '90s, since he was in the thick of almost every important innovation and stylistic development in the music during that period, and he often led the way in those changes, both with his own performances and recordings and by choosing sidemen and collaborators who forged new directions. It can even be argued that jazz stopped evolving when Davis wasn't there to push it forward.
Kind of Blue isn't merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, it's an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as the definitive jazz album, a universally acknowledged standard of excellence. Why does Kind of Blue posses such a mystique? Perhaps because this music never flaunts its genius. It lures listeners in with the slow, luxurious bassline and gentle piano chords of "So What." From that moment on, the record never really changes pace — each tune has a similar relaxed feel, as the music flows easily. Yet Kind of Blue is more than easy listening. It's the pinnacle of modal jazz — tonality and solos build from the overall key, not chord changes, giving the music a subtly shifting quality. All of this doesn't quite explain why seasoned jazz fans return to this record even after they've memorized every nuance. They return because this is an exceptional band — Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb — one of the greatest in history, playing at the peak of its power. As Evans said in the original liner notes for the record, the band did not play through any of these pieces prior to recording. Davis laid out the themes before the tape rolled, and then the band improvised. The end results were wondrous and still crackle with vitality. Kind of Blue works on many different levels. It can be played as background music, yet it amply rewards close listening. It is advanced music that is extraordinarily enjoyable. It may be a stretch to say that if you don't like Kind of Blue, you don't like jazz — but it's hard to imagine it as anything other than a cornerstone of any jazz collection.
Catalog: B00314UNQI (Techniche Label OMP)
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I need to comment. I really need to comment just to say that your review makes me cry. Cry'd a river. And it's not because this is the fav and highly rated album of my life. It's because you reached the gem of the masterpiece of the masterpieces, talk about Kind of Blues isn't just talk about a amazing album, it's feel every smooth finger-touch which in a minimalistic and full-feeling construct the history of jazz, who is nothing else than the history of the music, the history of the black people life suffering, the life suffering story of all of those music magicians who are so similar with us, on heart, on soul. Read that everyone who knows every single note of this album, aways will back to it (to him) has a good soon back to his parents house, and search for self comprehension well as world comprehension. It's so singular and unique, that this album to me, means something like my heartbeats, tuned on the same note. Hugs, and thanks, for this amazing knowledge about what we are, and what so what is.
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