When building anything worthwhile that you hope will stand the test of time it’s important to put in place strong foundations. The same principles apply when building a record collection. There are a number of key albums that, defying trends, fashion, and hype must provide the basis of any vinyl monument. Kind Of Blue, Miles Davis’ 1959 recording is one such album.
Recorded at Columbia studios in the heart of New York City over two midnight oil burning sessions where Davis only explained his intent hours before, this modal jazz masterpiece not only underlines the trumpeter as one of modern music’s greatest innovators and visionaries but is one of those albums that define careers. Surrounded by a crack band of jazz luminaries – longtime collaborator Paul Chambers on bass, the fiery alto of Cannonball Adderley, two young pianists in Wynton Kelly and the effervescent Bill Evans, Jimmy Cobb on drums and the returning John Coltrane, expelled from the band a few years earlier over his incessant drug misuse – Miles and these musicians lay down tracks, wonderfully produced by Teo Macero that not only stand the test of time but set the benchmark for jazz as a universally accepted art form.
No matter how many times you hear Chambers’ seven-note baseline as the needle hits side one and the incredible ‘So What’ begins it never fails to set the heart a flutter and the mind a whirring. It’s not so much an iconic moment in musical history as a sensory activation key to anyone looking for something outside the mainstream confines. It’s as if a light goes on in the soul and a new pathway opens up leading to new magical realms. Kind Of Blue, in that aspect, is the perfect stepping stone into a world of jazz that can fulfill all tastes and needs. Side two and the opening effortless gait of ‘All Blues’ is equally beguiling, a 12-bar opus that mooches and meanders around the senses, is simply magical. The other three tracks – Freddie Freeloader and the two Davis-Evans co-writes Flamenco Sketches and Blue In Green – are understated and magnificent and stand alone as compositional gems. All in all Kind Of Blue is an essential, extraordinary and a life-affirming treasure.
If you are looking for an album that effectively acts as both a exquisite joy to behold in the here and now but also a stepping stone to new, uncharted musical exploration then Kind Of Blue is that album. You will enhance your life for the better. It really is that special. •