Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue – Vinyl
Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter-composer Miles Davis. It was recorded on 2 March and 22 April 1959, at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on 17 August of that year by Columbia Records. For the recording, Davis led a sextet featuring saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track – Freddie Freeloader – in place of Evans.
In part owing to Evans’ joining the ensemble in 1958, Davis departed further from his early hard bop style in favour of greater experimentation with musical modes, as he had on his previous album Milestones (1958). In basing Kind of Blue entirely on modality, he gave each performer a set of scales that encompassed the parameters of their improvisation and style, and consequently more creative freedom with melodies. Coltrane later expanded on this modal approach in his solo career.
Kind of Blue is regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis’s masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. The album was one of fifty recordings chosen in 2002 by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, and in 2003 it was ranked No. 12 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the ‘500 greatest Albums of All Time’. In 2019, Kind of Blue was certified 5× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of over five million copies, making it one of the most commercially successful jazz albums in history.
Track Listing
Side One
- So What
- Freddie Freeloader
- Blue in Green
Side Two
- Flamenco Sketches
- All Blues
Format: Vinyl / 12” Album