Monday, August 17, 2009

50 Years Ago Today: Miles Davis releases "Kind of Blue"...



Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released August 17, 1959 on Columbia Records. The recording sessions for the album took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City on March 2 and April 22, 1959. The sessions featured Davis's ensemble sextet, which included pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Production was handled entirely by Teo Macero and Irving Townsend. After the inclusion of Bill Evans into his sextet, Davis followed up on the modal experimentations of Milestones and 1958 Miles by basing the album entirely on modality, in contrast to his earlier work with the hard bop style of jazz.

Though precise figures have been disputed, Kind of Blue has been cited by many music writers not only as Davis's best-selling album, but as the best-selling jazz record of all time. On October 7, 2008, it was certified quadruple platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America. It has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz album of all time and Davis's masterpiece, and it has been ranked at or near the top of several "best album" lists in disparate genres. The album's influence on music, including jazz, rock and classical music, has led music writers to acknowledge it as one of the most influential albums of all time. In 2002, it was one of fifty recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In 2003, the album was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Suggested listening:

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