How Important Really Is Miles Davis’s "Kind Of Blue"? 

Rick Beato’s interview with Ted brought me here, I am glad it did.

As someone born in 1946, I can confirm that by 1962 we all knew not only that Kind of Blue was important, but that it already deserved to be considered the greatest of its time. We may not yet have been aware that that moment in time might be seen as the greatest moment in jazz history, but we knew what was important then. I bought the album in early 1961 knowing nothing about Miles or jazz. I was 14. I began building a record collection and playing piano. Some of my best friends were musicians. Some had careers and became famous. We all knew Kind of Blue was seminal and incomparable. We also knew why, though one of my friends at the time said that the key was not the hall of fame players on the LP (Miles, Trane, Cannonball and Evans) but Jimmy Cobb. Those dudes for us were in the same class as Muhammad Ali was on the verge of becoming in boxing. And just for perspective, we also knew about Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson. By the way, I didn't need hi-fi to appreciate the greats of jazz. None of us at the time needed hi-fi to recognize great music. The painter parallel is true. Monk was one of our heroes. He was incomparable but no virtuoso. And none of today's great modern virtuosos can equal Monk. I seriously regret that we put too much value on virtuosity today. By the way, we had the opportunity to see all these icons of jazz in person (well, not Bird or Clifford Brown), so we knew a lot about how contrasted they were and how they managed to merge traditions (think of Mingus). In that sense, Kind of Blue was not so exceptional. But it is still the greatest jazz album of all time!

I’ll tell you why-to me-Kind Of Blue is the most important jazz album of the last part of the 20th century. It’s because of Bill Evans. He set the ambiance for the entire record, but, in MY case, he made me a pianist! I was a professional vibes player until I heard Blue In Green and Flamenco Sketches. My whole musical identity changed with just those two pieces! I had three personal meetings with Bill over the course of three years. The most meaningful was my second one. Bill was in L.A. for his second appearance at Shelley’s Manne Hole. On a Friday night I was there to hear the trio with Chuck Israels and Larry Bunker. I went back stage to talk to Bill. He then invited me to visit him Saturday morning at his motel just north of the Capitol Records Building (it’s still there!). I knocked on the door that morning and Chuck came to the door and said, “Who the hell are YOU!?” I said I’m here to see Bill. Chuckie proceeded to slam the door on me! Then this presence loomed over Chuck’s left shoulder... It was 6’3” Bill Evans! He said, “I invited him; let him in”. Thus began a 3 hour meeting that I consider the most meaningful time in my musical career! This essay is too long already to go into detail about that meeting, but the last question I asked as I was leaving was, “Bill, did you write BOTH Blue and Green AND Flamenco Sketches.” His one-word reply was, “Yes”.

Blue in Green is my favorite cut on the album. Both supremely melancholy and truly beautiful. I wanted played at my funeral, hopefully not anytime soon.

This misses the reason I and I think a lot of other musicians recommend KOB to non-jazz people: It’s accessible! The modal harmony and moderate tempos are very familiar to modern ears and this record leaves people new to the music with less unfamiliar harmonic and sonic content to digest.

"Somethin' Else" by a similar band, went out under Adderley's name, that one is really good too.

The reason that Kind Of Blue occupies its position and continues to resonate throughout the years is primarily its sense of timeless transcendence. This immediately set it apart from earlier jazz, and, one can argue, it accomplished it in such a profound way that it has yet to be equaled. Miles and Bill Evans really were able to set the tone that allowed these great musicians, with their varied sensibilities, to get on this frequency that communicates a connection with something eternal. It's hypnotic and transporting and all of the musician's strong personalities became a part of this collective expression without losing their individual identities. In essence that balance is what great jazz is about - and one could also say its what life, at its peak, also aspires to. Kind of Blue is not just a peak for jazz but for all of improvised music. It's magic.

If you love Kind of Blue, I very highly recommend: “1958 Miles” by Miles Davis (1958). The only other record with that very same band, from the year before, and sounds just as great. “Chet” by Chet Baker (1959). Reminiscent of Kind of Blue, recorded in the same year, and also featuring Paul Chambers and Bill Evans. Super underestimated album. “The Blues and the Abstract Truth” by Oliver Nelson (1961). Also reminiscent of Kind of Blue, and features Paul Chambers and Bill Evans who played in Kind of Blue. Masterpiece, another strong contestant for best jazz album of all time. Features Eric Dolphy, who is a universe of his own, a true genius of music just as great as Miles and Trane.

I accidentally heard Kind Of Blue in 1973 and it was clearly like nothing else I had ever heard before. So I find out what it was immediately, listened to it and was instantly convinced it was the greets collection of of music ever made. I have listened to it a million times since. I know it off by heart all the way through and never get bored with it. Every note is perfect. It is the best album by all the participants.

Each musician who contributed to Kind of Blue had his own proclivities or inclinations, and Miles gave them the freedom to express themselves and even seemed to let others lead at times. I am continuously impressed by how each man seems to have reigned in his own inclinations to harmonize with a joint vision for each track. The result was a collaboration of genius in which each musician was on the same page in spite of their freedom to be themselves. I agree that the improved, audio fidelity contributes to the degree of acclaim given to Kind of Blue. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has produced a hybrid SACD of Kind of Blue that makes one feel amazed that the recording was done in 1959.

My dad gave me 'Kind of Blue' and 'A love Supreme" as my first 2 CDs along with a CD player for my 16th birthday. Those 2 albums started on a journey of Jazz discovery that I am still on 30 years later.

You touched on style - "you don't have to put everything in." To me this is one of the big keys of Kind of Blue. Listen to Milestones, recorded the year before. The difference between that and KOB is astonishing. KOB just sounds like nothing that came before it. All the songs are laid-back, bluesy. It just has a feel and a mood that didn't exist in jazz prior to its recording.

Good talk! Good point about simplicity & viruosity - and the comparison of Miles to Picasso. Miles had been paring down his playing style, away from virtuosity for its own sake, for some time before Kind of Blue. The most significant aspect of Miles' genius to me is the way he played off and with the talents of his musicians in an improvisatory workshop to create music that would surprise & inspire everyone in the band. He was always challenging them with musical koans and pushing them to places they didn't think they were ready to go. And he allowed himself to be influenced by people without ever losing his own very strong sense of direction. Bill Evans was highly influential in this recording but so were all the others. Having Adderly AND Coltrane AND Paul Chambers was a very special chemistry. The record is truly a group creation. Another important thing about this album (that macho/intellectual jazz people seem to be afraid to mention) is that the music is very beautiful & (God forbid!) easy to listen to, so it reached a lot people who would never have listened to a Charlie Parker recording. Many a baby was conceived with Kind of Blue playing in the background. This does not make it un-hip or unsophisticated. It rewards careful listening. The phrase "the greatest album of all time" is just silly. There's no "mark" that you "hit" that makes music measurably great. The fact that Brubeck sold better than Miles is irrelevant to the quality of the music. Columbia promoted Brubeck better mainly because he had a gimmick and was white. (Also, Paul Desmond offered a very creamy tone.) Notably, they eventually dropped Miles from the label, a sign of what mercenary lizards ran the company.

Kind Of Blue is, in my opinion, definitely a deserved classic. I have the remastered version on CD and it's an absolute joy on good headphones.

Wasn't even into jazz when I heard it ,but I instantly knew it was a masterpiece .

Me and my friends discovered Kind of Blue back in the 1980's at a friend of a friend's house. For all of us it subsequently took it's place as the universal answer to the question "WTF can we put on after that?". You know, after listening to Aja or Exile or Europe '72 or Electric Ladyland or Selling England by the Pound or something. The reason Kind of Blue is so popular is simply 'cos it kicks a colossal weight of arse. No matter what album you were listening to previously, and I don't care if it's jazz record or a rock record or even classical one, Kind of Blue will top it and have you spellbound. Of course this means that Kind of Blue is more or less impossible to follow with anything else so we always reserved it for the end of the evening.

I started playing trumpet in 1984 at the age of 10, and that Christmas my parents gave me the albums "Kind of Blue" and "Sketches of Spain" at the recommendation of my trumpet teacher. When I want to listen to Jazz, I still go back to those two albums at least half of the time.

Hello Ted - what a fantastic articulation of this cultural artifact. Your point regarding the collaboration but with musicians with 'a degree of divergence' really nailed it. Thanks for this take, really enjoyed it and learned some things too.

Finally someone who knows this stuff for real. Facts spoken!

All I can possibly add to this conversation is that we’re seriously having this discussion, without big argument, speaks tomes about KOB’s importance. But to be sure, Ted’s point about the improvements in recording quality truly has a prominent role in the regarded importance of KOB. I have recommended this album to many as a primer on how to appreciate Jazz. It works flawlessly nearly every time. Very powerful to me. I’d add John Coltrane’s Impressions is, at least for me, on a similar plateau of music importance. Kudos Mr. Gioia for these videos.

I used to be very passionate about "greatest of" conversations. But over the years I've become very disinterested in the notion. In the very subjective medium of the arts its usually an exercise in futility to debate such matters with someone. But more importantly it seems very antithetical to most of the core virtues of music. Whether Kind of Blue is the greatest jazz album of all time seems of little consequence to me now. Rather, the many ways it has contributed to the 'musical conversation' of jazz, many of which you keenly pinpoint here, seems to be the more important focus. Really, the only question that matters in my mind is whether something is worth appreciating. And I think you have made a strong case here that there's a number of key reasons to appreciate the album.

I think another reason that this album gets revered so highly is that in every genre or style of music, you have those album outliers. Those records that cross boundaries, stylistically, culturally and offer a bridge into a world that other albums may not be interested in granting access. Kind of blue takes people who 'dont get jazz' or 'dont like jazz' and invite them to the table with open arms.

the comparison between painting and jazz is very fruitful. The move towards small bands during the war emphasized the development of the self, manifesting as personal mastery and individuated sound. A renewed culture of individualism also emerged painting in the 19th c. from the increased international influence and the advent of the camera. New ideas of representation from overseas were introduced that allowed painters to emancipate themselves from the rigid naturalism of the renaissance. There was little use for painters to continue to do what photographs seemingly perfected. Great video, I have never understood why this album gets the special praise it does. The playing is outstanding for sure, but it has always felt to me like another great session. Every member of the band would go on to record albums that feel more monumental in scope. And with miles, I've always found his sessions with bird to be far more interesting than those of this time.

Good that you mentioned that for some performers, the spaces between the notes matter as much as the notes themselves.

Starting at the age of Nineteen, my Jazz education began with Charlie Parker. Savoy then Dial. I still prefer the Dial recordings. Now I was learning these tunes by ear on the Violin, having come from Bluegrass. The next pivotal recording for me was "the Complete Birth of the Cool." I wish now, that I had just gone on from there to the "Workin', Relaxin', Steamin'" albums, because I believe that it was these albums that were most influential on Musicians. From a recording concept "KoB" hands down, but from a playing point of view, a players viewpoint, the "Workin', Relaxin' & Steamin' " albums are the Meat and Potatoes of Modern Jazz. Kind of Blue is the Port and Cigars afterwards. Everything else from Coltrane to Mingus to Wayne is Late Night to Early Dawn. What I hear these days is Breakfast Cereal and Brunch.

As a teenager in the mid 70s, my introduction to jazz was thru the CTI label and musicians like Deotato, Bob James, Stanley Turrentine. These guys introduced electric instruments (bass, electric piano, huge drum sets) to their arrangements and I thought that this was the definition of jazz. But towards the end of the 70s, I discovered Kind Of Blue. In the song So What, the introduction of the melody by the bass was something that literally blew me away. And Miles was heavily criticized for allowing the bass to lead the melody: a move considered a sacrilege at the time. To me, this is an album that whenever I listen to it again, I find something new I didn't hear before. That's what makes a true masterpiece.

I'd be interested to hear more about this question on the technical level. The main thing I've always been told is that "Kind of Blue" is revolutionary because it was a key work in promoting the use of modal improvisation.

I still have no problem recommending Kind of Blue as a starting place for jazz listening. Yes, there is more, but not a bad place to begin.

i love jazz music but this album is probably my favorite. it is what i would call perfect. and it always sounds good regardless of what mood i might be in at the time. it never gets boring.

Great points. I think Miles learned about the power of contrast from playing with Bird, an instrumental virtuoso who chose the cool-toned middle register Miles as his foil. After Miles lost Coltrane to his solo career, he found another contrasting player in Wayne Shorter. The difference there was that, by that time, in some cases, _Miles_ was the fiery one, with Shorter's cool tone and penchant for melody providing balance.

"Kind of Blue" was a Pop/Sell-out, gone commercial LP sold to the Jazz community. It was great great great. Genius is an overused term; Miles was a true genius. His supporting cast were or became giants. I love the music. This recording paved the way for a "Kind of Pop" wave in New York jazz.

Kind of Blue isn't what got me into jazz, but when I heard it that's when I started thinking of music in colors and knew I wanted to be a jazz musician for life. I'm a simple person when it comes to listening to music - does it sound good? Then you analyze why it sounds good.

I was blessed to have stumbled upon this album as a 15-16 year old in the mid 2000's and this along with the album Focus by the band Cynic (which surprisingly has a lot of musical ties to this album) changed the way that I listened to, and understood music, forever.

What differentiates Kind of Blue and Time Out is the emphasis on composition. Jazz in my view has always had a composition problem, too much virtuosity and formulaic soloing and an over reliance on standards and jazz tropes (Autumn Leaves, Favorite Things, Summertime, don't get me started). Both of these great albums had wonderful original compositions. I was 13 in 1959 and played with a couple of other kids around our area in upstate NY. We did just about everything from Time Out, jazz prodigies that we were. It was a blast.

I wasn't really into jazz, but the album just grabbed me. It was one of those magic moments when everything just came together - fantastic individual talents playing off each other with a big dose of inspiration. You can't plan something like this. Glad the tape machine was running.

In the rock/pop world, I would suggest that David Bowie bears some similarity to Miles: ever shifting style (yet always maintaining his personal stamp), and a painterly approach to the music. I agree with all of Ted’s points. For me, KoB has a haunting perfection, and is a pristine and endlessly deep reflection of its author’s vision.

When I studied music in college in the early to mid 90s KOB was definitely considered top tier.

Many thanks, Ted! Your insights into creative tension and the parallels between Miles and Picasso are illuminating. And the focus on style over technique and virtuosity is helpful for understanding so much of modern art of all kinds. The point about knowing what to leave out ("less is more" in a way?) reminds me of the advice Miles (a few year after KOB) gave Herbie Hancock: "Don't play the butter notes."

The analogy to painting and visual art is brilliant, so illuminating. Great video!

Legend has it, Ted is still reeling it in.

When I was a student at a design school, learning graphic design and the concepts in visual art overall, there was an important phenomenon that was discussed, not as a taboo, but as a lesson in paying attention to the balance between two basic forms of visual space, the positive and negative space, and this particular phenomenon, often associated with young and not as fully-realized artists, was the obsession with filling as much of the negative space on a visual canvas as possible. In some cases, it would work. But when it became an obsession, a dogma as opposed to a freely chosen creative choice, often you ended up with a big cluttered visual depiction of exquisitely rendered techniques and details, but the overall depiction had no life. It had no room visually to breathe. We called this phenomenon "horror vacui. Fear of the empty spaces. Fear of the negative space, and in your description of Miles' quiet admonition to his audience in "Something Blue" to "pay attention to style, not technique," this is what visual artists learn when they are taught about the allure, but also potentially disastrous visual implications, of horror vacui. An interesting analogy to how negative space in music - the spaces in time between notes, the use of silence to bring a temporal canvas to life by giving it room to breathe - is the pioneering early funk band the Meters. When they recorded what is likely their most famous song "Cissy Strut," the band's producer, Allen Toussaint, urged the band to give greater importance not to the notes that were played, but instead to the notes that weren't. I believe, just as a life-time amateur musician and fan of music that this is also what Miles Davis was saying, as a lesson on the tendency in jazz to obsess over virtuosity and technique. In that case, the tyranny of technical virtuosity over the necessity of silence in its vital role to create temporal space for the overall sound to breathe in was jazz music's own version of "horror vacui." It's what killed a lot of rock music after the advent of Van Halen and the shred mentality of the technical virtuosos, determined to fill every space in a piece of music, until there was no silence left to let the pieces live anymore, and their self-made horror vacui created a tableau of cluttered sounds and rapidly sprayed notes of exauisite expression individually, but crammed onto a temporal canvas, had no life of their own beyond the moment in which they existed, and the genre, which had already dumped its roots and inspirations in the blues, collapsed. That's my takeaway from "Kind of Blue."

To use the word “Extraordinary” to describe the band Miles surrounded himself in those historical sessions might be an understatement because that aggregation of musicians was without a doubt the most varied ensemble gathering ever assembled in a session. Bill Evans brought the colors that Miles painted with. Miles always was fascinated by harmonies and Bill Evans brought the modalities of the French Impressionist composers to blend with Miles’ interest in harmonic “colors”. To compare art work with the modern musical concepts evolving is very accurate. Music and art have always had a unique relationship with each other. Miles was also dabbling in his own interest in painting. Kind of Blue incorporated so many nuances it became possibly the most influential recording in all of Modern Jazz after WW2. Sure it can be debated but it stands high and above so many other excellent examples of recorded jazz to be singled out by so many. Excellent presentation. Very enjoyable. Thanks

I suspect that Bill Evan's set the tone for " Kind of Blue." Many believe that he wrote the tune. If so, his minimalist approach effected Miles's aesthetic. Evan's liner notes are key. Musical economy may be why it's such a singular achievement in both sales and musical beauty.

I don't believe in quantifying art in that way but really enjoyed and already held many of the views that you share in your analysis. Art isn't a competition, and should not be seen as such. I think that Kind of Blue's legacy of influence upon the history and development of popular music is what separates it from all of the other great jazz albums, which is why it took a few decades for the consensus to be reached. James Brown's major opus 'Cold Sweat', widely acknowledged as the first funk record, took its inspiration directly from 'So What', according to its co-writer Pee Wee Ellis. Richard Wright of Pink Floyd is on record detailing the direct influence of Blue In Green and the rest of the album on Dark Side Of The Moon, to name but two pillars of 20th century popular music alone.

I worked in the jazz basement at A&A records in Toronto in the late '70s. I had just gotten into jazz, I knew that if i wanted to sell an LP on a dead day,, all I had to do was to spin Kind of Blue and no matter if there was otwoor ten customers flipping through the racks...at least one copy was sold. It's avery welcoming and friendly sound!

Until Kind of Blue most jazz was about fast key changes. This album introduced 'modality' which allowed musicians to explore more advanced harmony. Plus they're great tunes, played by some of the greatest musicians ever. Helps.

I loved the reflection on "style" versus "virtuosic"...still a lesson to learn for jazz musicians

I would start someone out with Kind Of Blue because I think that better than any other classic jazz album, it bridges the gap between true jazz music and the then growing modern music sensibility. It's deep and complex enough to be "real jazz" and yet the forms, changes and sentiments are easily relatable with reasonable focus and openness.

"Close enough for jazz" - Oooh. Thank you for making this video. You have given me an important perspective, given that I am a jazz musician, and also a painter. Your remarks have enabled me to visualize my painting (and music listening) in a more precise way.

One of the remarkable things I always thought about “Kind of Blue” was how these six master musicians all seem to be completely “in sync” (hate that expression) with each other. The transitions from one solo to the next was velvety smooth and ALL superb solos. Especially love “Flamenco Sketches”.

Excellent diagnosis! I never saw Kind of Blue as any sort of "end all, that be all" recording. I do respect and appreciate it for what is, and it is a masterful piece! "Modal jazz" was not entirely new at the time, and Miles himself spoke on that fact fairly regularly. Miles has always been known to jump on the "new" thing sooner than most, and he'd record his take on the 'new direction in the music'. Miles' recordings (being the "coolest" cat around) quickly became the standard by which most others' albums were compared to. The fact that his music appeals to the masses easier/better that many other jazz musicians doesn't mean it is more of a landmark recording. In jazz, I love Bill Evans's music, and in "classical" I love Chopin, but that doesn't mean these two are the best of the best.

Kind of Blue was one of those albums that delineated Jazz to a before and after. Not only did it change the way Miles did music, it changed the way all the guys on that album played. It was Miles shedding his skin and going from playing standards to something new

Excellent lecture, Ted, very thought-provoking. I hope you put this in your upcoming music book.

That album is one of the few albums with No kind of Ego involved. Nobody tries to shine or impress. Just from the heart. Listen to the drums and bass. Totally supportive of the soloists. Its almost as if all the players are in a dream somehow. Just floating. Also so perfectly recorded and mixed. Important is different to different people. It´s a beautiful record.

Your comments on the Kind Of Blue artists made me think of the book Team of Rivals, describing President Lincoln's Cabinet.

Great presentation! I like Kind of Blue, but my favorite Miles Davis album is In A Silent Way. These talks by Ted Gioia are fantastic.

One of the few perfect records in any genre. My happy place...

What a magnificent video Ted. Thank you for sharing it with the world. The lessons here expand far beyond the confines of jazz. Bravo!

When I was a young flute player = about 42 years ago I was lucky enough to have a working woodwind player who worked in shows. He played flute, clarinet and saxophone for us kids. I asked him the question:’is Kind if blue a good jazz album’ ? And his response was almost reverential. He thought,. That it was one of the most important records ever made.

This is a very deep insight and another eye opening truth from Ted Gioia. Right now I am studying music production at Berklee and of course Kind of Blue is one of the go to albums for Jazz...but I had never thought of it like a painting. This is so cool! Style over virtuosity. In Berklee we are all so obsessed with the technical aspects of music that sometimes it becomes a science instead of an art form.

Ted knows Jazz, loves his books and substack. Cannot believe I just found he had a RU-vid channel.

Excellent discussion of this album. In 7th grade a big band came to my school and I asked one of the band members what album should I buy to get into jazz. His advice was to buy ANY Miles Davis album… which is probably not very good advice! Luckily by some chance the album I purchased was Kind of Blue and I have spent the rest of my years loving jazz. But it could have ended very differently.

Beyond legendary performances and composition, it is regarded equally so for the recording quality. It is a staple in the audiophile community. This likely hasn't hurt it's popularity.

I'm not so sure those who recommend Kind of Blue as a good introduction to jazz do so because they consider it the single greatest jazz album of all time. I think it is because, compared to most other contenders for the greatest jazz album title, it is easy on the ears of novice listeners. It can be played as background music at a dinner party, the tunes are catchy, and even the solos are hummable. It introduces some of the greatest players in jazz history, playing great music, but in a more palatable way than, say, A Love Supreme. Personally, I think Sunday at the Village Vanguard would make an equally good introductory album.

I was 16 when I walked into a record store and bought my first two albums. One was "Kind of Blue" and the other was Black Sabbath "Paranoid". Caught some very strange looks from the guy behind the counter. My dad was a jazz piano player on weekends and my brother was a rock and roll drummer. I'm blessed with the diversity of music I've gotten to experience.

A couple of things make this a great album that aren't widely considered - and that is weed and headphones. As stereo systems added headphones and kids started to smoke weed - these two made this album a perfect combination. Word of mouth spread and this album really moves into the upper league of great albums. It's the "Dark Side of the Moon" for jazz.

I have KOB but haven't listened to it much. I acknowledge his genius and that of his sidemen but what I really appreciate Miles Davis for more than anything else is that so many of his sidemen founded and/or participated in the whole jazz-fusion movement that helped build the musical brain I went forward with.

I got here via Rick Beato and glad I did! Thanks Ted

It’s a masterpiece, absolutely. That is all that really needs to be said about any master piece. I always get an uncomfortable feeling when people say “this is the greatest of all”.

Kind Of Blue is ancient yet modern. It makes a connection between all that was before and all that would continue to be. I can listen to it as a child and as a professional musician. It played a large part in my early exposure to music and I value that as priceless!

Kind of Blue was my intro to Jazz and will forever be an all time favorite.

Coltrane's solo on "Flamenco Sketches" is enough to seal it for me. It's the most brilliantly constructed passage of improvisation I know of.

There are two reasons why this is the GOAT: 1) Bill and 2) Evans. Without him this would have been just another slapped together blowing session.

Good commentary on my first Jazz cd. Miles Davis had a saying it's not the notes that I play, it's the notes that I don't play. More people should learn to play like this. The music should always go in front of the player.

Enjoyed this very much. However, the point made regarding recording technologies caught my ear. It reminded me how I got the album as a Christmas gift, played it, and immediately found that one of the most appealing aspects of this 1959 album was the quality of the recording.

'Sweat Rain' is one of my favorites....Getz and friends did an 'out of this World' job on it.

My intro into jazz was during the "swing" days. I'm from Chicago and, when I was in my single digitized age(mid/late 1940's/early 1950's) I listened to a night time DJ show called "Harmony Highway". The DJ was Dan Sorkin and we could call in requests. It was basically swing. Then I happened to find another AM station>>WAAF, a station whose DJ's were Jesse Owens(YES, THAT Jesse) and a couple of others who played jazz such as Marty Faye(the brother of Fay Wray who hung out on the Empire State bldg with King Kong.LOL There were very few of us who were into jazz/blues during this R&R time for kids/teens yet, we survived and thrived. Then in 1959, the album was released that turned on(educated) many who were not into or sneered racially at jazz. That was Time Out. For several years, jazz was "cool" in Chicago. I used to haunt a great jazz club in the loop~~the Blue note Lounge. There was a section for kids with no alcohol. The controller of today wouldn't allow that. I got to see/hear and enjoy many artists who I only knew from recordings. Back to KOB. I have always felt that a major aspect of its popularity and acceptance by newbies was that it is "gentle". It was not "In your face" as is hard bop which I always enjoyed. It was like fine dining with each course ssssssssssliding easily into the next. The film "Bird" helped open some closed minds to jazz, even if it turned a few away because "drgus". The closing number is one of the most "comfortable/easy" numbers to introduce anyone to jazz~~ Even the cover image is nice~ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-U2N8bVpRneQ.html&ab_channel=HenryCooper

It was the first Jazz album I bought. I had moved to a new city and I lived in a bedsit. I had no music with me, so i bought A Kind of Blue and a compilation of John Coltrane. I had heard my father listen to Jazz and I had always liked it, so I wanted something like that sound. My bedsit was freezing most of the time, but god that music always raised the temperature by a few degrees!

always thought "Blues and the abstract truth" especially track "stolen moments" has playing and a stylistic and aesthetic similar and its really quite similar recipe in world class players getting together for a once off masterpiece bill evans, roy haynes, freddie hubbard, dolphy being the coltrane type, Paul Chambers, and Oliver Nelson its just incredible to me. Kind of blue is pristine imo but so is art tatum and absolute master can't reach higher level of virtuosity I don't think equal for sure but nothing beyond he's again pristine , Agree and miles was an artist never put drawing or paintings down lol such style for sure. Well put.

Thumbs up if you love Cannonball Adderley!

In addition to the harmonic innovations and the way modes unleashed brilliant playing by brilliant players, I think it was the combination of great art with simple human accessibility. Miles as conceptual artist.

This man presents like musical artists play. Very savory indeed. Bravo

Amazing. Amazing, amazing! So well spoken. Thank you for this brilliantly articulated piece.

Wonderful from Ted who has literally written the book on jazz, and several times over really. I'll just say I believe Live at the Blackhawk '62 to be vastly under-rated.

Ted thank you for this thought provoking video on Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" LP. Great job, -JM!

A friend turned me on to Kind of Blue way back in the 70s. Still crazy about it. I listen to it several times of year. Mesmerizing Read Ashley Kahn’s book only later.

Excellent summation of Kind of Blue. K.O.B. and Time Out are probably my two favourite jazz records. Flamenco Sketches, to me, is one of the greatest tracks ever. And that musical divergence that the speaker talks about is one of the reasons why. Davis, Coltrane and Adderly all bring their individuality to the track.And then - Bill Evans with that sublime piano.

I remember not initially liking Savoy SLJ2201 (Charlie Parker: The Savoy Master Takes) as much as some more modern recordings because of the sound quality. I'd probably put those Charlie Parker recordings near the pinnacle of post-swing jazz. Love KOB, I think it's the album where Miles' reputation to assemble great bands really cemented (along with Birth of the Cool).

For my money, Ellington, Mingus, and Roach on Money Jungle might be the second album you should own. It was out of print for so long it became an “obscure gem”. The first time I heard it was a cassette copy of an LP. It’s an amazing collaboration with a lot of tension from the head butting that went on.

I was a casual jazz fan in college in the 1980s and at that time I would have identified KOB as the greatest according to my limited understanding at the time. It was always my favorite.

I heard "Bitches Brew" and other fusion records long before I heard "Kind of Blue" and it took me a while to get it. However, before I even knew anything about Coltrane, I do remember that it was his solos on KoB that stood out for me the most. This was long before I was a musician and eventually became a jazz musician.

There is something uncanny about all the players' solos on Kind of Blue. They sound as if they are through-composed. They are so sure, landing every note with such authority, that us listeners are hard pressed to imagine the outcome any other way.

Here from Rick Beato. Excellent interview there. Look forward to reading more of your output.

His ideas have left me pondering the value of one of my favorite records. I can not stop thinking about the fact that Davis also painted, which ties in with his idea of style and painting. Thanks and greetings from Lima, Peru.

Looks like your channel has been blessed by the algorythm! Look at all of us here at the same time suddenly

From 1958 to 1965 basically every jazz album released by one of “the greats” was a mind-blowing awesome transcendent masterpiece. It was the confluence of great engineering, great musicianship, and of the art going from bebop and standards into new and distinct compositions and fusion with other styles. Some of the artists that made those masterpieces: Miles, Coltrane, Cannonball, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Wayne Shorter, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Ornette Coleman, Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Donalld Byrd, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Phineas Newborn Jr., Sonny Clark, Andrew Hill, Paul Bley, Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson and Johnny Griffin. Any album by any of these guys in that period is really, really superb and highly sophisticated and exciting art.

i knew a guy who was a big jazz guy, claiming he owns over 10,000 albums. at some point, he stopped listening to nearly all of these albums as he played "kind of blue" all day/every day, claiming that it's the only album that matters. that's something

Greetings Mr. Gioia. New sub and fan from your interview w/ Rick Beato. I'm looking forward to absorbing your insight.

To me it will always be about Blue In Green... there is just such a beautiful melancholy about that tune... a loneliness....

For me, Kind of Blue is the greatest jazz album ever made, but there are many others that would make it onto my list. Here are twenty others (in alphabetical order): Billie Holiday (Lady In Satin); Brubeck (Time Out); Coleman (The Shape of Things to Come); Coltrane (A Love Supreme, Giant Steps); Kamasi Washington (The Epic); Bill Evans (Moon Beams); Herbie Hancock (Maiden Voyage, Head Hunters); Freddie Hubbard (Straight Life); John McLaughlin (Extrapolation); Miles Davis (Bitches Brew); Stan Tracey (Under Milk Wood); Mingus (Ah Um); Monk (The Blue Note Years); Parker (many recordings); Weather Report (Heavy Weather); Sonny Rollins (Saxophone Colossus); Wayne Shorter (Speak No Evil); and Horace Silver (Song for My Father).