 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 possess such a mystique? Perhaps because this music never flaunts its genius .... 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 .... 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.
