Kind of Blue
Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 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 favor 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 number 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. Background. By late 1958, trumpeter Miles Davis employed one of the most acclaimed and profitable hard bop bands. Bassist Paul Chambers had been with the band from its beginning in 1955; alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley joined in late 1957, and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane returned in early 1958. Drummer Jimmy Cobb replaced Philly Joe Jones in May 1958, and pianist Wynton Kelly replaced Bill Evans in November 1958. The Davis band played a mixture of pop standards, blues, and bebop originals by composers such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Davis, and Tadd Dameron. As with all  bebop-based jazz, Davis's groups improvised on the chord changes of a given song. Davis was one of many jazz musicians growing dissatisfied with bebop, however, and saw its increasingly complex chord changes as hindering creativity. In 1953, the pianist George Russell published his "Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization", which offered an alternative to improvisation based on chords. Abandoning the traditional major and minor key relationships, his concept introduced the idea of chord/scale unity and was the first theory to explore the vertical relationship between chords and scales, and the only original theory to come from jazz . These insights helped lead the way to modal jazz. Influenced by Russell's ideas, Davis implemented his first modal composition with the title track of his studio album "Milestones" (1958). Satisfied with the results, Davis prepared an entire album based on modality. Evans, who had studied with Russell but had left the Davis group to pursue his career, was drafted back into the project. Recording. "Kind of Blue" was recorded on three-track tape in two sessions at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City. On March 2, 1959, the tracks "So What", "Freddie Freeloader", and "Blue in  Green" were recorded for side one of the original LP, and on April 22 the tracks "All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches" were recorded, making up side two. As was Davis's penchant, he called for almost no rehearsal and the musicians had little idea what they were to record. As described in the original liner notes by pianist Bill Evans, Davis had only given the band sketches of scales and melody lines on which to improvise. Once the musicians were assembled, Davis gave brief instructions for each piece and then set to taping the sextet in studio. While the results  were impressive with so little preparation, the persistent legend that the entire album was recorded in one pass is untrue. Only "Flamenco Sketches" yielded a complete take on the first try. That take, which is not the master, was added to the 1997 CD reissue of the album as a bonus track. The five master takes issued were the only other complete takes; an insert for the ending to "Freddie Freeloader" was recorded, but was not used for release or on the issues of "Kind of Blue" prior to the 1997 reissue. Pianist Wynton Kelly may not have been happy  to see the man he replaced, Bill Evans, back in his old seat. Perhaps to assuage the pianist's feelings, Davis had Kelly play instead of Evans on the album's most blues-oriented number, "Freddie Freeloader". The live album "Miles Davis at Newport 1958" documents this band. However, the Newport Jazz Festival recording on July 3, 1958, reflects the band in its hard bop conception, the presence of Bill Evans only six weeks into his brief tenure in the Davis band notwithstanding, rather than the modal approach of "Kind of Blue". Production credit. "Kind of Blue" was produced by  Columbia staff producer Irving Townsend. However, over the years there has been confusion, with Davis's subsequent producer Teo Macero getting partial or full credit. "In the case of "Kind of Blue" there were two producers: Teo Macero and Irving Townsend", said jazz historian Eric Nisenson. "Macero's role, however, was clearly that of an apprentice and observer." The recording session was also cited by Nisenson as Macero's first experience with "the highs and lows of working with Miles." From Macero's own recollection, his involvement in the recording included "box[ing] everyone in so that there would be a  physical closeness among the musicians, not like today when the musicians are spread all over the place." According to "High Fidelity", "though his role in "Kind of Blue" has been disputed", the recording was "made under the auspices" of Macero. However, it is Townsend's voice heard on the session tapes, who became Davis's producer after the departures of George Avakian and Cal Lampley. Macero did not produce Davis until after Townsend took over West Coast production duties for Columbia Records, when Macero took his place. Macero's first Davis production was his next record, "Sketches of Spain". The  original LP did not credit a producer. The first release with a producer credit was the 1987 CD, which credited only Macero. However, this was in error; Macero only produced that reissue, not the sessions for the original album. The 1997 MiniDisc reissue credited both Townsend and Macero, but the subsequent 1997, 1999, 2004, 2008, and 2015 reissues all correctly credit only Townsend. Composition. "Kind of Blue" is based entirely on modality, diverging from Davis's earlier hard bop style of jazz with its complex chord progression and improvisation. The entire album was a series of "modal sketches", with each  performer given a set of scales that encompassed the parameters of their improvisation and style. This recording style contrasted with the typical preparation of providing musicians with the complete score or, for improvisational jazz, providing the musicians with a chord progression or series of harmonies. Modal jazz was not unique to this album. Davis himself had previously used the same method on his 1958 "Milestones" album, the "<nowiki>'</nowiki>58 Sessions", and "Porgy and Bess" (1958), on which he used modal influences for collaborator Gil Evans's third stream compositions. Modal composition, with its reliance on scales and modes, represented, as  Davis called it, "a return to melody." In a 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff of "The Jazz Review", Davis elaborated on this form of composition in contrast to the chord progression predominant in bebop, stating No chords ... gives you a lot more freedom and space to hear things. When you go this way, you can go on forever. You don't have to worry about changes and you can do more with the [melody] line. It becomes a challenge to see how melodically innovative you can be. When you're based on chords, you know at the end of 32  bars that the chords have run out and there's nothing to do but repeat what you've just done—with variations. I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords ... there will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them. Bill Evans wrote in the LP liner notes, "Miles conceived these settings only hours before the recording dates." Evans continued with an introduction concerning the modes used in each composition on the album. "So What" consists of two modes: sixteen measures of the first, followed by eight measures  of the second, and then eight again of the first. "Freddie Freeloader" is a standard twelve-bar blues form. "Blue in Green" consists of a ten-measure cycle following a short four-measure introduction. "All Blues" is a twelve-bar blues form in time. "Flamenco Sketches" consists of five scales, which are each played "as long as the soloist wishes until he has completed the series". The liner notes list Davis as author of all compositions, but many scholars and fans believe that Bill Evans wrote part or the whole of "Blue in Green" and "Flamenco Sketches". Bill Evans assumed  co-credit with Davis for "Blue in Green" when recording it on his "Portrait in Jazz" album and the Davis estate acknowledged Evans' authorship in 2002. Reception and legacy. Since its release on August 17, 1959, "Kind of Blue" has been regarded by critics as Davis's greatest work. It is his most acclaimed album, and became, along with Davis's 1970 album "Bitches Brew", his best-selling record, cementing him as one of the most successful jazz artists in history. Music writer Chris Morris cited "Kind of Blue" as "the distillation of Davis's art." Cobb said the album  must have been made in heaven. "Kind of Blue" has been lauded as one of the most influential albums in the history of jazz. One reviewer has called it a "defining moment of twentieth century music." Several of the songs from the album have become jazz standards. "Kind of Blue" is consistently ranked among the greatest albums of all time. In a review of the album, AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated: In 1958, the arrival of Ornette Coleman on the jazz scene via his fall residency at the Five Spot club, consolidated by the release of his "The  Shape of Jazz to Come" LP in 1959, muted the initial impact of "Kind of Blue", a happenstance that irritated Davis greatly. Though Davis and Coleman both offered alternatives to the rigid rules of bebop, Davis would never reconcile himself to Coleman's free jazz innovations, although he would incorporate musicians amenable to Coleman's ideas with his great quintet of the mid-1960s, and offer his own version of "free" playing with his jazz fusion outfits in the 1970s. The influence of "Kind of Blue" did build, and all of the sidemen from the album went on to achieve success  on their own. Evans formed his influential jazz trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian; "Cannonball" Adderley fronted popular bands with his brother Nat; Kelly, Chambers and Cobb continued as a touring unit, recording under Kelly's name as well as in support of Coltrane and Wes Montgomery, among others; and Coltrane went on to become one of the most revered and innovative of all jazz musicians. Even more than Davis, Coltrane took the modal approach and ran with it during his career as a leader in the 1960s, leavening his music with Coleman's ideas as the  decade progressed. According to Acclaimed Music, "Kind of Blue" is the 29th most ranked record on critics' all-time lists. In 1994, the album was ranked number one in Colin Larkin's "Top 100 Jazz Albums". Larkin described it as "the greatest jazz album in the world". It has been ranked at or near the top of numerous "best album" lists in disparate genres. In 2002, "Kind of Blue" was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In selecting the album as number 12 on its 2003  list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, "Rolling Stone" magazine stated: "This painterly masterpiece is one of the most important, influential and popular albums in jazz". The rating descended to number 31 in "Rolling Stone's" revised list in 2020. On December 16, 2009, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the 50th anniversary of "Kind of Blue" and "reaffirming jazz as a national treasure". It is included in the 2005 book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", described by reviewer Seth Jacobson as "a  genre-defining moment in twentieth-century music, period.". It was voted number 14 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000). "The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings" lists the album as part of its suggested “core collection”, and also awards it a crown, indicating a recording of particular merit. Influence. The album's influence has reached beyond jazz, as musicians of such genres as rock and classical have been influenced by it, while critics have written about it as one of the most influential albums of all time. Many improvisatory rock musicians of the 1960s referred  to "Kind of Blue" for inspiration, along with other Davis albums, as well as Coltrane's modal records "My Favorite Things" (1961) and "A Love Supreme" (1965). Guitarist Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band said his soloing on songs such as "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", "comes from Miles and Coltrane, and particularly "Kind of Blue". I've listened to that album so many times that for the past couple of years, I haven't hardly listened to anything else." Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright said that the chord progressions on the album influenced the structure of the introductory  chords to the song "Breathe" on the album "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973). In his book "Kind of Blue: The Making of a Miles Davis Masterpiece", writer Ashley Kahn wrote "still acknowledged as the height of hip, four decades after it was recorded, "Kind of Blue" is the premier album of its era, jazz or otherwise. Its vapory piano introduction is universally recognized". Producer Quincy Jones, one of Davis's longtime friends, wrote: "That ["Kind of Blue"] will always be my music, man. I play "Kind of Blue" every day—it's my orange juice. It still sounds  like it was made yesterday". Pianist Chick Corea, one of Miles's acolytes, was also struck by its majesty, later stating "It's one thing to just play a tune, or play a program of music, but it's another thing to practically create a new language of music, which is what "Kind of Blue" did." Gary Burton, of Berklee College of Music, noted the consistent innovation present throughout the album, stating: "It wasn't just one tune that was a breakthrough, it was the whole record. When new jazz styles come along, the first few attempts to do it  are usually kind of shaky. Early Charlie Parker records were like this. But with "Kind of Blue" [the sextet] all sound like they're fully into it." Along with "Time Out" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959) and Coltrane's "Giant Steps" (1960), "Kind of Blue" has often been recommended by music writers as an introductory jazz album, for similar reasons: the music on both records is very melodic, and the relaxed quality of the songs makes the improvisation easy for listeners to follow, without sacrificing artistry or experimentation. Upon the release of the 50th anniversary collector's edition of  the album, a columnist for "All About Jazz" stated ""Kind of Blue" heralded the arrival of a revolutionary new American music, a post-bebop modal jazz structured around simple scales and melodic improvisation. Trumpeter/band leader/composer Miles Davis assembled a sextet of legendary players to create a sublime atmospheric masterpiece. Fifty years after its release, "Kind of Blue" continues to transport listeners to a realm all its own while inspiring musicians to create to new sounds—from acoustic jazz to post-modern ambient—in every genre imaginable." Renowned hip-hop artist and rapper Q-Tip reaffirmed the album's  reputation and influence when discussing the significance of "Kind of Blue", stating "It's like the Bible—you just have one in your house." The singer Bilal names it among his 25 favorite albums and "an important record" for him. The 2014 album "Blue" by Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a note-for-note reproduction of "Kind of Blue". The "Kind of Blue" musicians appeared together in further recorded ventures through the 1960s. Davis had made a rare post-1953 sideman appearance in 1958 on Adderley's "Somethin' Else" album; Evans and Adderley collaborated on the latter's LP  Know What I Mean? from 1961. Kelly and Chambers backed Hank Mobley on "Soul Station" in 1960, and Evans and Chambers played on the sessions for "The Blues and the Abstract Truth" by Oliver Nelson in 1961. The rhythm section of Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb backed Coltrane for "Coltrane Jazz" and one track on his landmark "Giant Steps", which featured Chambers throughout. That trio stayed with Davis for the recordings "Someday My Prince Will Come" and the live sets at the Blackhawk and at Carnegie Hall. Davis in retrospect. Late in his life, from the electric period on, Davis repeatedly  disregarded his earlier work, such as the music of "Birth of the Cool" or "Kind of Blue". In Davis's view, remaining static stylistically was the wrong option. When Shirley Horn insisted, in 1990, that Davis reconsider playing the gentle ballads and modal tunes of his "Kind of Blue" period, he demurred: "Nah, it hurts my lip." Release history. "Kind of Blue" was released as a 12-inch vinyl record, in both stereo and mono. There have been multiple reissues of "Kind of Blue", with additional pressings throughout the vinyl era. On some editions, the label switched the order for  the two tracks on side two, "All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches". The album has been remastered many times during the compact disc era, including in 1982 by CBS/Sony Japan catalog number 35DP 62 and the 1986 Columbia "Jazz Masterpieces" reissue. The significant 1992 remaster corrected the original recording speed for side one, which had caused all prior releases to be slightly off-pitch. The 1997 reissue added the alternative take of "Flamenco Sketches". In 2005, a DualDisc release included the original album, a digital remastering in 5.1 Surround Sound and LPCM Stereo, and a 25-minute documentary "Made in  Heaven" about the making and influence of "Kind of Blue". "Kind of Blue" was re-issued on a rare 24-carat gold CD collectors version. A two-disc CD box set "50th Anniversary Collector's Edition" was released on September 30, 2008, by Columbia and Legacy. The album was released in other audio formats, which are only available second hand. Personnel. Credits are taken from the album's liner notes.