Track Listing

1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue in Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. Flamenco Sketches [Alternate Take][*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #327 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 1997-03-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com essential recording
This is the one jazz record owned by people who don't listen to jazz, and with good reason. The band itself is extraordinary (proof of Miles Davis's masterful casting skills, if not of God's existence), listing John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans (or, on "Freddie Freeloader," Wynton Kelly) on piano, and the crack rhythm unit of Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Coltrane's astringency on tenor is counterpoised to Adderley's funky self on alto, with Davis moderating between them as Bill Evans conjures up a still lake of sound on which they walk. Meanwhile, the rhythm partnership of Cobb and Chambers is prepared to click off time until eternity. It was the key recording of what became modal jazz, a music free of the fixed harmonies and forms of pop songs. In Davis's men's hands it was a weightless music, but one that refused to fade into the background. In retrospect every note seems perfect, and each piece moves inexorably towards its destiny. --John Szwed

From Jazziz
"As the painter needs his framework of parchment, the improvising musical group needs its framework in time," says Bill Evans in the liner notes to Kind of Blue. "Miles Davis presents here frameworks which are exquisite in their simplicity and yet contain all that is necessary to stimulate performance with a sure reference to the primary conception." Amen. During the past 40 years, the performances Davis' stimulated from Evans, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, and Wynton Kelly have become some of the most storied in jazz, and all of them - classics such as "Freddie the Freeloader," "All Blues," "Blue in Green," and, of course, "So What" (featured) - are featured on this Columbia/Legacy reissue.

--- JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

From Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD
This first-take, unrehearsed Miles Davis session from 1959, no less than a jazz/blues succes d' estime, offers stimulation for the mind and satisfaction for the soul. The late trumpeter and his fellow improvisers (notably John Coltrane and Bill Evans) create shifting prismatic colors, textures given over to lyricism, and intriguingly vague tonality within five compositions. A quiet, wondrous state of equilibrium between tension and repose. -- © Frank John Hadley 1993

Customer Reviews

Your CD colletion is kinda blue if you don't own this! (5+)
If your idea of the perfect jazz record is Kenny G's Duotones, then don't bother reading this cause it talks about the REAL thing.

Well this is THE jazz album to start off with. I'm sure you've all heard that before, but, it's quite true. From Freddie Freeloader to All Blues, we are constantly reminded of what a genius time it was for jazz in that period. Just look at the all-star line-up on here, Cannonball, Coltrane, Bill - simply amazing! This is a disc that everyone has heard before at some point in their life whether they were aware or not. The saying that this is the most influential jazz record may be true, I tend to think its the most rewarding. This re-release version is superb! It contains an alternative version of "Flamenco Sketches" and original photo package to boot. the sound is by far the best this recording has ever seen. This is a recording the word masterpiece is reserved for. An absolute must own!

If this is your first jump into real jazz might I suggest, Cannonball Adderly's "Somethin Else" or Coltrane's "Love Supreme", both make excellent companions to "Kind of Blue".

Both classic and historic
KIND OF BLUE (1959) has a stark, hushed, understated, but very heady nature, a staggering difference from the previous year's MILESTONES. KIND OF BLUE went on to become a mega-classic, historic and trend setting. It introduced modal tunes to jazz, which provide much more space for improvising on each chord compared to conventional jazz tunes and standards. Consider "So What," which opens the album. There are but two chords, D minor 7th and E-flat minor 7th, and there are spots were 24 bars pass, all on the D minor 7th. This allows the soloist to--as Miles put it--stay in the mode. The song initiated a wave of influence and inspired a host of modal tunes, including John Coltrane's "Impressions" (built on the same chords and structure). "So What" also has the very rare instance of the melody being played by the bassist (but this was Paul Chambers; check out his Blue Note album BASS ON TOP from 1957). For those who don't know, the late Bill Evans is a jazz-piano icon. This brilliant innovator contributed two compositions here: "Blue In Green" and "Flamenco Sketches." Bill's hypnotic vamps and harmonically rich voicings add to the heady atmosphere that Miles typically created with his sparse, cerebral style.

It's difficult to pick out high points; the whole album is on such a high level. Coltrane, Adderley, Evans...these guys could play. The solos throughout are haunting and magical. All of the compositions exhibit unusual and sometimes subtle characteristics, like the altered blues changes in "Freddie Freeloader" (on which Wynton Kelly plays piano) and the 10-bar, "A"-section-only form of "Blue In Green." In "All Blues," pay special attention to the harmonic treatment during the last eight bars of its 24-bar blues-waltz structure. You don't have to be a music student to recognize the unique magic or the mood-inducing power that pervades this album. With players of this caliber, the music making is magnificent and amazing. The talent and importance of these truly monumental musicians cannot be stressed enough. And, the importance of KIND OF BLUE as a record is deserving of all the hoopla that can possibly be mustered on its behalf. This is a legendary recording by a legendary band.

Another reason this album is historic is the introduction of what came to be known as "So What" chords. They are the chords that answer the melody line in "So What." Here are the two chords Bill Evans played there:

E below middle C, up a fourth to A, up a fourth to D, up a fourth to G and up a major third to B.

D below middle C, up a fourth to G, up a fourth to C, up a fourth to F and up a major third to A.

If you're so inclined, try playing those two chords to answer the melody and you will hear the heady magic they produce. To use this chord elsewhere, just remember it's the root, eleventh, seventh, third and fifth of a minor seventh chord.
Cheers,
Murray

The Bible of Jazz
Many, many, many things in life are over-hyped. Especially things that were huge and revolutionary at their times, things you have been told to check out and haven't gotten around to. Movies in particular are like this for me. I'll put on a movie like the Graduate or the Shining, things I've been told are great, and please don't tell anybody but I can't believe how bored I can be. I like them only because I know I'm supposed to like them to show how truly sophisticated I am.

Kind of Blue is the exception to this rule. It is hyped, it is the one jazz album you are told to own if you only own one jazz album, and it is absolutely worthy of the adulation. I promise.

When I first started collecting jazz albums, I was told by an old Chicago cat that Kind of Blue was "the Bible" and Coltrane's rendition of "My Favorite Things" was the national anthem. He was right. No matter how my collection has grown, no matter through how many different alleyways and conduits my taste has wandered, no matter what's stewing in my synapses, I always return to So What, Freddie Freeloader, Blue in Green, and All Blues (that's right, I skip Flamenco Sketches, but So What?). Buy it and listen to it until it seeps into your dreams, becomes the soundtrack to your strut, and fills your soul with the sacred expanding nothingness.