| | Miles Davis Kind Of Blue CD Miles Davis Discography of CDs
 (14 Customer Reviews)
With BIRTH OF THE COOL, Miles Davis distilled a new tonal palette for jazz. As early as 1954, Miles reacted to the escalating chordal complexity of hard bop by fashioning an evocative blues based on a simple scalar pattern ("Swing Spring"). KIND OF BLUE was the ultimate fulfillment of this approach, with Miles providing his collaborators little more than outlines for melodies and simple scales for improvisation. By emphasizing the blues and the improvisor's melodic gifts, KIND OF BLUE precipitated a major stylistic development--modal jazz.
Charles Mingus had experimented with pedal points throughout the 1950s, and the melodic freedom of Ornette Coleman's Atlantic sides was also predicated on freedom from chord changes. But KIND OF BLUE was to prove the most influential, enduring work of its kind. There was just such a vibe about these 1959 sessions--Miles' lyric genius and burgeoning stardom, the innovative voicings and rarefied touch of pianist Bill Evans, the electrifying presence of Coltrane and Cannonball--that some thirty-plus years after its initial release, KIND OF BLUE is still recognized as Davis' point of departure towards jazz's less-explored regions.
Bill Evans' translucent chords and Paul Chambers' famous bass line herald the revolution that is "So What": Davis and Evans' taut, coiled lyricism stands in sharp relief to the saxophonists' labyrinthine elation. The fat, shimmering beat of the classic Evans/Chambers/Cobb rhythm team is an oasis of calm throughout the childish blues "Freddie Freeloader." Often credited to Davis, "Blue In Green" is an Evans masterpiece, in which the rhythmic oasis becomes a smoky mirage for Davis' minor reveries on muted horn. The waltzing "All Blues" is one of the smoothest, most swinging grooves in the history of jazz, while "Flamenco Sketches" reflects Miles fascination with the earthy melodies and brooding metaphors of the Iberian peninsula...a harbinger of his next masterpiece, SKETCHES OF SPAIN. KIND OF BLUE remains Miles Davis' most evocative piece of musical haiku.
Recording information: Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York, New York (03/02/1959); Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York, New York (04/22/1959).
Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto saxophone); John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans (piano); Paul Chambers (double bass); Jimmy Cobb (drums).
Liner Note Authors: Robert Palmer; Nat Hentoff.
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.94) - Ranked #13 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "This painterly masterpiece is one of the most important, influential and popular albums in jazz..."
Q (4/99, p.129) - Included in Q's list of "The Best Jazz Albums of All Time."
Q (3/95, p.116) - 5 Stars - Indispensable - "Widely considered the greatest album in jazz history, Miles Davis' 1959 masterpiece is a collection of exquisitely melodic and deceptively simple modern jazz..."
Down Beat (1959) - "This is a remarkable album. Using very simple but effective devices, Miles has constructed an album of extreme beauty and sensitivity. This is not to say that this LP is a simple one--far from it. What is remarkable is that the men have done so much with the stark, skeltal material.
JazzTimes (8/97, p.106) - "...The absolutely beautiful Coltrane solo on the `Flamenco Sketches' alternate is alone worth the price....The restoration of the sound to the correct pitch makes enough of a difference to recommend repurchasing this classic even without the jazz track of the year aboard..."
Vibe (12/99, p.158) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Blender (Magazine) (p.67) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "Its ageless cool now seems intertwined with its backstory: Just months after making the album, Davis and most of his sidemen would spin off in different directions, founding entire schools of jazz."
Paste (magazine) (p.61) - "[T]he music draws you in with seductively gentle restraint. It's a recording with a pristine elegance." Miles Davis Kind Of Blue Songs Kind Of Blue Music Review Average Rating: (4.6 out of 5 stars)   List All Reviews Greatest Album of All-Time (Jazz or otherwise)
I know, it's pretty high praise, but if you've heard it, it's hard to argue against it. Simply put, this album's beautiful. This album is great for beginners to Jazz and the most avid followers of Jazz. Wonderful for background music, mood music or to study it and take in every note. No matter who you are or what music you're into, this album is a MUST!!
Submitted by a reviewer (Sunland, CA, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 1 found this helpful.
 Glad I chose CDUniverse
Great CD, in great shape, arrived in a timely fashion...... throughly impressed
Submitted by chance.evans (Oak Harbor, WA) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
It´s remercable music,inmemorial music sidewalk.
As someone said no mater who you are, no mater where you are this is a non similar kind of CD.
You´l love it when you know it.
It´for a life.
LA Chavez.
Submitted by chavezvaldes (merida yucatan mexico.)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  the greatest
quite simply the greatest album of all time....period!!!not a single weakness.my favourite track is blue and green.it gives me the chills.
Submitted by waveydavey 1809 (tyne and wear,england)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Life Changing Experience
Before hearing "Kind Of Blue" in 1986 I thought Armstrong, Getz, Joplin, some Parker, Steely Dan, and Jean Luc Ponty was all the Jazz I needed. "So What" and "All Blues" were then the new standard for ALL music. So expressive and powerful while so restrained and minimal. And it swings. Wow. This album led me to "In A Silent Way", "Bitches Brew", "Live Evil",and "On the Corner." Then to Coltrane's "Love Supreme", "Blue Train", and "Transitions." Even to Coleman's "Free Jazz", way wild. My point being that finding "KOB" re-animated for me what I was sure was a dead, decaying musical form. Wrong.
Submitted by eddiez61 (Collingswood, NJ)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No List All Reviews | Have you heard this album? |  |
Purchase Kind Of Blue CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Dave Brubeck Time Out CD (1959) Remastered
Kind Of Blue
 $6.55 
Dave Brubeck's TIME OUT ranks alongside Miles Davis' KIND OF BLUE as one of the few advanced jazz masterpieces to achieve great commercial success. In fact, the widespread popularity of TIME OUT, with its cool-toned ambience, smooth style, and elements borrowed from classical ...
| | Miles Davis Sketches Of Spain CD (1960) Bonus Tracks; Remastered
Kind Of Blue
$6.75  
The crown jewel of the epic Evans/Davis triptych that began with MILES AHEAD and PORGY AND BESS, SKETCHES OF SPAIN is as emotionally compelling as any performance in the trumpeter's remarkable body of works. Combining as it does the emotional gravity of two cultures--the deep song of flamenco music and the rich lament of the blues--SKETCHES OF SPAIN is a musical hybrid of enormous power and beauty. Gil Evans' immense canvas of orchestral colors inspires some of Davis' most deeply felt solo flights. He paints vast vistas of velvety, shimmering night sounds, and through it all runs the mountainous backbone of Spain's native rhythms and chants.
The centerpiece of SKETCHES OF SPAIN is the Evans/Davis treatment of the second movement of Rodrigo's "Concierto De Aranjuez." ...
| | Miles Davis Bitches Brew CDs (1970) Remastered
Kind Of Blue
$15.95
Among the most controversial recordings in the history of jazz, BITCHES BREW was Miles Davis' shot across the bow of jazz insularity, a bold statement about jazz's ability to draw upon elements of popular culture, without mitigating its spirit of spontaneous invention. Much as Ornette Coleman's THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME set a new standard for harmonic and melodic freedom a decade before, BITCHES BREW signaled a sea change in jazz.
Davis became a lightning rod for jazz's transformation, by mixing the best elements of '60s free jazz with dancing funk rhythms, electric rock textures, blues phrasing and his own breakthroughs in harmony and modality. Davis employed the Electric Flag's Harvey Brooks to double up with upright bassist Dave Holland on the Fender bass, ...
| | Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland CD (1968)
Kind Of Blue
$9.89
Principally recorded at the Record Plant, New York, New York in April and May 1968.
On ELECTRIC LADYLAND Jimi Hendrix stretched and experimented in the studio, going beyond the power-trio format on what would be his last studio album with the Experience. ELECTRIC LADYLAND was revolutionary in its scope and execution. Using New York City's Record Plant as a gateway to free expression, Hendrix traversed an abstract landscape containing compositions as weird and wonderful as "...And The Gods Made Love" and "1983...(A Merman ...
| | Buena Vista Social Club CD (1997)
Kind Of Blue
$15.05
BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Tropical Latin Performance.
That Ry Cooder, you've got to keep an eye on him every minute, or he jumps into another cross-cultural collaboration. In the wake of his landmark recordings TALKING TIMBUKTU with Ali Farka Toure and A MEETING BY THE RIVER with V.M. Bhatt comes BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, essentially a supergroup of traditional Cuban musicians with the addition of international agitator Cooder. Somehow, Cooder always finds just the right space to slide his sinuous slide guitar into, so that it works in almost any context. Here, amidst the multi-layered percussion, piano and Cuban guitar rhythms, Cooder's ...
| | John Coltrane Love Supreme CD (1965) Remastered
Kind Of Blue
$9.65
Digitally remastered using 20-bit technology by Erick Labson.
A LOVE SUPREME is the essential example of the genius of John Coltrane. In what has become the apotheosis of jazz music, this eminently accessible work bridges the gap between music and spirituality, between art and life. With the ultimate incarnation of the jazz quartet, Coltrane brings together all of his turbulent elements into a cohesive paean to spirituality, one which is fully appreciable by the uninitiated.
A LOVE SUPREME is a 33-minute work divided into four movements. ...
| | Perez Prado Voodoo Suite/Exotic Suite CD (1994) (Import) Germany
Kind Of Blue
$24.39
| | Howard Roberts Magic Band II CD (1998)
Kind Of Blue
$13.75
| | Storyteller CD (2000) (Import) Japan
Kind Of Blue
$36.79
| | Fiesta Latina CD (2002)
$6.29 | | Mitch Miller Sing Along CD (2004)
Kind Of Blue
$6.29
| | Carmen Mcrae For Lovers CD (2006)
Kind Of Blue
$9.79
| | Steve Marcus Project CD (2007)
Kind Of Blue
$11.19
|
|
|
14 
buttons below to play song samples
Adobe Flash
Email a Friend
