Kind of Blue is a once-in-a-century album that happens when you put five of the greatest musicians of the 20th century in one recording room.
With Miles Davis as the composer and trumpeter, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Bill Evans on the piano, Paul Chambers on double bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums, Kind of Blue is widely regarded as the greatest jazz album ever recorded.
Recorded and released in 1959, the album starts off with So What which begins with a now very famous piano riff from Evans, backed up by Chambers on bass, and then slowly builds up with Davis on trumpet and Coltrane and Cobb introducing themselves as the band goes into full swing.
From there, the record gets more and more complex as Coltrane and Davis dive into complex and long solos with regular changing time signatures and chord changes. Cobb and Chambers also take turns to hog the spotlight, but mostly back up the two.
The second track, Freddie Freeloader, is just as frenetic as the dizzying solos of So What with Coltrane playing some of the best saxophone ever recorded, performing solos that modern plays dare not even try and imitate.
The band takes a bit of a breather on Blue in Green with a more soft jazz approach, where slower instrumentation takes over from the bop, allowing for more comfortable and easy listening.
Also read: People of Springs share their musical tastes
All Blues is the longest track on the LP with a time of 11 minutes and 33 seconds and feels almost like a summation of the first three tracks, mixing up soft jazz with bop.
The most astounding fact about Kind of Blue is that it is almost entirely improvisation from all the musicians.
None of the musicians were provided with a full score sheet, but were instead given chord progressions and harmonies, which was used as a platform from where they were all given freedom to fly into their own interpretations and solos; while all the time remaining in time and on key and playing almost on ‘feel’ alone, as Evans would later describe his experience.
The final track, Flamenco Sketches, however, is one of the slower tracks on the album.
It does not try and stand out from the others, it feels more like a farewell piece than a climatic conclusion where the musicians flex their powers to maximum effect. They’ve already shown you what they can do.
Rather, Miles and Evans have the last say as the trumpet and piano slowly fade away as the record reaches its end; a perfect end to a perfect album.
Follow us on our social media platforms:
