On Monday, Chris C let me borrow “Kind of Blue” from the studio. I was advised to go home, sit back, relax and soak it in. After tea time at about 8pm, I started to play the album. Wonderful advice from Chris. It certainly was an experience into the unknown!
It didn’t stop there though, I’ve been listening all week at work with my headphones on, enjoying the sounds of cool modal jazz. Note that Mr Cortez did not give me the legacy edition, but I will be purchasing that today and listening over the weekend.
Kind of Blue
If this review gets you nostalgic, and you don’t have Kind of Blue on CD (or the legacy edition), we do have the legacy edition 2CD set in our pledge store. If you’d rather buy from Amazon , please consider using our Amazon referral (which gives us 8% of any purchase back).
It was pointed out to me that by choosing “Kind of Blue”, I was missing 30 years of Jazz that proceeded it (thanks Alisa), however, I do feel like this album was definitely the right choice for me to start because it represents a group of talented musicians trying something different, just like me as a listener, trying something different.
I’m decades late listening to this, and you all know this album inside out and way better than me, so I’m really going to share a short reflection of my week listening to “Kind of Blue”.
Here are some notes I made this week while listening to the album
Kind of Blue really couldn’t have been a more perfect title. The second the record starts, Bill Evans starts playing the most beautiful, melancholy piano that completely foreshadows the rest of the album. I love the interplay between the bass and piano at the beginning and the way it comes together. I can hear the spit in Miles’ Trumpet and the hiss from the master LP and somehow it just adds something intangible which makes it sound better.
“So What” is a great start, it’s got a nice groove that sets the tone for the album.
Freddie Freeloader is interesting, 12 Bar Blues can sound a little repetitive after a while, so it’s always nice to hear it with a different spin.
Blue in Green is probably going to become one of my favourite songs ever. Seriously. Evans and Miles sound unbelievable at the beginning. For some reason every note feels perfect and every instrument is just perfect. I talked to Chris C about it and he said “It just hits you in that spot” – and I strongly agree.
All Blues is cool too, great arrangement.
Flamenco sketches is great too, very soulful trumpet from Miles and then saxophone later on – another favourite from this album.
So What didn’t I like?
Actually, there really isn’t much of anything on this album I don’t like.
I’m not sure whether it’s “Cannonball” or Coltrane, but I don’t love some of the saxophone solos such as the one at 4.20 of So What.
I will say though, Flamenco Sketches and Blue in Green have hands down some of the sexiest saxophone I’ve ever heard, absolutely beautiful phrasing, perfect note selection and not rushed. These are my favorite tracks, and I would love to hear more of this style.
Where to go from here
I’m listening to “All Blues”. I’m at the part about 9 minutes in where Bill Evans is improvising. Then Miles comes in with a trumpet solo that’s so intoxicating.
This album has got me wanting to find out more. I have my mini-list from the follow up Blog I made last week, and I am going to check out those other artists. However, the thing that struck me about “Kind of Blue” the most was how much I love soulful, modal piano, so I really want to hear more (I somewhat crave it actually.) I will ask the DJ’s what pianists I should listen to, but your suggestions are always welcome too.
Kind of Blue is officially going to be the first Jazz album in my collection. This was a very fun experience, to listen to a new genre and write about it to fans. Thanks for reading!
Tags: Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
Kind of Blue – perfect for listening & sipping martinis in the garden after a day of work. One of my favourites albums/CDs.
Christopher-
Thanks for this soul-sharing! I heard Kind of Blue as soon as it hit the stores 50 years ago and your account of what you got from this wonderful music reminds me very much of my own gut reactions. You may be interested to at least skim “Clawing at the Limits of Cool,” by Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington, an account of Miles’ and Trane’s relationship with one another and with other musicians–often with first-person quotes–during the period when KOB was in the works. (Available from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Clawing-Limits-Cool-Coltrane-Collaboration/dp/0312327854–remember to use the KCSM link!)
My daughter gave the book to me for Christmas. I found it uneven–it hangs a bit to heavily on the perceptions of Amiri Baraka, the poet from whose work the book title comes. Also, Washington–an accomplished saxaphonist–provides extended technical descriptions of the underlying modal structures that left a non-musician like me unmoved. But the book is a good description of the utter contrast between “The Chief” and “Trane,” personality-wise and in their musical approaches.
I note that you dig Bill Evans a lot; who doesn’t, pray tell!!! But–for another absorbing record that I think will capture your fancy like KOB, give a listen to “Concierto,” featuring the great guitarist Jim Hall along with Sir Roland Hanna on piano, if you want to hear another piano style by a giant who’s also left us like Evans–and Hall often teamed with Bill Evans. The great Paul Desmond’s haunting alto sax work will also enchant you. Issued in 1975, over 15 years after Kind of Blue, it’s to me still a great collection of tracks by a stellar group. Check it out. And…of course the CD is still available at Amazon, although out of print so you’ll need to go “used”–use the KCSM link!!!
Chris: Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage, Bill Evans Peace Piece on Everybody digs Bill Evans. Bill Evans Trio – Portraits in Jazz is also one of my favorites.
Chris (and John)
There are a couple of bookings on the making of KOB. The one I thought was best was the one by Ashley Kahn.
I second the Jim Hall recommendation. Amazon has it in mp3 format. You can get the whole 19 minute concierto for 99 cents.
Hello – I have been listening to jazz since I was 13. I would like to recommend “The Gentle Side of John Coltrane”, produced by Michael Cuscuna for Impulse, as an excellent introduction to exploring the music of “Trane”. I like to listen to this at night, with all the lights out, when my life is free of distractions. My next suggestions would be “Giant Steps”, “Blue Train”, and “A Love Supreme”.
Ashley Kahn has written two excellent books that I would also recommend: 1) “The Making of Kind of Blue”, and 2) “A Love Supreme – The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album”.
I also love Jim Hall’s Concierto, the solo version especially. He also has some new work available through Artist’s Share. Artist’s Share is certainly worth further research. I’m sure Alyssa, Chris Cortez and others as Jazz 91 will be able to tell you more about this project.
I forgot to mention Lee Morgan’s Search for the New Land. I first heard this on SF’s KJAZ many, many years ago and it had a lasting impact. Lee Morgan on Trumpet, Wayne Shorter and Tenor, Herbie Hancock – Piano, Grant Green – Guitar, Reginald Workman on Bass, Billy Higgins – Drums. From here I went on to explore each of them individually, especially their work on Blue Note.
Also, Donald Byrd “A New Perspective”, especially Cristo Redentor. Kenny Burrell is on guitar on this Blue Note recording.
Both are available in the remastered Rudy Van Gelder series from Blue Note. (No I do not work for Blue Note).
Bill Evans Peace Piece of course, per above, and his solo album “Alone”, which is quite haunting.
You described eloquently your headphone experience that Chris Cortez had recommended you try. I know that thrill of hearing recordings on headphones and I must ‘trump’ Mr. Cortez with my ‘head thrill’ recording. On many occasions, I have forced visiting friends to sit in a comfortable chair and listen to my all time favorite recording on high quality headphones. The recording I recommend is “The Individualism of Gil Evans”! To hear driving rhythms of Elvin Jones on one side of the phones evokes spiritual levitation. You won’t regret a moment of it and you may even become a greater jazz lover than you were before having this religious experience.
Trust me, Chris!
Donna, bring it on. I can split the headphones into two feeds when you are here at the station. Then, we can both levitate in unison.
I second the emotion of: Bill Evans’ “Peace Piece”, “The Gentle Side of John Coltrane” and Donald Byrd’s “Christo Redentor” and would like to add Tommy Flanagan’s rendition of Horace Silver’s “Peace” for your consideration. All doors thru which I walked into the wonderful world of Jazz. Welcome!
After reading my recommendation for Chris Smith, I realized how much I admired Gil Evans and how much more I wanted to know about this true jazz genius. He was a close friend of my dear departed ex and I never had an opportunity to meet the man whose music I so revered. I instantly went to Amazon and ordered the two Gil Evans biographies in publication: “Castles Made of Sound” by Larry Hicock and “Gil Evans – Out of the Cool, His Life and His Music” by Stephanie Stein Crease. So far I am enjoying the heck out of “Castles Made of Sound”.
Then I realized that another old friend, George Russell should have a biography published somewhere so I sent an email to Sheila Jordan (I know I sound like a name dropper, but I do know these people) and her response provoked the sad news that he had died the day before.
I still have no idea if there is a book about George but googling comes up with nothing concerning the composer George Russell other than his own published book “The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization”.
If anyone knows of a published biography of George Russell please let me know.
On Jazz books – Here are several that are among my favorites:
Morning Glory – A Biography of Mary Lou Williams by Linda Dahl
Friends Along The Way, Cats of Any Color, Other books – by Gene Lees
The Making of Kind of Blue – Ashley Kahn
A Love Supreme – Also Ashley Kahn
I agree with Donna about Gil Evans also. One of my early experiences listening to Jazz, quite a few years ago, was his work with Kenny Burrell on “Guitar Forms”, especially “Lotus Land”. I also listen to “Out of the Cool” on a regular basis.
Dear C.S.
“Where to go from here”?
Ha, that´s exactly what I hate about Kind of Blue; every time I hear it there´s nothing else I can hear the following 2 weeks. Sometimes I make a radical switch : from Sketches of Spain to a Night in Tunisia…
I’m surprised that even though you work at KCSM, you just now jumped in! But that’s OK. I don’t mean anything negative by this at all. I’ll suggest to you what I’ve told everyone else: listen o a Jazz station (KCSM would be perfect!) and play all the jazz you can get your hands on.
It was asked,what can I listen to after KOB. The first thing which comes to my mind is Miles Davis Someday My Prince Will Come.
Phil
Here is an other one if you are lucky enough to get a copy. Miles Davis and John Coltrane in Stockholm. If you want to borrow mine it will take something very valuable for deposit. Here is a link. Don’t forget to clik-through from the KCSM website:http://www.amazon.com/Miles-Davis-John-Coltrane-Stockholm/dp/B000M4ZIYM
Phil