Friday, August 7, 2009

Miles In Blues In Green

This was the first jazz cd I ever heard, it's still pretty much the best ever, and it's the record that literally got me into the genre. Absolutely beautiful.

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (1959)

Featuring drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, the great Bill Evans on piano, and two of my favorites on saxophone (John Coltrane on tenor sax, and Cannonball Adderley on alto sax), it's hard to believe this album wouldn't be an instant classic. What makes this jazz album so very great is that every song isn't just a song; it's a modal adventure that literally turned jazz into what it is today. This cd shaped jazz from standard bebop into the virtuosic music powerhouse that we know of today.

The songs, for the most part are playful; there are only five, and they tend to be evenly paced, with appropriate loud-soft dynamics. A few songs are slower, but in all honesty, you won't notice. Listening to the record can be as involved as you like, which is what drew me to it. You can it play in the background for some calming music, or you can listen closely to how the different chords create new moods around each other, or how the improvised solo parts inflect new sounds that were never even intended. Absolutely stunning, absolutely perfect. This is the album you want it to be, and this is something you should have.

Recommended Tracks: So What, All Blues
Genres: Jazz
Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?z0z2jjinwmz