Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released on August17,1959, by Columbia Records. For this album, Davis led a sextet featuring saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly replacing Evans on "Freddie Freeloader". The album was recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City in two sessions on March2 and April22,1959.
Influenced in part by Evans, who had been a member of the ensemble in 1958 and was called back for this album, Davis departed further from his early hard bop style in favor of greater experimentation with musical modes, as on the title track of his previous album, Milestones (1958). Basing Kind of Blue entirely on modality, Davis gave each performer a set of scales that encompassed the parameters of their improvisation and style and consequently more creative freedom with melodies; Coltrane later expanded on this modal approach in his own solo career.
Kind of Blue is regarded by many critics as Davis's masterpiece, the greatest jazz album ever recorded, and one of the greatest albums of all time. Its influence on jazz, rock, and classical music has also led writers to describe it as one of the most influential albums ever made. In 2002, it was among the first fifty recordings selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 2003, it ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time"; it was repositioned at number 31 in the 2020 revision. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album quintuple platinum in 2019, representing five million album-equivalent units in the United States. It remained the highest-certified jazz album until August 2026, when Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas was certified 6x platinum, making Kind of Blue the second-best-selling jazz album in the United States based on RIAA certification.
Background
By late 1958, trumpeter Miles Davis employed one of the most acclaimed and profitable hard bop bands in the business. Bassist Paul Chambers had been with the group from its beginning in 1955, alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley joined in late 1957, and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane returned in early 1958. Drummer Jimmy Cobb replaced Philly Joe Jones in May 1958, and pianist Wynton Kelly replaced Bill Evans in November 1958.
The Davis band played a mixture of pop standards, blues, and bebop originals by composers such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron, and Davis himself. As with all bebop-based jazz, Davis's groups improvised on the chord changes of a given song.Kahn, pp. 86–87. Davis was one of many jazz musicians growing dissatisfied with bebop, however, and saw its increasingly complex chord changes as hindering creativity.
In 1953, the composer and theorist George Russell published his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization,Library of Congress Catalog Record available atlccn.loc.gov/2014471652. which offered an alternative to improvisation based on chords. Abandoning the traditional major and minor key relationships, his concept introduced the idea of chord/scale unity and was the first theory to explore the vertical relationship between chords and scales. These insights helped lead the way to modal jazz. Influenced by Russell's ideas, Davis implemented his first modal composition with the title track of his studio album Milestones (1958). Satisfied with the results, Davis prepared an entire album based on modality. Evans, who had studied and recorded with Russell but had left the Davis group to pursue his own career, was drafted back into the project.
Recording Kind of Blue was recorded on three-track tape in two sessions at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City. On March 2, 1959, the tracks "So What", "Freddie Freeloader", and "Blue in Green" were recorded for side one of the original LP, and on April 22 the tracks "All Blues" and "Flamenco Sketches" were recorded, making up side two.
As was Davis's penchant, he called for almost no rehearsal and the musicians had little idea what they were to record. As described in the original liner notes by pianist Bill Evans, Davis had only given the band sketches of scales and melody lines on which to improvise. Once the musicians were assembled, Davis gave brief instructions for each piece and then set to taping the sextet in studio. While the results were impressive with so little preparation, the persistent legend that the entire album was recorded in one pass is untrue. Only "Flamenco Sketches" yielded a complete take on the first try. That take, which is not the master, was added to the 1997 CD reissue of the album as a bonus track. The five master takes issued were the only other complete takes; an insert for the ending to "Freddie Freeloader" was recorded, but was not used for release or on the issues of Kind of Blue prior to the 1997 reissue.Khan, Ashley. Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. New York: Da Capo Press, 2000; p. 111.
Pianist Wynton Kelly may not have been happy to see the man he replaced, Bill Evans, back in his old seat. Perhaps to assuage the pianist's feelings, Davis had Kelly play instead of Evans on the album's most blues-oriented number, "Freddie Freeloader." The live album Miles Davis at Newport 1958 documents the sextet during Evans's tenure; however, it is in a hard bop style, rather than the modal approach of Kind of Blue.Blumenthal, Bob. Liner Notes, Miles Davis at Newport 1958; Columbia/Legacy CK85202, 2001, p. 4. The more ruminative side of Evans's playing while he was a member of the band can best be heard on his lengthy solo on "My Funny Valentine" from Jazz at the Plaza Vol. I.Pettinger, Peter, Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings, Yale University Press (1998), p. 60.
Production credit Kind of Blue was produced by Columbia staff producer Irving Townsend. However, Davis' subsequent producer, Teo Macero, has incorrectly received partial or full credit. "In the case of Kind of Blue there were two producers: Teo Macero and Irving Townsend", said jazz historian Eric Nisenson. "Macero's role, however, was clearly that of an apprentice and observer." The recording session was also cited by Nisenson as Macero's first experience with "the highs and lows of working with Miles." From Macero's own recollection, his involvement in the recording included "box[ing] everyone in so that there would be a physical closeness among the musicians, not like today when the musicians are spread all over the place." According to High Fidelity, "though his role in Kind of Blue has been disputed", the recording was "made under the auspices" of Macero. However, it is Townsend's voice heard on the session tapes, who became Davis's producer after the departures of George Avakian and Cal Lampley. Macero did not produce Davis until after Townsend took over West Coast production duties for Columbia Records, when Macero took his place. Macero's first Davis production was his next record, Sketches of Spain.
The original LP did not credit a producer.Kind of Blue. Columbia LP CL 1355, 1959. The first release with a producer credit was the 1987 CD, which credited only Macero.Kind of Blue. Columbia CD CK 40579, 1987 However, this was in error; Macero only produced that reissue, not the sessions for the original album. The 1997 MiniDisc reissue credited both Townsend and Macero,Kind of Blue. Columbia MiniDisc CM 40579, 1997 but the subsequent 1997,Kind of Blue. Columbia CD CK 64935, 1997 1999,Kind of Blue. Columbia SACD CS 64935, 1999 2004,Kind of Blue. Columbia DualDisc CN 90887, 2004 2008,Kind of Blue. Columbia CD/LP/DVD 88697 33552 2, 2008 and 2015Kind of Blue. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab SACD UDSACD 2085, 2015 reissues all correctly credit only Townsend.
Composition Kind of Blue is based entirely on modality, diverging from Davis's earlier hard bop style of jazz with its complex chord progression and improvisation. The entire album was a series of modal sketches, with each performer given a set of scales that encompassed the parameters of their improvisation and style. This recording style contrasted with the typical preparation of providing musicians with the complete score or, for improvisational jazz, providing the musicians with a chord progression or series of harmonies.
Modal jazz was not unique to this album. Davis himself had previously used the same method on his 1958 Milestones album, the '58 Sessions, and Porgy and Bess (1958), on which he used modal influences for collaborator Gil Evans's third stream compositions. Modal composition, with its reliance on scales and modes, represented, as Davis called it, "a return to melody". In a 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff of The Jazz Review, Davis elaborated on this form of composition in contrast to the chord progression predominant in bebop, stating:
No chords ... gives you a lot more freedom and space to hear things. When you go this way, you can go on forever. You don't have to worry about changes and you can do more with the [melody] line. It becomes a challenge to see how melodically innovative you can be. When you're based on chords, you know at the end of 32 bars that the chords have run out and there's nothing to do but repeat what you've just done—with variations. I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords ... there will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.
Bill Evans wrote in the LP liner notes, "Miles conceived these settings only hours before the recording dates."Palmer (1997), pp. 4–7. Evans continued with an introduction concerning the modes used in each composition on the album. "So What" consists of two modes: sixteen measures of the first, followed by eight measures of the second, and then eight again of the first. "Freddie Freeloader" is a standard twelve-bar blues form. "Blue in Green" consists of a ten-measure cycle following a short four-measure introduction. "All Blues" is a twelve-bar blues form in time. "Flamenco Sketches" consists of five scales, which are each played "as long as the soloist wishes until he has completed the series".
The liner notes list Davis as author of all compositions, but many scholars and fans believe that Bill Evans wrote part or the whole of "Blue in Green" and "Flamenco Sketches".Kahn, p. 299a. Bill Evans assumed co-credit with Davis for "Blue in Green" when recording it on his Portrait in Jazz album, and the Davis estate acknowledged Evans' authorship in 2002.Kahn, p. 299b.
Reception and legacy
Since its release on August 17, 1959, Kind of Blue has been regarded by critics as Davis's greatest work. It is his most acclaimed album, and became, along with Davis's 1970 album Bitches Brew, his best-selling record, cementing him as one of the most successful jazz artists in history.The Dozens – Jazz.com . jazz.com. Retrieved August 30, 2008.Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue (DVD) . PopMatters. Retrieved August 30, 2008.Miles Davis' Bitches Brew – ColumbiaJazz . Columbia. Retrieved August 30, 2008. Music writer Chris Morris cited Kind of Blue as "the distillation of Davis's art." Cobb said the album "must have been made in heaven".
Kind of Blue has been lauded as one of the most influential albums in the history of jazz. One reviewer has called it a "defining moment of twentieth century music". Several of the pieces from the album have become jazz standards. Kind of Blue is consistently ranked among the greatest albums of all time. In a review of the album, AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated: