Kind Of Blue [Remastered] - Miles Davis > Reviews > The highlight of his career?

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Kind of Blue isn't merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, a musician with more than his fair share of artistic highlights. It's an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as the definitive jazz album. Or, to be reductive, it's the Citizen Kane of jazz — a commonly accepted work of greatness that was not only innovative but also entertaining, somehow remaining fresh and filled with surprises decades after its original release. That doesn't necessarily mean it's the greatest jazz album ever made, bar none, but it certainly is a universally acknowledged standard of excellence. Even more than that, it's the kind of record that remains enchanting to those that have heard it hundreds of times, just as it will turn jazz neophytes into converts.
Why — or how — does Kind of Blue posses such a mystique? Probably because this music never flaunts its genius or skill. It comes on easy, luring a listener in with the slow, luxurious bass line and gentle piano chords of "So What." From that moment on, the record never really changes pace — each tune has a similar laid-back, relaxed feel, as the band lets the music flow easily and naturally. For casual listeners, this is the kind of jazz that easily conjures romantic images of smoky, intimate after-hours clubs. Of course, if that's all the album was, it would be a period piece, but Kind of Blue is far more than that. It's also, as is so often noted by jazz history books, a pivotal moment in the development of jazz, since it is the pinnacle of modal jazz — a musical theory where tonality and solos build from chords in the songs, not the overall key, which gives the music a subtly shifting quality while remaining slightly off-key. Modal music laid the groundwork for some of the avant-garde jazz of the '60s, and it remains the touchstone for modern jazz, since it is at once soothing and unpredictably shifting. This is the sound everyone recognizes as jazz. But, Kind of Blue is not the first modal album. Miles, Evans, and Coltrane covered similar territory on their previous effort, Milestones. The difference is, that blew hot and cool, whereas Kind of Blue is laid-back and unassailably cool, thereby making it accessible.

All of this may explain its wide appeal to a casual jazz listener, and even its historical significance, but it doesn't really touch on why seasoned jazz fans continue to return to this record even after they've memorized every little turn and nuance in the recording. It's impossible to really summarize exactly why the album has such a mystique — if it was possible, it wouldn't have mystique — but surely much of it has to do with the exceptional band playing at the peak of its power. After all, this is hardly Miles' show alone. Pianist Bill Evans was instrumental in pushing Davis toward modal music, and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane was eager to follow. Those three are joined by Cannonball Adderly on alto sax, Jimmy Cobb on drums, and the incomparable bassist Paul Chambers (pianist Wynton Kelly sits in for Evans on "Freddie Freeloader"). As Evans said in the original liner notes for the record, the band did not play through any of these pieces prior to recording. Davis laid out the themes and chords just before the tape rolled, and then the band improvised through each composition. Improvisation had always been a large part of jazz, but this kind of preplanned, unrehearsed spontaneity was relatively new in 1959 and the end results were wondrous. None of the musicians knew exactly what the other would do, and that energy sparked a series of performances that still crackle with vitality. Not only that, but the musicians were working at such a high level that there still are little revelations — not only in the solos, but the support — on the hundredth listen.

Few albums of any genre manage to work on so many different levels, but Kind of Blue does. It can be played as background music, yet it amply rewards close listening. It is advanced mu
sic that is extraordinarily acceptable and enjoyable. It may be a stretch to say that if you don't like Kind of Blue, you don't like jazz — but it's hard to imagine it as anything other than a cornerstone of any jazz collection.