Miles Davis
Miles Davis, ‘Kind of Blue’, 1959. Jazz. Nice. The preserve of weirdos and Geography teachers, obvs. In the canon though are gems that transcend genre and boxes. This album is one of them. If you had to own just one Jazz LP, man, then this is it. I bought a copy as a student: part of my wider education. It was name-checked so much in the pages of the NME and elsewhere that it needed to be heard. If you think you’ve never heard it, it’s like classical music – you might not know the name, but you’ll have heard it. Or, at least, a copy of something like it. It’s ur-Jazz: influential and still a touchstone over 60 years later. Even the cover is legendary. Clean, uncluttered, Miles lost in music.
Five tunes recorded over two sessions with a super slick simpatico band, each track largely improvised and done as one take. Davis gave the players ‘sketches’ and told them to play what they feel. Opening track, ‘So What’, is the touchstone. ‘All Blues’ fulfils the Platonic Conception of a Jazz instrumental. Cool, daddio. This is a smooth, loose but tight collection and, sonically, they sound great. Everything gels but not in a hard, be-bop, in-yer-face way. Rippling piano, brushed drums, fluid bass notes, muted horns. And John Coltrane on sax, the other Jazz guy that everyone’s heard of. If aliens ever land, we should play them this, along with a bit of Bach, to prove we’re not savages but evolved beings…
Miles Davis
Miles Davis, ‘Kind of Blue’, 1959. Jazz. Nice. The preserve of weirdos and Geography teachers, obvs. In the canon though are gems that transcend genre and boxes. This album is one of them. If you had to own just one Jazz LP, man, then this is it. I bought a copy as a student: part of my wider education. It was name-checked so much in the pages of the NME and elsewhere that it needed to be heard. If you think you’ve never heard it, it’s like classical music – you might not know the name, but you’ll have heard it. Or, at least, a copy of something like it. It’s ur-Jazz: influential and still a touchstone over 60 years later. Even the cover is legendary. Clean, uncluttered, Miles lost in music.
Five tunes recorded over two sessions with a super slick simpatico band, each track largely improvised and done as one take. Davis gave the players ‘sketches’ and told them to play what they feel. Opening track, ‘So What’, is the touchstone. ‘All Blues’ fulfils the Platonic Conception of a Jazz instrumental. Cool, daddio. This is a smooth, loose but tight collection and, sonically, they sound great. Everything gels but not in a hard, be-bop, in-yer-face way. Rippling piano, brushed drums, fluid bass notes, muted horns. And John Coltrane on sax, the other Jazz guy that everyone’s heard of. If aliens ever land, we should play them this, along with a bit of Bach, to prove we’re not savages but evolved beings…