"In the church of jazz, the album 'Kind of Blue' is one of the holy relics," writes Ashley Kahn in “Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece" (DaCapo Press, 2000), one of two books written exclusively about the celebrated album.
It is hailed as the best-selling jazz album of all-time and ranked 12th on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list published in 2003. Music icon Herbie Hancock, who played some of that music in the 1960s as a member of Davis' group, called it “a cornerstone record, not only for jazz, but for music."
“It is one of the single greatest achievements in recorded music," the late Ed Bradley, the “60 Minutes" journalist and host of NPR's Peabody award-winning radio program “Jazz From Lincoln Center," once said.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the recording of this special album that had a profound influence on music and still remains an inspiration to musicians and a favorite of fans. And it will be getting some big recognition at the Freihofer Jazz Festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs this weekend.
The album's music was laid down on two days in 1959. Of the five songs, the first complete take of four of them landed on the album -- unheard of these days and unusual in those days. There were only two complete takes of the other song, “Flamenco Sketches." The first one was used on the record. The second was made available on later CD releases.
The special music created on those days was based on the ideas of Davis and Bill Evans, one of the most influential pianists in jazz history. It brought to the fore “modal" playing, in which musicians improvised on a series of scales, not frequent and frantic chord progressions that were the basis of modern jazz in the 1940s and 1950s. People weren't writing like that in jazz in 1959 and it caused a stir. More like a revolution.
It is hailed as the best-selling jazz album of all-time and ranked 12th on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list published in 2003. Music icon Herbie Hancock, who played some of that music in the 1960s as a member of Davis' group, called it “a cornerstone record, not only for jazz, but for music."
“It is one of the single greatest achievements in recorded music," the late Ed Bradley, the “60 Minutes" journalist and host of NPR's Peabody award-winning radio program “Jazz From Lincoln Center," once said.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the recording of this special album that had a profound influence on music and still remains an inspiration to musicians and a favorite of fans. And it will be getting some big recognition at the Freihofer Jazz Festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs this weekend.
The album's music was laid down on two days in 1959. Of the five songs, the first complete take of four of them landed on the album -- unheard of these days and unusual in those days. There were only two complete takes of the other song, “Flamenco Sketches." The first one was used on the record. The second was made available on later CD releases.
The special music created on those days was based on the ideas of Davis and Bill Evans, one of the most influential pianists in jazz history. It brought to the fore “modal" playing, in which musicians improvised on a series of scales, not frequent and frantic chord progressions that were the basis of modern jazz in the 1940s and 1950s. People weren't writing like that in jazz in 1959 and it caused a stir. More like a revolution.
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