Mention “Kind of Blue” and the familiarity and adoration of legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis’ 1959 classic album oozes from fans who have enjoyed it in the 50 years since its release.
The album, recorded for Columbia Records at their famed 30th Street Studio during two sessions in the spring of 1959, has since been regarded by music critics and musicians as the greatest jazz album of all time. It also has become the best selling jazz album since its release in August of that year.
Part of its success has been attributed to the type of jazz played throughout the record – known as modal, a spare yet complex musical system that revolutionized how jazz was to be played in the years afterward. But what has also helped make its reputation was the all-star cast that played on the five cuts: Trumpeter and bandleader Davis, saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, pianists Bill Evans (who composed much of the music with Davis) and Wynton Kelly, and bassist Paul Chambers. The songs – “So What,” “Freddie Freeloader,” “Blue in Green,” “All Blues,” and “Flamenco Sketches” – have been memorized by musicians of all stripes from Quincy Jones to the late Duane Allman.
“It seemed everything came together; it was like such a wonderful, perfect melding.” – Dale Hardman
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Celebrating across the river were the album’s Jersey City fans, who have been entranced by the album since their first discovery.
‘Blue’ from the first listening
Daoud David Williams is a percussionist with the music ensemble Spirit of Life, a group he co-founded in 1975 in Jersey City that has since performed not only in his hometown but will perform in Berlin this coming week.
Williams first heard “Kind of Blue” in the early 1960s while serving in the Army in Germany, and went out and bought the album. He says now he takes the CD to listen on tour. His band will occasionally play “All Blues” during a concert.
“It’s one of my all-time favorites,” Williams said. “I think that’s because there’s certain timelessness to the music, and it is beautifully played.”
For him, there is no particular favorite tune on the album, but instead it is an “experience” to enjoy the entire recording.
Downtown resident Dale Hardman remembers his first experience listening to the entire album. It was 1969, and Hardman was a freshman at the University of Georgia. He was hanging out in the dorm room of his classmate Larry Smith, and taking part in a “listening session” of Kind of Blue.
“Larry was a multi-talented musician and he also owned an incredible jazz record collection,” Hardman said. “We were listening at his place and he was giving a tutorial of Miles Davis’s music from his nascent beginnings, and then I hear this album, and there was this total maturity.”
Hardman continued, “It seemed everything came together; it was like such a wonderful, perfect melding.”
Hardman said it was listening to this album that led to further exposure of other albums by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and a lifelong love of the music. In particular, he began collecting every single album put out by Bill Evans, a collection that Hardman would lend to National Public Radio (NPR) for an audio documentary on Evans’ life.
Kind of not impressed
Dr. Edward Joffe takes a contrarian view of “Kind of Blue,” which he first heard as an undergraduate music student at Queens College in the 1970s.
“There is nothing unusual about the album other than the fact the record company has taken it and marketed it like an ‘American Idol’ item,” said Joffe, coordinator of the Jazz Studies program at New Jersey City University.
Joffe notes that while the album was created by “some of the greatest musicians in the history of the music that performed music they did on the spot that day,” he said it was over-marketed due to Miles Davis and Columbia Records.
“The musicians on this album never would have imagined it would have taken to this level, and I suspect would have been a little nauseated,” Joffe said.
Joffe said this album is not the “panacea” and it is only one of many great jazz albums. He said that it overshadows efforts from other worthy masters such as Duke Ellington and George Russell.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.