What people search:
 | Title : Kind of Blue
Author : Davis, Miles
Release Date : 19970325
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $11.98
Amazon.com Price : $10.99
( 8
%)
VISIT AMAZON.COM'S PAGE |
Editorial Reviews :
This is the one jazz record owned by people who don't listen to jazz, and with good reason. The band itself is extraordinary (proof of Miles Davis's masterful casting skills, if not of God's existence), listing John Coltrane and Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans (or, on 'Freddie Freeloader,' Wynton Kelly) on piano, and the crack rhythm unit of Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Coltrane's astringency on tenor is counterpoised to Adderley's funky self on alto, with Davis moderating between them as Bill Evans conjures up a still lake of sound on which they walk. Meanwhile, the rhythm partnership of Cobb and Chambers is prepared to click off time until eternity. It was the key recording of what became modal jazz, a music free of the fixed harmonies and forms of pop songs. In Davis's men's hands it was a weightless music, but one that refused to fade into the background. In retrospect every note seems perfect, and each piece moves inexorably towards its destiny.
Buyer Reviews :
I get email from people sometimes who think I write some of the reviews I do for the express purpose of being controversial. I don't. Many of them are actually pretty conventional. But I do try to reexamine everything and not just go with the flow.
And that brings me to this release. Yes, it's a great CD. But all the attention (countless vinyl reissues, nearly a dozen CD reissues, SACD issue, and *two books* on the recording session itself) baffles me. It's no better than many other jazz CDs out there, or even many of Miles' other CDs. Definitely fresh, both then and now. But unfortunately, it's become a holy relic for some, an icon, a movement, a belief, something akin to Woodstock and Jerry Garcia's beard. And that's not good.
It's inspired a whole generation of jazz musicians to not bother to learn all the chords they might. It's inspired pop musicians to think that when they can compose modally and end with a slow fade out, they've got all the tools of the trade that they need. And that's bad. I really feel that all the hero workship for this CD has caused jazz AND rock to take a step backwards.
And when one listens with an unbiased ear, one finds some flaws with this session. Cannonball never really reaches the depths of the rest of them here, and seems uncomfortable on Flamenco Sketches and Blue In Green, which are both a departure for him anyway. Trane sometimes (Freddie Freeloader in particular) seems to be off on his own planet. Not that he's playing 'avant-garde' or anything, but he sure doesn't seem to be listening to anybody else in a few spots. Again minor blemishes, but they rarely get noticed by most reviewers caught up in the KoB cult.
This may sound nick-picky and it *is,* but I just want to point out that 1) this is hardly a 'flawless' album, whatever that is, and it certainly isn't the greatest jazz album of all time, 2) it is often the object of ridiculous hero workship, and because of that 3) jazz and other popular musics have been subjected to somewhat reductionist aesthetics, less than they could be, due to the influence of this release. As Cannonball himself once said about KoB, after it came out so many kids thought if they could play this way they could play jazz. --I might add, they thought they could play top-flight jazz. And so they stopped at what should have been just the beginning of an exploration. This is not the fault of Miles, Trane, Evans, etc. They could not have forseen that back in 1959, and it isn't relevant in ultimately rating the album for posterity. But in his autobiography Miles himself kind of wondered what all the fuss was over this one disc. He had a point.
(by John Grabowski)
back
What people search:
|
|
