Perhaps the best defense for my feelings towards this endless obsession with KOB is Miles Davis himself. Now please keep in mind that while I bristle at the obsession with KOB that in no way does that mean that I donāt like the music. Kind of Blue is a fantastic recording and is truly one of the cornerstones for post 1960 jazz.
Miles Davis rarely, if ever, played any of the tunes on KOB after 1964. Miles and his music lived in the NOW and he let the musicians in his then current group create their own music rather than have them simply parrot Kind of Blue. Milesā forward-thinking approach to his music was one of the many things that made him a jazz giant and obsessing over KOB is antithetical to the true spirit of Miles. I hope that this more reasoned and less snarky take on KOB can find its way into the final post.
Every so often itās fashionable to knock KOB becauseā¦newbies love it, it sold too many copies, the moon is in Cancer, whatever.
As a long-time jazz fan and dedicated amateur player, KOB is one of my favorite albums. Knock it all you want, but itās a stunning performance of stunning music under amazing circumstances (first read on some of the tunes). Iām not a fan of āTHE bestā of anything, but KOB sits with me in the pantheon along with A Love Supreme, The Bridge, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Sketches of Spain, Charles Lloydās Voices in the Night, and Iām sure a few more. Any one of those Iām happy to listen to.
Hey @Brad_Burnside, there are a few different versions of the story floating around, but essentially, a number of trumpeters who attempted to play along with the album realized they could not do so as transcribed because Side 1 of vinyl stereo pressings, and the corresponding tracks on compact disc, were slightly sharp.
After a number of folks contacted Columbia with questions, the label examined the session tapes and realized that the primary tape machine apparently had a speed issue that caused it to run slightly slow ā which would make the tapes play faster on a normal machine. Fortunately, there was a second āsafetyā machine running during the sessions as well. When those tapes were played, they determined that the machine captured the performances accurately.
The safety reels were then used to create a new stereo master mixdown to correct the speed issues that had been present on the original stereo pressings and all CD versions issued prior to the restoration remaster in 1992. This is a condensed but genuine account of why the speed-corrected version exists. They arenāt the result of a ācash-grabā by Sony-Columbia or anybody else.
Kind of Blue is the album that is maybe the most famous Jazz album (which I do like) but I would put A Love Supreme and Giant Steps, both by Coltrane, at the same level.
Think about this: Coltrane went from playing on Kind of Blue to recording Giant Steps three weeks later.
Hereās a question for everybody: Whatās the greatest jazz instrumental tune of all time? I would say āNaimaā by John Coltrane.
On the cusp of the early 60s post-bop freer harmonic, modal and diatonic compositional and
performance modes, Kind of Blue combined economy of expressive means with immeasurable profundity. Mantras have been chanted extolling its virtues and deep musicality and yet its potential to startle has not been fully tapped. Bill Evans contributed Debussean subtlety and exquisite tonalities, Coltrane was calibrating his 60s dense, complex, multilayered sound, which he used sparingly and in an appropriate collaborative spirit here. There must have been a minimal of composed thematic clusters upon which the musicians laid their own contributions. The feeling is of a tightly woven, strictly delineated formal and thematic terrain that sounds both structured and ethereal. CBS captured the moment in airy, spacious sonic engineering. A feast of creative musicality and inexhaustible aesthetic sophistication. The stuff of dreams.
Yes, KOB is great, been listening to it for years, have 2 versions on Roon (24/192 and MQA 96), and 3 Vinyl pressings (Classic Records on 200 Gram Quiex SV-P, MoFi 45-rpm, and an early 80ās CBS).
But what about the recent āBirth of Blueā release?
This my second post on the subject because it opened up other thoughts in my mind about Jazz in a broader concept.
Having discussed music with hundreds of people, in and out of work, so many people in the USA dislike instrumental music, particularly Jazz and Classical. To many people music has to have vocals to be of interest. Having said that, listening to any type of music is better than none at all. Some people think Jazz is too complex and others think Classical is for the elites (whomever they areā¦)
As many have discussed, Kind of Blue is rated by some as the greatest Jazz album (see my first post on my opinion) but would one give this album to someone who doesnāt like Jazz, as an introduction to the genre? I probably wouldnāt, However, I have met many people who own KOB and they only play the first track! (Not me but āSo Whatā is the ring tone on my phoneā¦)
In my youth, Jazz was something my parents played on the radio on a Sunday afternoon, Then for some reason I bought three albums by Santana: A Love Supreme, Welcome, and Caravanserai. These three albums introduced me to Miles, Coltrane and Jobim, After that my love of jazz took off.
So Kind of Blue, for all itsā greatness, wasnāt the album that influenced me. I play KOB about three times a year, Pat Metheny Groupās āStill Life (Talking)ā about twenty times a year so what is great is very personal.
Likewise with Classical. My great interest in progressive rock group Yes took me to Stravinsky and classical guitarist Julian Bream (Yes fans will know why!)
I believe the first corrected version was Columbiaās gold CD (Mastersound, I believe, was the marketing name used for their gold CDsā¦?), and as you say, all others that followed are at the corrected speed.
I reviewed Birth of the Blue, and the short version is that I mentioned it was simply a reissue of the non-US release of 1958 Miles, without the extra fluff (like extra tracks that were not part of the same session with the KoB lineup). Musically, I find it average at bestāitās nothing I will return to often, if at allāIām not much of a fan of jazz cover versions, and āFran Danceā (the only Miles original) is a decent cut but nothing like KoB. The new version, though, has much better sound than 1958 Miles. It was mixed from original session tapes by Vic Anesini, cut to lacquer by Matthew Lutthans, but not sure who did the digital mastering for CD/SACD and PCM, which appears on Qobuz). And the packaging of the vinyl version is top notch.
I really donāt like knocking this version of the band, but the real magic happens on KoB. This is a nice document of more recordings by the same group, but I donāt feel as though that automatically makes it a great, long-lost classic jazz album. Itās good. I donāt mind having a copy of it. But I just donāt engage with it.
Mile Davis is the G.O.A.T when it comes to Jazz in all its forms. His works for those aficionados of the trumpet in Jazz is mesmerizing and requires focus. I happen to possess one of the original recordings of Kind of Blue and I never tire of listening, I happen to be a St. Louisan from birth and proud that he grew up next door on the Eastside in Illinois.
