August 17, 1959  

Studio album.

Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, the album Davis is most associated with, has been recognized as one of his signature works. Kind of Blue proved that emotional depth can be achieved by improvisers using simple scales and modes. The album included tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Jimmy Cobb and, of course, trumpeter Miles Davis. Before this album, Davis had already been experimenting with modal jazz, with soloists playing one or two modes for the melody. Davis was at a musical peak in the 1950s and had been preparing ideas for Kind of Blue for years, such as in the works of Milestones and Legrand Jazz. 

On August 27, 1959, in the weeks after the album was released, The New York Times reported that Davis was charged with 3rd degree assault on a police officer after they had gotten into an argument. According to an article, the officer had told Davis to move on and Davis refused to. In his autobiography, as reported in Andscape, Davis actually wrote of having himself been assaulted by police during the incident, and the incident affected him in significant ways. His career did continue to thrive after this happened; Davis released another album called Jazz Track in 1959, which was also positively received. In the newspaper Tribune, in a piece titled “Just as good this time,” Kennedy Brown stated, “All the words I used four weeks ago to describe his playing—delicate, sensitive, lyrical, relaxed, melodic, mellow and so on— apply here." Kennedy Brown gave the music high praise, suggesting that Miles Davis clearly held a significant position in the jazz world by this time.

Kind of Blue is a five-track album, broadly described as modal jazz. The music is mostly relaxed, with playing from Miles Davis that was described by Kennedy Brown in the magazine Tribune in 1960 as “delicate, sensitive, lyrical, relaxed, melodic, mellow, and so on.” While the album is very cohesive, the individual performers each get their chance to stand out. While John S. Wilson states that Davis was “moving into a more forceful style of playing” when discussing a concert at the Village Vanguard only two years later in 1961, this was certainly not the case on this album. The solos on this album are mostly played softly, while still utilizing dynamics masterfully. Davis plays the melody on “Blue in Green” with a mute, which adds to the warm and relaxed atmosphere of the track. While this album is generally considered to be modal jazz and analyzed as such, it also still contains elements of the blues roots of jazz as a whole. This is most clearly heard in “Freddie Freeloader,” where the 12-bar structure is readily apparent, but is also found throughout the rest of the album.

Samuel Barrett describes the album not as directly integrationist, but parallel to social relations at the time. “Kind of Blue stands not so much for integration as a shift in the status of the blues: the blues in its most straightforward form remains a preserve of African-Americans, but a soft-hued modal blues is presented as a music for all America.” He describes that this is something of a double-edged sword— it brought blues to a wider audience, but in an almost invisible sense. While a larger audience was listening to music with blues elements, they were much less identifiable. 

Questions for Classroom Discussion

1. Most of the songs on this album were recorded in one take. Do you think improvisation like this has more of a positive or negative effect on the result? Why or why not?

2. In the song “Flamenco Sketches” Miles’ introduces a piano around 6:01. Describe the melody of the piano as well, and what kind of effect do you think the piano has on the song?

3. Shortly after the release of Kind of Blue Miles Davis was arrested. Although the incident certainly affected him, his career continued to thrive. What is another musical controversy that you are familiar with, and did it have an effect on the artist’s reputation? How?

4. What instrument had the most prominent role on the track “So What”? What effect does this cause?

5. Miles Davis is often referred to as a calm or reserved person, and his playing in this album was described similarly. Do you believe that personality might go hand in hand with the playing style of musicians? Why or why not?

Bibliography/Further Reading

Primary Sources

Brown, Kennedy. "Just as Good This Time." Tribune, Blackpool (April 1, 1960). 

Herridge, Robert. "Miles Davis: The Cool Jazz Sound, in Robert Herridge Theater." Broadcast, 1959. 

"Jazz Man Free on Bail: Miles Davis is Charged with Assault on Policeman." New York Times (August 27, 1959). 

Wilson, John S. "Miles Davis Joins Evans in Concert." New York Times (May 20, 1961). 

     "Two Jazz Figures Join Forces." New York Times (June 29, 1961). 

Secondary Sources

Barrett, Samuel. "Kind of Blue and the Economy of Modal Jazz." Popular Music (2006).

Henry, Clarence. Miles Davis: A Research and Information Guide. Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group, 2017.

Nisenson, Eric. The Making of Kind of Blue. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.