Kind of Blue--Miles Davis' Great

[daughter]

Listening to a program on NPR about Kind of Blue. Forty years, and still one of the Jazz albums of all time.

What are your roots and experiences with this genre? Anyone watch the PBS special on Jazz? I have watched segments of the series repeatedly.

Donald Fagan called the album the bible of Jazz.

Whew. Some kind of blue.

Peace,

daughter

 

[Ask For More]

I love "Kind of Blue", it's the essential CD in my collection that I'll never leave home without.
I actually did a little introduction to Jazz course when I was still in school that introduced me to the genre, I was already a big r'n'b and hip hop fan back then and I had never realised how much it was rooted in jazz. Since then I've become a big fan, although there's so much jazz I just don't know where to start looking! And I'm lacking any friends who are major gurus on the topic to give me advice.

 

[Dillinger]

Ah... I'm in love, daughter... *smile*

Music is my passion and Miles is ecstacy. I've have had the great pleasure to see him a few times in my life.

"Kind of Blue" is a landmark - pure genius. . Bitches Brew ruled my college years. "Someday My Prince Will Come" says everything there is to say about love. But the album that I keep returning to over and over and over again is "Birth of the Cool" (1949, with Gil Evans)

http://www.rondomagazin.de/jazz/meilenstein/cover/984.gif

 

[Ask For More]

Forgot to add...

RIght now I'm listening to Ronny Jordan's latest album, "Off the Record". Great stuff!

 

[daughter]

Seven Steps to Heaven

Dillinger, your thought on this and Sketches of Spain?

Don't shoot, but do you like Cassandra Wilson's covers up some of Miles' classic tunes?

This is making my beau barf. He's ranting as I type about the artist's tribute. LOL

Peace,

daughter

 

[Dillinger]

I've heard her covers and thought they were well done - but I'm not THAT familiar with them.

I probably own more Miles albums then any other artist - perhaps I have as much Zappa as I do Miles... Bowie is close - very few others even have as large a discography to be able to compete...

Sketches of Spain is another collaboration with Gil Evans, of course. About 10 years later than Birth, I think? Very advanced - musically complicated orchestrations by Evans - as an orchestrator he was the master. In fact - Sketches is much more an Evans album then a Miles album.

 

[daughter]

just the messenger

According to my s/o Kind of Blue could be argued that it is more a Bill Evans album more than Miles. It is his arrangement that creates the space for Miles' minimal concepts.

I am more familiar with Bill Evans than I am with the producer/arranger, Gil Evans.

Peace,

daughter

 

[MissTaken]

I wish I had something to offer this thread. I love jazz.

Unfortunately, my collection is pretty top 40's...

David Sanborne
Spyro Gyra
Diana Krall


Keep posting, you have an avid student here!

 

[daughter]

Miss Taken, be careful friend

Ah, be careful how closely you mention the lightweights to the greats. LOL

Don't worry. I gotcha back.

Diana Krall is elegant. Her style is classic. Beautiful voice and who can't be attracted to her style?

Peace,

daughter

p.s. Yes, I like Sandborn and Spyro Gyro. Different styles and time periods though. Miles is responsible for the birth of fusion. Again to the angst of my beloved. LOL

 

[Rick DeVille]

It's the only jazz album I really love, although herbie Hancokc Headhunters is a favorite for other reasons. I'm more blues

 

[Guest]

One day, I aspire to have "Bitches Brew" as my Lit title. Miles rocks!!

 

[Dillinger]

Miles was in the forefront of more avant garde movements then any other musician of the 20th century. He didn't just birth fusion - he birthed many different fusion movements.

Bitches Brew... blew my mind, with or without drugs. John McLaughlin (MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA!), Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Josef Zawinul (Weather Report), Jack DeJohnette (I took lessons from him for a bit), Billy Cobham, Chick Corea (Return to Forever!), Airto Moreira. Kahlil Balakrishna. and so many others...

An album birthed in a brew of Charles Lloyd, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Sly Stone and so inevitable, in afterthought, following In a Silent Way and Miles in the Sky...

 

[MissTaken]

Re: Miss Taken, be careful friend

Ah, be careful how closely you mention the lightweights to the greats. LOL


Diana Krall is elegant. Her style is classic. Beautiful voice and who can't be attracted to her style?

Peace,

daughter

p.s. Yes, I like Sandborn and Spyro Gyro. Different styles and time periods though. Miles is responsible for the birth of fusion. Again to the angst of my beloved. LOL

Yes. Which is why I so hesitantly entered the thread but want to read on....

I have listened to the greats, but haven't studied them or listened to the degree to which I can talk about them in any detail. Lead on Jazz Gurus!

 

[Herbie Handcock]

Miles Davis?........ Never heard of him.







Just goofin!






Didn't Chet Baker take Miles under his wing as his student?






Just goofin again.

 

[Cheyenne]

I'm not a jazz lover. I bought the Kind of Blue cd at the urging of a friend who loves it. I'm sorry, but I can't stand it. I haven't been able to listen to all of it- I can stand about 3 minutes at a time. Tops. I finally gave up and took it out of my car's cd player after it had been in there for months. I couldn't force myself into listening to it. Not even for a friend.

 

[JazzManJim]

Whoa...who started up the jazz thread and didn't invite me, huh?

"A Kind of Blue", "Sketches of Spain", and "Birth of the Cool" are in my CD rotation at home regularly. They're definite go-to CDs when I just need my soul replenished.

That being said, I've a few other artists that bring me back to my center, as it were: Diana Krall, Charlie Mingus, Quincy Jones, Buddy Rich (Please listen to his tune "Channel One Suite". Please!), and Gerry Mulligan.

As much as I'm fond of the small combos, though, the large swing bands just rock my world: Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones (Get "Quintessence". Now. You won't regret it), and even the Grand Dads of the genre: The Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, and the like.

I kind of back-doored my way into jazz as a kid, having listened to a lot of horn bands an the local oldies station. I found my Dad's swing band collection, and my Grandmother's too (lots of old 78's - the original stuff) and just lost myself in them for hours and hours. Since then, I've been a jazz fan. No other music speaks nearly as clearly about how I feel about the world than jazz.

One thing I'd like to introduce to the discussion, though, is the very unusual trait of musical pedigrees that have flowed through jazz, and even into the pop world. For instance, Miles worked a lot with John Coltrane and even had Quincy Jones in his combo. Quincy also was mentored by Dizzy Gillespie. Q went on to be a huge influence on Michael Jackson and the modern R&B scene. Gil Evans went from frequent collaboration with MIles to work also with Chick Corea a couple times. Chick was a hug einfluence on David Sanborn who, in turn worked a lot with Michael Brecker who guested with Paul Simon on his "Rhythm of the Saints" album. Jazz is a very beneficially incestuous group, and perhaps no musical form is so much that way (except for perhaps the country/bluegrass world).

 

[JazzManJim]

Thank you, daughter, for introducing the a thread so near and dear to me, on which I could get my 1000th post!

The universe is sometimes strangely appropriate at times, eh?

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

As articulate and intelligent as most jazz fans are there must be something more to the music that what I get from it. I can't help but agree with horn player "Louie the Lips" from the movie "The Commitments" when he tells another character that jazz is the musical equivalent of "wanking".

That assessment is pretty much right on from my perspective.

Considering how much I generally enjoy masturbation, you'd think I'd like jazz more than I do. Maybe that's because I enjoy doing the wanking and not observing others. Hmmmm... maybe I'd like playing jazz better than I like listening to it. I digress.

I can't terribly excited about listening to jazz because it simply can't hold my attention. I need a melody, some directionality, more order amongst the instruments - what I hear in most jazz is just noodling. It's often technically brilliant, but for me it's too chaotic to enjoy.

I do enjoy jazz as "sonic furniture", though. As bad as jazz is to listen to, it's wonderful to not listen to. At a party where I'm talking to people or when I'm working or writing or otherwise occupied, it adds a wonderful backdrop for whatever it is I'm doing. I love Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" for this very reason - it's bauty is in its utter unlistenability. It's like a tonal, subtly-changing white noise almost. If it's so quiet I can't sleep I put it on sometimes. I pulled many a college and med school all-nighter with "Airports" on, keeping me from from going crazy from my own thoughts.

I can't understand people's passion for jazz, though. Gimme something emotionally evocative that I can follow.

Then again, maybe I'm just a philistine.

 

[SA Storm]

.