MetaChat - So What?

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08 February 2006

So What? (12.9MB jazz mp3) Most people who have dipped their toes into the often chilly waters of jazz music have likely heard of the classic Miles Davis album Kind Of Blue (original liner notes by pianist Bill Evans).→[More:]

They might even have been told that it is "the greatest jazz recording of all time". I might agree given the right combination of red wine and weed. It was an incredible session.

Miles' band at the time (late '50s! In America!) consisted of (please forgive my Wikipedia laziness) Cannonball Adderly (alto saxophone), John Coltrane (tenor sex, er, sax), Bill Evans (token heavy-weight white man!), Paul Chambers (bass), and Billy Cobb (drums). They got together to make a legendary record.

Miles went on to, um, greener pastures, but he will always be associated his seminal recordings such as Kind Of Blue and Sketches of Spain.

So here is what this legendary music looks like on the page in black and white. (6.2MB PDF)

post by: Cryptical Envelopment at: 23:50 | 8 comments

Bitches Brew? What about Agharta and Pangaea?

posted by box 08 February | 23:58

Good question.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 09 February | 00:01

Cool, I'll have to download those if I ever get home.

posted by matildaben 09 February | 00:06

anyone who says it's the best simply hasn't heard You're Under Arrest. (which may be the worst jazz album of all time.)

posted by shmegegge 09 February | 00:24

Kind of Blue is an amazing record. So What is one of the first jazz songs I could ever recognize, and it always reminds me of being young, finding out about great art, and feeling like my life was a gigantic canvas waiting to be filled in.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 09 February | 00:25

The record is open in that way, lipstick thespian, Some might say it was the birth of modal jazz. Bill Evans had a lot to do with that album.

In closing I have to recommend this movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093969/

Music by Miles Davis and tits by Ellen Barkin.

posted by Cryptical Envelopment 09 February | 00:29

I've always considered Kind of Blue as the album to recommend to someone who wants to hear "some jazz" or perhaps has heard of Miles and is curious. It almost never fails to be liked.

Thanks for the transcriptions, by the way. All I have is Real Book stuff and that's hardly reliable. I'm going to play Freddie Freeloader when I get home.

posted by tommasz 09 February | 07:48

The best thing about the album is when you read the following from the liner notes:

Miles conceived these settings only hours before the recording dates and arrived with sketches which indicated to the group what was to be played. Therefore, you will hear something close to pure spontaneity in these performances. The group had never played these pieces prior to the recordings and I think without exception the first complete performance of each was a "take."

posted by furtive 09 February | 13:26

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