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therealmadmonk
10 days ago
My thoughts about this album after listening to it for about 20 years:
Kind of Blue is often suggested to people as a first album to start listening to jazz. In my opinion it is not the best album for that. The sound of Kinf of Blue made history, that's for sure - but it's not representative of "jazz" overall. Also it can be quite plain and boring to a casual listener. For the same qualities can give this stereotypical idea of cool, smooth jazz.
To truly appreciate this brilliant album it took me several years of knowledge of other jazz music. And it is indeed a masterpiece created by the mind of Miles Davis and in orchestration with all the other involved musicians. It is also one of the finest points of contact between classical and jazz music in my opinion. It is a very impressionistic piece of music, and it's not a coincidence that Miles choose Bill Evans to develop his next adventure.
This album to me is magic and unique, as for many many other music lovers, so much that 20 years of listening and I still find layers of beauty and brilliance in it.
manand
10 days ago
Which album in your opinion is the one to suggest to people who want to start listening jazz?
therealmadmonk
8 days ago
It depends on what music they like to begin with. Jazz is such a broad genre that has different entry points. For example I came from metal and heavy music in general, electric blues as well. So I really enjoyed more sweaty and rhythm charged records like Mingus "AH UM" for example, or various from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers like "Indestructible!"
Coming from "guitar" music some might wanna start with Django Reinhardt and then maybe move on to Charlie Christian and then Wes Montgomery.
Coming from latin sounds and rhythms maybe Stan Getz (and a lot more that I'm not very expert at).
Also Thlonious Monk is usually a great entry point: first off he's music is just great overall but also his particular angular style makes him more approachable to some. I'd suggest something like Live at The Five Spots, Misterioso.
Then Miles Davis for sure but maybe I'd say Milestones is a more varied record with different approaches and a clear relationship with bebop (and also the first modal composition that is the song Milestones).
I could go on...
manand
8 days ago
Hehe a big discussion for sure, not for chat…
I could also write many
Generally I agree, for Thelonious I doubt a bit , he is not very accessible, you have to be into a jazz for a while to really got him.
To my experience , people who listened to kind of blue started to show some interest in jazz generally
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