cripper's Full Review: Kind of Blue [Remaster] by Miles Davis
Miles Davis has always been one of my favourite trumpet players and a personal idol of mine (I'm a trumpet player too). Davis was immediately recognized for his undeniable talent during the early 50s period of 'hot jazz'. His ability to seemingly hit and bend high-pitched notes at will while playing at a fast pace has always never ceased to amaze people like me and these are done ever so well on songs like Four. However, it is not his early period of 'hot jazz' that he will be most remembered for. Davis will probably be remembered for his album, Kind of Blue, which was made in 1959.
Kind of Blue changed the face of jazz forever. This depended on simple, improvisational, melodic jazz that moved away from the difficult, harmonic jazz that was prevalent before this album was made. Davis said in an interview in 1958 that "music has gotten thick" and that there were simply too many chords to learn and play from. With this album, Davis used simple major and minor chords in his music. However, with these minor and major chords, there are various different scales that you can use within them and the infinite possibilities created by these scales are what make up most of the brilliantly improvised solos in this album. The musicians were encouraged to create melodies with feeling during their solos rather than show off their skills. This methodology is the one idea that has changed jazz for good and is one of the reasons why this album has been such a commercial and critical success.
The album starts off with the universally acclaimed, So What. This starts off with the bass of Paul Chambers playing a slow melody and Bill Evans' piano responding with soft chords in the background. After a minute or so of this, the bass speeds up and changes the tempo of the song with the song's main melody, at which point the drums come in and start tapping the high-hat. The bass line is soon echoed by the piano, Davis' trumpet, John Adderley's alto saxophone and John Coltrane's tenor saxophone, who hit the famous two notes that practically make up the song. Soon after 8 bars of the song's main melody, Davis lets loose with a relaxing solo that consists of hitting every note with conviction and initiating the key changes in the song. It is Miles in his element. There is such beauty in what he plays and it is filled with a lot of soul. It is so relaxed that the solo just sounds so smooth. Every note in the solo moves so sweetly. After being treated to a fine piece of trumpet work, we are treated to the frenetic pace of two saxophone solos: one from Julian Adderley's alto sax and another from John Coltrane's tenor sax. These differs greatly from Davis' chilled, slow-paced solo. However, these are just as great and the changes in key are just done as smoothly. The walking bass line add to the relaxed atmosphere created by the song, while the drums of Jimmy Cobb do well to keep a solid beat, despite the syncopated rhythms implemented in Davis' and Coltrane's solos. The title, So What, sort of tells you not to worry and relax. With the solos from Davis' trumpet and Coltrane's saxophone, it certainly does. The song does eventually goes back into the melody and this ends a great song.
Freddie Freeloader starts off with a similar melody to So What except the piano plays a counter melody in the background, while the bass line walks behind the melody played by the trumpet and saxophones. Soon, we break into a piano solo from Wynton Kelly (the only song where Evans is not on the piano). This is an excellent piano solo that makes use of a variety of syncopated rhythms and makes full use of the piano, moving up and down scales. This soon transits into a Miles Davis solo. His solo is expressive, so free-flowing and his pitch control in this solo is just amazing. I love the way the dynamics change as he reaches higher pitches in his solo playing, particularly when he reaches high D-flats towards the end of the solo. The alto saxophone solo, again, changes the pace from Davis' solo. It is fast and makes full use of the scales yet making it all sound so simple. Its big, brassy sound make it enjoyable to listen to. Soon, Coltrane comes up with yet another brilliant tenor sax solo. It is just amazing how he moves up and down scales with his saxophone in such a natural manner, and is just testament to his ability as a saxophone player. He hits some pretty high notes and as I mentioned just now, this just feels so natural and does not sound forced in any way. The drums and bass keep a solid rhythm throughout the song and back-up the solos very effectively in this song. This ends with the melody it started off with.
Blue in Green may be the shortest song on this album at 5 and a half minutes, but this is by far one of the best songs on the album. This starts off with the piano playing in the chords before Davis attacks his solo by hitting his first note with such soul and conviction. His solo, which is played through a harmon mute (a tin mute that creates a tin-like, metallic sound), adds this sort of nostalgic feel this song has and when Davis "growls" on these notes in this song, you can feel him hit those notes and it is just so beautiful when he does that. Hitting these kind of notes with such clarity and feeling may be the hardest possible thing to do on the trumpet and every time he hits those notes, it strikes a chord in your heart. This solo is so melodically intense that you feel what he is feeling in this song. The piano does well to back up Davis' solo, as does the bass and extremely soft drum playing, showing the superb drumming dynamic control from Cobb, a talent that I think most drummers do not seem to have. The piano melodies move well with the rhythm and create a wonderful feeling to the song. Coltrane soon uses his tenor saxophone solo in this song. It is certainly more conservative than his other solos, which is good, showing a more soulful side to his playing. It is amazing what slowing the pace can do to the feeling created by a solo. However, this song belongs to Miles Davis and his heart-felt soloing.
The song, All Blues, starts off with the piano trilling and the bass and drums backing up with a solid rhythm. Soon, the saxophones start off with a melody before Davis' muted trumpet (using a straight mute this time) fills in the gaps. After an extended period of the melody, Davis breaks into a solo and this solo is the benchmark for all jazz solos. Starting off soft and slow, the solo reaches a climax slowly by increasing the intensity of the solo by slowly increasing from soft-to-loud, using notes higher and higher up in the scale yet at the same time, remaining beautifully melodic. While Davis is soloing away, the piano takes over from the song's initial melody, while the drums provide the beat and bass moves to the beat provided. The alto saxophone takes over from the trumpet providing us with another rich solo. It sounds so rich and it changes the pace so effectively in this song. The transitions from fast semi-quavers to slow crochets are incredibly smooth and it has the same intensity that was created by Davis' blissful solo. Coltrane has his turn after the alto sax and does his magic again with yet another soulful solo. This sounds so melodic and beautiful. Again, Coltrane makes good use of the scales and plays quickly with seeming ease. It just amazes me how his solo sounds so free-flowing all the time. They just move without sounding forced or being under any pressure and it is such a joy to hear something as smooth sailing as his work in this song. The piano start to play its solo making full use of various major and minor chords in the solo. Again, the song ends with a return to the melody.
This album contains two versions of Flamenco Sketches. Both are essentially the same, the only difference being the difference in solos (the solos are, after all, completely improvised). But the song still starts off with the bass and piano responding to each other through different melodies before the beautiful sound of Davis' trumpet enters the fold. Again, excellent pitch control and dynamic control, which do so much in terms of adding feeling. He plays his heart out during this song. Again, the controlled drumming from Cobb is good and shows excellent control of dynamics. Coltrane's solo is great and in the second version of this song, when he hits those low notes on his tenor sax, it just sounds so deep and sexy, which effectively is the type of sound that should come out of a tenor saxophone. The alto saxophone has that same sexy sound during its solo and makes some good use of minor scales towards the end of the solo. The lone sound of the piano during its solo creates such a peaceful, relaxed feeling. Like all the other solos in this song, the piano uses minor scales effectively and controls the dynamics brilliantly, using both great fingerwork and solid chord playing. The ending soulful and emotion-filled solo from Davis ends a brilliant album.
What can I say? This is simply a brilliant jazz album that all music fans, regardless of what genre you listen to, should keep. The creativity and innovativeness behind Davis' compositions (he composed all these songs) and quality improvised solo playing set the benchmark for all jazz soloists today and for practically all other soloists as well. Simply put, this is one of the best albums ever made.
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