Miles Davis: "Kind of Blue"

To begin the New Year we are going to look back 60 years to the year 1959 and as so many iconic and essential recordings were made in that productive year we will be exploring four hand-picked recordings for the four Mondays in January and later in the year we will return to 1959 a couple more times to explore more classic recordings from that golden year. We begin tonight with perhaps the most iconic Jazz recording ever. Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue". This record continues to sell and is listened to by people even those with limited or no interest in Jazz. It has transcended labeling. Miles Davis composed all the tunes and his band included Julian "Cannonball" Adderley on alto saxophone, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wynton Kelly on piano (on one tune only), Bill Evans on piano on the rest, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Tonight we'll hear this recording in a new way in the sequence that the band originally recorded the tunes. Doing it this way can make listeners familiar with the music hear things in a new way. The recording was done in two sessions. The first on March 2,1959 and the second on April 22,1959. Kind of Blue is this month's first Jazz Feature so a Happy New year to all.