The Dr. Jazz Podcast - 1959: The Most Creative Year in Jazz (Sept. 2017)

1959 was arguably the most creative year in all of jazz history. Bird had already passed away, and this year would see the passings of Lester Young and Billie Holiday. Musically speaking, when we read jazz history texts or see the labels among the many diverse styles of jazz (i.e "Free Jazz," "Modal Jazz," "Third Stream," etc...), we tend to separate these different styles into alternate universes. In fact, many of the contributions we now consider to be jazz "classics" all happened around the same time. To fully understand the realm of jazz today, or all the different possibilities that could occur tomorrow, we must understand that there wasn't a defining time in which Miles Davis woke up and said..."I'm going to make the most influential jazz album of all time [ Kind of Blue ] today." The same goes for Ornette Coleman, or Dave Brubeck, etc...In this spirit, we now explore the major jazz albums and contributions of 1959—the year that changed jazz.