[DanG]

I went shopping with a friend of mine to get a birthday present for yet another friend. We went to Best Buy, and while browsing through the music section, I saw Miles Davis' Kind of Blue for ten bucks.

Should I get it? I thought about it, we left and got some presents, laughed at the crappy speakers they had, and then before we went to the cash register, I said screw it and picked a copy up. Just $9.99, what's there to lose.

I've never been a fan of jazz -- not that I didn't like it, I just had never really listened to it.

Needless to say, from the first bar of music on "So What" (aside from the annoying hiss), I was just blown away. This is some of the best music I have ever heard -- I like it even more than Floyd and Zeppelin. Wow.

If you haven't heard this CD and appreciate fine classical music but don't know jazz, listen -- it's just so damn great.

 

[jude]

Danno,

Yes, you discovered one of jazz's treasures. Kind of Blue is a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.

If you really like that, you ought to also pick up Miles Davis' The Complete Concert: 1964 (My Funny Valentine and "Four" & More/Recorded Live in Concert). It's a two-CD set, and it's remarkable. It's one of those recordings that's hard to believe is almost 40 years old. But even more than the great recording quality, the music will amaze you.

Make sure to read the liner notes too. Very interesting background on this performance.

 

[MacDEF]

DanG, you finally listened to all of us?

Just kidding... that is IMHO one of the two best jazz albums ever (Blue Train is my other favorite). Simply an incredible lineup playing incredible music.

 

[coolvij]

Kind Of Blue was not only great because of the beautiful improvisation and the all-star lineup, but because it possesed a certain something which few other albums possess in any genre. A sort of timelessness - Blue Train has this, IMO, as a does a Love Supreme, both my John Coltrane.

I think your next purchase in jazz should be Blue Train - it is not as improvisationally powerful compared to A Love Supreme...but it complements Kind Of Blue well. And you might find that you like it better, too.

Though the likelihood of the last sentence HAPPENING is unlikely.

Unless you're me.

 

[neil]

Don't get caugh tin the Kind of Blue Buying Loop. I don't have the details, however.. a quick synopsis is that they released Kind of Blue on CD many years back. I think they digitally remastered it.. THEN, discovered that the equipment they were using to record from the masters wasn't as warm as using tube equipment.. THEN, they discovered that the masters were recorded at a different speed than the players, thus making the sold copies of all previous releases slightly off-key -- so recently they released the "on-key" version of the performance.

Can someone really recap what the hell happened? I think I'm garbling all this up. But I know one thing for sure, there were a bunch of Kind of Blue releases, all of them supposed to sound better than the last.

 

[Hamsta]

Quote:

Originally posted by neil Can someone really recap what the hell happened? I think I'm garbling all this up. But I know one thing for sure, there were a bunch of Kind of Blue releases, all of them supposed to sound better than the last.

The following info comes from the back cover of the 20-bit reissue (the MOST recent one) :-

The original recording was done with a Presto valve 3-track recorder. The reissue was remixed from the original tapes using the same model machine, giving it the warmth the original recordings to LP had. It's then been mastered at 20-bit, although some would question if that matters when your CDP's only going to read 16-bit. Pity it's not 20-bit HDCD! Apparently, on earlier versions of Kind of Blue 3 of the tracks had been recorded at an erroniuosly low speed making them slightly faster, and sharper than concert pitch. This has been corrected for on the new recording. All this and an alternate take on "Flamenco Sketches". I've actually seen a copy of a book on the recording of Kind of Blue at the local Borders which I might just have to go and procure - it might have some more info.

So that's the techie mumbo-jumbo, but what does it sound like? I've owned both an old copy and this new reissue, and let's just say that I happily shelled out the clams for the new one in spite of already owning the old one (anyone who knows my Scottish heritage will appreciate how remarkable this truely is!), and my old copy has been donated to mini-system owning friends of mine who wanted "something jazzy". No contest, IMHO money well spent!

Cheers
Hamsta