Recently I was leafing through my current issue of Downbeat Magazine and I found out that one of my all-time favorite albums, Kind of Blue, is turning 50. To celebrate its release Columbia Records has rereleased the album in a special case loaded with alternate takes, false starts, a DVD and many supplemental liner notes. It’s sure to be a jazz enthusiasts dream – I am going to purchase it as soon as I finish writing this – chock full of historical detail and new material that may have never been seen before.

What makes this so historical? What is it about this album that draws people in and why does it have such broad appeal? I think the answer lies in the simplicity of the five tracks that make up the original release and the personalities of the musicians who came to the table for this historic recording. Jazz of the late 1950s was still a world very much influenced by bebop. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie blazed on to the scene in the 1940s and turned jazz on its head as the swing era gave way to the harmonic complexities and technical abilities of bebop music. This sound continued to be refined and developed in different ways by artists like Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, J.J. Johnson and others. What Miles Davis did in his 1959 release was give listeners a chance to breathe. The music was less about technical virtuosity and more about space, simplicity and melody. For instance two of the tracks are straight up blues and one track, So What, has only two chords.

Kind of Blue was the first record that I could play along with as a teenager. I transcribed the bass melody on So What and listened intently to Miles, Coltrane and Cannonball and played along with as much of their solos as I could. I formed my first jazz combo in high school and we played several songs from the Kind of Blue album as part of our repertoire. We were able to mimic the style of the legendary Miles Davis Sextet and feel a part of the lineage of jazz. We premiered our versions of Freddie Freeloader and So What at Hava Java in Apple Valley, Minnesota on a warm summer evening in 1995. Similarly I have introduced many of my own students to jazz and transcribing by playing having them work on solos from Kind of Blue. What high school trumpet player that really digs jazz hasn’t sat down and figured out Miles’s solo on So What, especially the legendary opening line “Ba-Ba-Doo-Bop?” I’ve taught many students the beginnings of improvisation by simply having them play over the changes to So What or Freddie Freeloader. Basic knowledge of mixolydian and dorian scales is all it takes to sound like a superstar.

Kind of Blue is an all-time classic and after 50 years it still speaks as clearly as it did when it came out.

Look here for clips of Miles Davis playing with Coltrane.

Check this site out for more information about Miles.