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Undertoad · 12-04-2008, 12:29 PM

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

This is in the heart of the American cultural DNA. Somebody said it was coming up on the 50th anniversary of it so I fetched it.

I have never listened to the whole thing in real-time, but I've surely heard everything on it just by accident and since mama is a deep classic jazz fiend and since it influenced everything that came after it.

Since I have not yet achieved my own 50th anniversary this work is not revolutionary in my lifetime. It strikes me that my understanding of its musical language is largely due to Vince Guaraldi's awesome Peanuts soundtrack work, which began 5 years after Kind of Blue. We didn't realize it at the time, but you didn't grow up in the Peanuts generation without being exposed to quality jazz.

So, to me, Kind of Blue is simply good music, and not the extraordinary accomplishment that it's always heralded as. But for the same reason, it sounds... modern somehow, not like a 50-year-old recording.

12-04-2008, 12:29 PM	#1496
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Miles Davis - Kind of Blue This is in the heart of the American cultural DNA. Somebody said it was coming up on the 50th anniversary of it so I fetched it. I have never listened to the whole thing in real-time, but I've surely heard everything on it just by accident and since mama is a deep classic jazz fiend and since it influenced everything that came after it. Since I have not yet achieved my own 50th anniversary this work is not revolutionary in my lifetime. It strikes me that my understanding of its musical language is largely due to Vince Guaraldi's awesome Peanuts soundtrack work, which began 5 years after Kind of Blue. We didn't realize it at the time, but you didn't grow up in the Peanuts generation without being exposed to quality jazz. So, to me, Kind of Blue is simply good music, and not the extraordinary accomplishment that it's always heralded as. But for the same reason, it sounds... modern somehow, not like a 50-year-old recording.