Teasing the Korean Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 For those of you who heard "Kind of Blue" when it was originally released: Could any of you have guessed what a massive seller (by jazz measures) and hugely influential album it would become over the decades to come? What was your reaction to the album at the time, relative to previous Miles albums or albums by contemporaneous artists? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted March 2, 2014 Report Share Posted March 2, 2014 It was one of the first jazz recordings I owned and definitely the first Miles Davis I heard. I thought all jazz was going to sound like that. I was sort of disappointed when it didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 Am I correct in thinking that Bitches Brew went gold before (and much quicker) than did Kind Of Blue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertrand Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 Those of you who heard it at the time, did you notice the pitch was off on side one? I'm always puzzled as to why Miles, if no one else, never complained about it. Bertrand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xybert Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 Really interesting question. I won't hijack this thread but i have a ton of "what was the word on the street?" questions about various eras, artists and albums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted March 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 (edited) Am I correct in thinking that Bitches Brew went gold before (and much quicker) than did Kind Of Blue? Probably, but like Dark Side of the Moon, Kind of Blue has remained a consistently strong weekly seller through several decades. If I'm not mistaken, it is on average the best selling back-catalog jazz title. As you know, it has also attained mythic status outside of jazz circles since at least the early 1990s if not earlier. Wikipedia, FWIW, reports that the RIAA certified it as selling quadruple platinum in 2008. Edited March 3, 2014 by Teasing the Korean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 When Kinda Blue reached best-selling-jazz-album-ever status, I just couldn't believe it. On release it seemed like just the next album from Miles, not essentially different in likely popularity from Milestones or Miles Ahead. The technical innovations of Kinda Blue passed clean over my head at the age of 19. It just sounded sophisticated, cool and hip. Milestones had been more of a shock with Coltrane doing sheets of sound and Cannonball taking on something of this, too. To a youngster bred on Bird, this was a lot to take! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 I wasn't there, but, based on other evidence*, it seems like the big buzz at the time was more focused on Miles' collaborations with Gil Evans. *Like, the the CBS television broadcast of April 1959. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Brown Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 (edited) I heard the music from Kind of Blue performed live a few months before the record was released. In July of 1959 George Wein brought a Newport Festival-type show to Toronto. The concerts ran for three days days - Friday through Sunday - and took place in the grandstand in the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. I can remember looking forward with great anticipation to hearing Davis's classic sextet and was more than a little disappointed to discover that John Coltrane and Bill Evans had both left the band. The personnel consisted of Miles, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Heath, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. Most of the music played during the group's performance was from the forthcoming Kind of Blue album. Cannonball took charge of all the spoken introductions and talked with great enthusiasm about the Kind of Blue material. He made the audience aware of the fact that this music had been quite challenging for the players when they first played it in the recording studio. So I guess those of us who first heard it at this concert realized even before it was played that it was something special. Edited March 3, 2014 by Don Brown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tapscott Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 I heard the music from Kind of Blue performed live a few months before the record was released. In July of 1959 George Wein brought a Newport Festival-type show to Toronto. The concerts ran for three days days - Friday through Sunday - and took place in the grandstand in the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. I can remember looking forward with great anticipation to hearing Davis's classic sextet and was more than a little disappointed to discover that John Coltrane and Bill Evans had both left the band. The personnel consisted of Miles, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Heath, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. Most of the music played during the group's performance was from the forthcoming Kind of Blue album. Cannonball took charge of all the spoken introductions and talked with great enthusiasm about the Kind of Blue material. He made the audience aware of the fact that this music had been quite challenging for the players when they first played it in the recording studio. So I guess those of us who first heard it at this concert realized even before it was played that it was something special. Great story. I can understand your disappointment at the personnel changes Don, but what we would give to see that exact band today!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 Jimmy Heath - really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 (edited) Jimmy Heath - really? Makes a certain amount of sense to me. Trane knew Heath from his Philly days, and Heath was among the first tenors (Bill Barron being another) to really understand Trane's music. Oh, and Miles had recorded with Jimmy and Percy Heath at his April 20, 1953 session for Blue Note ("C.T.A."). Edited March 3, 2014 by Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 I suspect that before Bitch's Brew, Porgy and Bess was the top selling Mile's Lp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 I listened once, said "So what?" and went on to my Acker Bilk collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king ubu Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 Those of you who heard it at the time, did you notice the pitch was off on side one? I'm always puzzled as to why Miles, if no one else, never complained about it. Bertrand. How many musicians actually do listen to their own records? Jimmy Heath - really? Makes a certain amount of sense to me. Trane knew Heath from his Philly days, and Heath was among the first tenors (Bill Barron being another) to really understand Trane's music. Oh, and Miles had recorded with Jimmy and Percy Heath at his April 20, 1953 session for Blue Note ("C.T.A."). Didn't Miles plan to get Heath sometime later again ... around the time he then signed Mobley? Heath was out on parole and not allowed to travel, so he couldn't take the gig - that's how I remember the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnblitweiler Posted March 3, 2014 Report Share Posted March 3, 2014 I heard a Miles Davis quintet with Jimmy Heath, Kelly, Chambers, Cobb at the Regal Theater in Chicago in spring, 1961. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Brown Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 King ubu mentions that Jimmy Heath was on parole in 1959 which made traveling a big problem. Yet somehow he made it across the border with Miles to perform in Toronto. Oddly enough, another group that appeared in the same series of concerts that weekend, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, had to come on stage without their saxophone player. Hank Mobley had been detained at the border for possession of narcotics. So what we heard was the "Art Blakey Quartet" with Lee Morgan. Damned if I can remember who the pianist was. I seem to remember that Jymie Merritt was the bassist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Head Man Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 Didn't Miles plan to get Heath sometime later again ... around the time he then signed Mobley? Heath was out on parole and not allowed to travel, so he couldn't take the gig - that's how I remember the story. Yes, that's how I remember it too......from Jimmy's biography "I Walked with Giants". Interesting book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.