Miles Davis

Kind of Blue (Columbia CS8410) remains one of the most iconic and infl uential jazz albums of all time. In his autobiography, Miles Davis discussed his intentions for this unique body of compositions and the conditions in which it was recorded: “I found a new piano player in February [1959]; his name was Wynton Kelly. Wynton was from the West Indies, from Jamaica, and had played with Dizzy for a minute. I loved the way Wynton played, because he was a combination of Red Garland and Bill Evans; he could play almost anything. Wynton joined us just before I was going into the studio to make Kind of Blue, but I had already planned that album around the piano playing of Bill Evans, who had agreed to play on it with us. We went into the studio to record Kind of Blue on the first or second day of March 1959. We had the sextet of Trane, Jimmy Cobb, Paul, Cannonball, myself, and Wynton Kelly, but he played on only one tune: ‘Freddie Freeloader.’ Bill Evans played on the rest of the tunes.”