Miles Davis

Kind of Blue

First released1959

Kind of Blue was recorded at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City between March and April 1959, with producer Irving Townsend overseeing the sessions. The album was notable for its use of modal jazz composition and improvisation, departing from the chord-changes approach that dominated jazz at the time. Engineer Fred Plaut managed the technical aspects of the recording, capturing the performances with Columbia's state-of-the-art equipment and multi-track recording capabilities. The sessions featured Miles Davis's first great quintet, including John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, and Jimmy Cobb, with some tracks recorded in single takes due to the spontaneous nature of the modal approach. The album's commercial and critical success helped establish modal jazz as a major development in jazz music and remains one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time.