Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Quote of the Day (Chick Corea, on a Miles Davis Masterpiece)


"It's one thing to just play a tune, but it's another thing to practically create a new language of music, which is what Kind of Blue did."—Pianist Chick Corea, quoted in Ashley Kahn, Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece.

Fifty years ago today, the final recording session was held at Columbia Record's 30th Street Studio for what might be Miles Davis’s supreme moment as a jazz icon, Kind of Blue. The great trumpeter’s lineup included musicians who matched the standard set by Davis himself: “Cannonball” Adderley (alto saxophone), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Wynton Kelly (piano), and my favorite of the bunch, Bill Evans (piano).

For an excellent summary of why this recording became Davis’ biggest-selling LP—and one of Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time—please see John Edward Hasse’s account from two weeks ago in The Wall Street Journal.

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