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Cross Blogination 3: Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue

Cross Blogination is a project I’m doing with Diary Of A Ledger, the idea being every week one of us will recommend to the other one of our all time favourite albums, which we will then both write a review for. We have since amended this to allow recommendations every third week from one or our readers.  This is the third review in the series, suggested by @butterflygrrrl on twitter.

Our first suggestion from someone else, and we couldn't have been handed anything more outside of my comfort zone.  I dabbled a little in Jazz back in University, but it never really took. My main problem is that it is hard to shake the stereotype, and sure enough, within about 30 seconds of opener 'So What' the image that pops into my mind is of the Fast Show jazz sketch, old men with black jumpers sitting on stools saying 'nice.'

For the first half of this song all I can think is that I'd rather be listening to just about anything else, when all of a sudden, without me even noticing, that feeling leaves and is replaced by a kind of serenity as the trumpets and the wandering double bass click together. Suddenly I'm not in the Jazz club any more, but instead I am in a Chandler novel.  And then it strikes you, this is a brilliant album.

It's not hard to see why this album is held in such acclaim. 'So What' and 'Freddie Freeloader' are sublime and interesting pieces of mood music, but it's really when the centrepiece to the album 'Blue In Green' rolls around that this becomes truly spectacular.  From the first blow of Davis' trumpet the evocation of emotion that shines through is heartbreaking, Bill Evans' piano underpinning everything with such a wistful melancholy that it's almost impossible to do anything else than listen.

'All Blues' takes the tempo back up slightly (but not a huge amount, the stately pace of the album is maintained throughout) but injects a strange menace to proceedings, the piano again setting the mood, before 'Flamenco Sketch' rounds things off with the sort of vibe that seems to call to mind a lonely old drunk marking the passage of time with a bottle of bourbon. But, you know, in a romantic way.

I don't know what I was expecting from this album, having heard so much about it, and especially given its iconic status as 'one of the greatest albums ever made' but it certainly doesn't disappoint. If I'm brutally honest, I doubt I've found an album that I'll listen to every day, but certainly it's a keeper, something to be saved for special moments and certain moods.

4/5

I must admit, I'm really curious to see what Gray makes of this as well, so don't forget to head over to Diary Of A Ledger and see. Next week it's my turn, and to my mind one of the most perfect rock albums ever made!