Miles Davis "Kind of Blue"


Is it just me...or is the recording of this session overhyped...I agree it is a great performance...but "Birth of the Cool" and others are superior in my mind...any thoughts?
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Showing 1 response by mrwigglewm

Interestingly, Miles was disappointed with Kind of Blue. In his autobiography he writes on page 235: "When I tell people that I missed what I was trying to do on Kind of Blue, that I missed getting the exact sound of the African finger piano up in that sound, they just look at me like I'm crazy. Everyone said that record was a masterpiece -- and I loved it too -- and so they just feel I'm trying to put them on. But that's what I was trying to do on most of that album, particularly on "All Blues" and "So What." I just missed."
Kind of Blue has received so much adulation and airplay that other equally deserving albums might seem neglected by comparison. IMHO, these would include:
Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines, 1928 (Smithsonian)
The Billy Holiday Story, Vol. II (Columbia, 1935-41)
Duke Ellington - 1940 (Smithsonian)
Solo Flight: The Genius of Charlie Christian
The Very Best of Bird (The "Dial Sessions")
Bird/The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes)
Dizzy Gillespie: In the Beginning
Thelonious Monk: The Complete Genius
The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol. I
Clifford Brown: The Quintet
Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus and More
Miles Davis/Gil Evans - Porgy and Bess
Wes Montgomery: While We're Young
John Coltrane: Giant Steps
The Best of John Coltrane: His Greatest Years
Bill Evans: The Village Vanguard Sessions
Oliver Nelson: The Blues and the Abstract Truth