KIND OF BLUE

Whichever jazz-related musical forum you may be browsing, you'll find the Kind Of Blue shining bright at the very top of the ratings. And it is, undoubtedly, a well made and a rather pleasant album - pleasant enough to be awarded 3 stars, or maybe four. Not five.

When writing reviews, I try to avoid comparing one entity to another, because comparisons are never fair, but I must say right away that the world of jazz in the late 1950s and early 1960s saw quite a few greater and bolder variations than the Kind Of Blue had to offer.

My main personal objection is that a good chunk of the Kind of Blue is making too much use of painfully predictable blues chord progressions; blues had been old news well before 1959. Blues is perfectly suitable for emotionally safe, slowhand musicking, and it can be pretty at times, but exiting it is not.