KIND OF BLUE

I never thought I'd write a review about one of the top 5 jazz record of all time, one on which everything's been writer, re-written, an album of which everything and it's exact opposite's been said decades ago. Of course this album is completely out of context of the site it's featured, but it remains a monument. AKOB is Miles' first quintet (let's call it , the 50's quintet) with (brace yourself) Canonball Adderley, Coltrane on saxes, Bill Evans on piano (not to be confused with the Canadian Gil Evans of Davis' future trilogy) and the Cobb-Chambers diesel engine in rhythm section, ; and this very album is that line-up's apex.

Part of this album's phenomenal success and its legendary status is the extraordinary easiness of the "riff" of So What, which is only equalled by the "Take Five" riff. Not only does it have one killer riff, but it holds a second unforgettable riff in the lengthy All Blues, which is of course the album's centrepiece. Another stupendous moment is Flamenco Sketches where Coltrane and Davis extract some typical Spanish melodies and splatter them onto their quiet jazz, thus prefacing Miles's Sketches Of Spain to come in the next years.

I won't be giving the fifth star it would deserve, because the album is out of its context here, but I've said enough that it would deserve it, should we be on RYM or AMG. If you mustown just two jazz records, make sure that besides Coltrane's A Love Supreme, you get Miles'AKOB.