Still Kind of Blue

On this day 87 years ago one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century was born. On May 26, 1926, Cleota Mae Davis gave birth to Miles Dewey Davis in Alton, Illinois. At age 13 Davis learned to play the trumpet under the guidance of Elwood Buchanan, a family friend. Buchanan encouraged Davis to play trumpet differently than the style popularized by Louis Armstrong. As his trumpeting skills grew at age 17 he got a chance to play trumpet in a band with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. At 18 Davis headed to New York to attend the Julliard School of Music. While at Julliard he teamed up with Charlie Parker to play at nightclubs in Harlem. After recording numerous times he consulted his father and dropped out of school to be a musician full-time. Davis formed a band of his own and recorded songs which would eventually be featured on the album Birth of the Cool in 1957. In the 1950s Davis fought a long battle with addiction to heroin that ended in the assembly of one of the greatest jazz bands ever. The Davis sextet consisted of himself, pianist Bill Evans, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian Adderley. In 1959 Davis released what many consider to be his magnum opus with the critically acclaimed Kind of Blue. In this masterpiece Miles Davis' sound is almost entire modal jazz as opposed to his previous style of bebop jazz. It received perfect reviews from critics all across the board and as of 2008 it has sold over 4 millions copies giving it 4x platinum certification. After the release of this album Davis' career sky-rocketed and he went on to win 7 Grammy awards before his passing in 1991.

Kind of Blue 50th Anniversary Edition