Miles Davis & Kind of Blue

Miles Davis was a famous trumpet player, composer, and bandleader who was born in Illinois in 1926 (Magee, 2007). Davis grew up playing the trumpet, moving from band to band as he began to rise to fame. Fairly early in his career, he made a name for himself after recording and performing with the like of Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and John Coltrane (Aaron Henry, 2004). This rise to fame came to a head with the release of Davis’ album Kind of Blue. This album, released in 1959, was about as different from Davis’ previous recording as possible. Previously, Miles Davis had pioneered a fast-paced, incredibly technical style of jazz performance known as “bebop” (Aaron Henry, 2004). However, Kind of Blue had a different sound altogether. Much sparser, yet just as deliberate, Miles Davis embarked on a path that many musicians would follow. This new style of arrangement and performance, known as “modal jazz” or “cool jazz”, focused less on blaring speed virtuosic range, and more on making an effective musical statement as simply as possible (Aaron Henry, 2004). This simple but remarkable effectiveness is a part of why I chose this artifact to examine.

            When Kind of Blue was recorded, it wasn’t meant to just be a separation from prior forms of jazz. The members of Davis’ sextet at that point, John Coltrane, Julian Adderley, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb, recorded the album with the intent of being as collaborative and communicative as possible, aiming to mirror what they saw in the organization of the Civil Rights Movement (Schewe, 2019). This embedded a deeper purpose into the music, especially since there are no vocals or lyrics for any of the tracks: To reflect the fight for social justice and equality, and to do so in a way that was peaceful and thoughtful. The bond between these musicians and the Civil Rights Movement goes even further. The musicians and many of the producers and engineers on the album had either been involved in demonstrations, been victims of racially charged violence, or both. This lead to the direct and indirect collaboration between Miles Davis’s sextet and the Civil Rights Movement in recording and releasing Kind of Blue.