About

— The Analog Vault // Essential Listening —

Legends have a way of sticking around. If there was ever an album awaiting a high-fidelity, custom-pressed vinyl treatment of the level you now hold in your hands, it is Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. The top-selling jazz album of all time, it has been lauded, entered into "Best Of" lists and Halls of Fame, and universally acknowledged as a landmark recording — a five-track masterpiece of melancholy mood and melody.

It continues to be one of the most listened-to and studied recordings of all time, a required primer for many young musicians, and one of the most transcendent pieces of music ever recorded. Davis played trumpet sublime with his ensemble sextet featuring pianist Bill Evans, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley with Wynton Kelly playing piano on "Freddy the Freeloader."

Now Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds, Inc., together with Quality Record Pressings, is putting Kind of Blue where it belongs: the Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR) pressed on Clarity Vinyl with attention paid to every single detail of every single record.

The 200-gram records will feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable. From the lead-in groove to the run-out groove, there is no pitch to the profile, allowing the customer's stylus to play truly perpendicular to the grooves from edge to center. Clarity Vinyl allows for the purest possible pressing and the most visually stunning presentation. Every UHQR will be hand inspected upon pressing completion, and only the truly flawless will be allowed to go to market. Each UHQR will be packaged in a deluxe box and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a hand-signed certificate of inspection. This will be a truly deluxe, collectible product.

For this 45 RPM 2LP edition we've set the bar for excellence higher. Lifelike distinct detail that was palpable enough in 33 1/3 RPM is holographic at 45. Four glorious sides of 200-gram vinyl from QRP, the best presser in the business, reduces distortion and high frequency loss as the wider-spaced grooves let your stereo cartridge track more accurately. There's also a 20-page booklet with updated session photos and liner notes by Robert Palmer and Ashley Kahn. Plus, we've included photos of legendary mastering engineer Bernie Grundman's mastering notes from this release. — (via Label)

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Kind of Blue is more than Miles Davis's most enduring recording, it's a testament to Miles' experimental approach, drastically simplifying modern jazz by returning to melody unlike the chord complexity more often heard at the time. "The music has gotten thick," Davis complained in a 1958 interview for The Jazz Review. "... There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them." Kind of Blue is, in a sense, all melody — and atmosphere.

None of the musicians had played any of the tunes before heading into the first of two recording sessions in early spring of 1959. In fact Miles had written out the settings for most of them only a few hours before the session. Miles also stuck to his old recording procedure of having virtually no rehearsal and only one take for each tune.

Miles remained proud of the album, performing at least two of its tracks — "So What" and "All Blues" — for years after, until his musical path took him in a different direction.
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The American jazz cannon brims with brilliance, but if one had to pick the definitive jazz album, most would point to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue. Beyond being a paragon of its own storied genre, Kind of Blue is undoubtedly one of the greatest works of art of the 20th century. Captained by Davis alongside a dream team of Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb - this album remains revolutionarily inventive.

With only the barest sketch of a concept in mind, these seven masters took turns leading the music in directions that defied strict chord progressions - resulting in something immensely cool, romantic, melancholic and melodic. Kind of Blue is the rare, universally-beloved record that earns every bit of hyperbole ever heaped upon it. — The Analog Vault

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Label: Analogue Productions, Columbia, Sony Music Commercial Music Group
Series: UHQR by Analogue Productions  - UHQR 0004-45
Format: 2 x Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Album, Numbered, Reissue, Stereo, 200 g, Clarity Vinyl
Reissued:  2022 / Original Release: 1959
Genre: Jazz
Style: Modal, Hard Bop

File under: TAV Essential Listening
File under: Audiophile Jazz
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