From
here :
At this point the importance of Miles Davis groundbreaking work on his 1959 release
Kind of Blue
is well-established. Recorded over two dates in 1959 (March 2nd and
April 22nd at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio) and featuring the legendary
“First Sextet” lineup of Davis, Julian Adderley, John Coltrane, Wynton
Kelly/Bill Evans (Kelly was on “Freddie Freeloader”), Paul Chambers and
James Cobb. This is the band that Davis started
his experimentation with
modal jazz and the move away from his hard bop style. Though
Kind of Blue is heralded as the pinnacle of modal style, Davis had already been working with it on his 1958 release
Milestones, suggesting that Coltrane was the catalyst of this move.
Kind of Blue stands head and shoulders above many other jazz
releases in popularity– depending on who you believe, it may be the
greatest selling jazz release of all time. It certainly represents an
important release in my jazz collection. When people who are unfamiliar
with jazz ask me where to start listening, it is a safe bet to suggest
Kind of Blue.
So much about the album lends itself to being a springboard of sorts to
more jazz– Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans’s participation
alone will send the newly motivated jazz investigator down some very
important and landmark releases in the jazz canon.
Of course, these facts are not lost on the label custodian of Miles
Davis’s catalog– Sony/BMG. I don’t think I can even count the reissues
of just
Kind of Blue that have happened over the years. For the 50th Anniversary of
Kind of Blue
in 2008, Sony Legacy released a beautifully-packaged release that
included a clear-blue vinyl stereo LP (which fixed the long-standing
mastering error that had side 2 at the wrong speed), 1 CD of Kind of
Blue with an alternate take of ”Flamenco Sketches” and session chatter,
1 CD with five tracks from a May 26, 1958 session and a live version of
“So What” from April 9, 1960 in Holland. There was also a DVD
documentary of the album, and a beautiful book, posters and photos. This
is the version I have in my collection.
So, I was surprised to see in the
Record Store Day list diligently maintained at Wax Poetic the mention of an LP called
The Kinda Blue Sessions ’59.
Some quick googling turned up some information about it, but not a lot
of details. It is on Birdland Records and distributed by RedEye.
(Birdland also has an interesting Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
Munich ’59 live release). At
SpinCD’s website, they provide the tracklist and credits:
Side One
1.Freddie Freeloader session
2.So What session
Side Two
1.Blue in Green session
2.All Blues session.
Musicians: Miles Davis – Trumpet, John Coltrane – Tenor sax, Bill
Evans – Piano (S1 T2. S2 T1&2) Wyn Kelly – Piano (S1 T1), Julian
Adderly- Alto Sax (All except S2 T1), Paul Chambers – Bass James Cobb-
Drums
Based on the research I’ve done, I suspect that this is possibly a partial release of the bootleg commonly known as Kind of Blue Studio Sessions and Outtakes.
Initially I was a little concerned that this would be a release of
only the additional tracks on the first CD of the 2008 Sony Legacy
release of false starts and studio sequences. In fact, these are in
exactly the same order, but it’s missing the tracks from “Flamenco
Sketches” making this a release that– including the “Flamenco Sketches”
chatter and false starts would have only been 10 minutes long!
7. Freddie Freeloader studio sequence 1 from the 3/2/59 sessions (0:51)
8. Freddie Freeloader false start from the 3/2/59 sessions (1:25)
9. Freddie Freeloader studio sequence 2 from the 3/2/59 sessions (1:26)
10. So What studio sequence 1 from the 3/2/59 sessions (1:53)
11. So What studio sequence 2 from the 3/2/59 sessions (0:59)
12. Blue in Green studio sequence from the 3/2/59 sessions (1:59)
13. Flamenco Sketches – studio sequence 1 from the 4/22/59 sessions (0:42)
14. Flamenco Sketches – studio sequence 2 from the 4/22/59 sessions (1:09)
15. All Blues – studio sequence from the 4/22/59 sessions (0:18)
But, the notable absence of the “Flamenco Sketches” sequences and the
one outtake that they released on the Legacy release of ”Flamenco
Sketches” would make this, although interesting from a collector’s
standpoint, a pretty lame release out of the context of full songs.
Especially at $29 MSRP.
The Kind of Blue Studio Sessions and Outtakes notes lists this track listing:
Tracks 1,2,3 > March 2, 1959 (2:30pm to 5:30pm and 7:00pm to 10:00pm)
Tracks 5,6 > April 22, 1959 (2:30pm to 5:30pm)
Columbia 30th Street Studio, New-York, USA
Tracks:
1. FREDDIE FREELOADER SESSION (13’38)
2. SO WHAT SESSION (12’53)
3. BLUE IN GREEN SESSION (11’13)
4. FLAMENCO SKETCHES SESSION (24’10)
5. ALL BLUES SESSION (11’53)
Since we know that an LP can be at the most 24 minutes per side, if
you take out the 24 minutes of “Flamenco Sketches,” it would fit on one
LP. Though, they could include “Flamenco Sketches” as a bonus track on
the CD they are including.
The only caveat I’d mention here is that these recordings are direct
dumps of the safety masters of each of the sessions (Columbia 62290,
62291, 62292, 62293, 62294) and include the tape starts and stops and
have some cut outs– possibly from the tape edits? I suspect that due to
the very few extra full takes available, this may include takes that
were used on the official release of
Kind of Blue, which begs the question about the legitimacy of the release.
Based on the wonderful
Miles Ahead Sessions Information database
which articulates all of the details of the sessions down to the studio
chatter, here is what I know about the possible tracks:
1. Freddie Freeloader Session – This is Take 2, Take 3, Take 4 – An Edit of Take 4 was used on the official release.
2. So What Session – This is the full Take 3- An Edit of Take 3 was
used on the official release. The bootleg includes Cannonball Adderley
singing “with a song in my heart…” at the end.
3. Blue in Green Session – Take 2, Take 3, Take 4, Take 5 – An Edit of Take 5 was used on the official release.
4. All Blues Session – Take 1 – An Edit (faded) version was used on
the official release. The bootleg includes the unfaded end with
Paul Chambers panting at the end and saying “Damn…” part of ”Damn that’s a hard mother!”
If this release is the
Kind of Blue Sessions and Outtakes
version, I’ll be happy to have this in my collection! The sound is
incredible– which isn’t surprising considering the source, but certainly
one I’d play. It’s great to hear the musicians working through what
would become one of the most important jazz albums in history.
Read this interesting piece on NPR called “Between the Takes” by Ashley Kahn which was also used in the hardbound book included in the 50th Anniversary box of
Kind of Blue.