Why Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is one of the greatest jazz albums of all time - Hindustan Times
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Why Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is one of the greatest jazz albums of all time

Aug 28, 2016 09:59 AM IST

Musician Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is one of the greatest jazz albums of all time, writes Sanjoy Narayan.

On August 17, The Vinyl Factory, a British indie music enterprise, tweeted a 40-second video clip to mark the 57th anniversary of the release of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. Many believe that the 1959 record has changed the shape of not only jazz but also music.

Musician Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is one of the greatest jazz albums of all time.(Getty Images)
Musician Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is one of the greatest jazz albums of all time.(Getty Images)

Everyone has his or her favourite track on Kind of Blue. Mine is All Blues. First, it’s the length of the track, nearly 12 minutes, but also because it sort of, at least for me, epitomises the blues-influenced, understated flow of Kind of Blue. It’s a very versatile album – you can play Kind of Blue in low-volume ambient mode; or you can sit in the dark with the volume cranked up and enjoy every nuance of it. That’s what I did after getting the cue from The Vinyl Factory’s tweet.

The Vinyl Factory’s website is a trove of delightful things. In the films section, there are full-length documentaries: I discovered a short film series, Analogue, which features musicians whose love for analogue has defined their music; a film on an Amsterdam radio station and record store that has set up shop in an erstwhile brothel deep inside that city’s storied red-light area; a vinyl FAQ that tells you when you should change your turntable’s needle; and a docu on New York’s famous jazz clubs. Besides stories, news and features, The Vinyl Factory also has a label and record shop and, indeed, its own vinyl pressing plant.

80s Redux: The Boston band Pixies have a new bassist, Paz Lenchantin (in picture), and will soon release their sixth album. (Photo by Frank Hoensch/Redferns) (Redferns)
80s Redux: The Boston band Pixies have a new bassist, Paz Lenchantin (in picture), and will soon release their sixth album. (Photo by Frank Hoensch/Redferns) (Redferns)

A band that I like teased us in recent weeks with releases from their forthcoming album. They are the Pixies, the influential Boston alternative rock band formed in the 1980s – they broke up in 1993 but came back in 2004 and later lost their original bassist, Kim Deal. Well, the Pixies are back with a new bassist, Paz Lenchantin and I had the good luck of seeing them play in New York last year.

The Pixies play their own brand of punk rock inflected with the pulsating style of surf rock. Their songs are, in true punk style, short but with high pace and impact. The yet-to-be-released sixth studio album is called Head Carrier but the band has dropped two singles from it – Talent and Um Chagga Lagga. Both are upbeat songs and older Pixies fans would probably love their throwback to the band’s early sound such as on albums from the late 1980s like Doolittle.

Borne identity: MC Heems, of the now disbanded Das Racist, is back with Riz Ahmed as the Swet Shop Boys.
Borne identity: MC Heems, of the now disbanded Das Racist, is back with Riz Ahmed as the Swet Shop Boys.
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    Last summer, while a debate over net neutrality was on in the US, in his very funny news satire show, Last Week Tonight, the comedian John Oliver used a typically risqué example to explain what a non-neutral Internet could do to small web-based entrepreneurs and startups.

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