REVIEW -- Miles Davis: Kind of Blue: Legacy Edition

Miles Davis

Kind of Blue: Legacy Edition

(Columbia/Legacy)

Kind of Blue, originally released in 1959, pretty much wrote the book on modern jazz. Its chief contributors—John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Bill Evans, among them—went solo not long after and influenced generations of players in their own right. And as much as this record-collection essential is Miles Davis’ show, he ably shares the spotlight with one of the greatest ensembles ever gathered. The very first notes of album opener “So What” immediately set the tone of this late-night classic: laid-back, sexy, and in it for the long haul. By the time the track wraps up nine glorious minutes later, Davis and crew have taken listeners on an aural journey that’s as thrilling as it is revelatory. The two-disc Legacy Edition pares down last year’s pricey 50^th Anniversary Collector’s Edition, a lavish set that also tagged on a making-of DVD. This set retains the Collector’s Edition’s bonus cuts and extra disc of outtakes and alternate versions. None is particularly enlightening (especially since many of them are merely false starts and studio chatter), but a 17-minute version of “So What” captures most of the classic group tearing it up onstage a year later. --Michael Gallucci