Miles Davis: Kind of Blue at 50 - Jimmy Cobb’s So What Band featuring: Wallace Roney, Javon Jackson, Vincent Herring, Larry Willis and Buster Williams + Screening of: ‘Celebrating A Masterpiece: Kind Of Blue’ (2009 – 55 min. – director: Chris Lenz)

8:15 pm Kind of Blue at 50 - Jimmy Cobb’s So What Band featuring: Wallace Roney, Javon Jackson, Vincent Herring, Larry Willis and Buster Williams

"It’s sort of… like the Bible in a way. You just have one in the house" (Q-Tip)
"It’s a cornerstone record not only for jazz. It’s a cornerstone record for music." (Herbie Hancock)
"That’ll always be my music, man. I play ‘Kind of Blue’ every day - it’s my orange juice. It still sounds like it was made yesterday." (Quincy Jones)

1959. Even though we mourned the passing of Billie Holiday and Lester Young (or rather ‘Pres’ as Lady Day called him) that year, 1959 was an extremely fruitful and crucial year for jazz. BBC 4 even devoted a documentary to it earlier this year: "1959. The Year That Changed Jazz Forever". It was namely in ’59 that a number of jazz-milestones pushed the genre in other directions. Just remember ‘Giant Steps’ from saxophonist John Coltrane, the first album from ‘Trane’ that consisted completely of his own compositions. Also ‘The Shape Of Jazz To Come’ from Ornette Coleman was released via Atlantic, and Dave Brubeck’s ‘Time Out’ (Columbia) containing the single ‘Take Five’, the first jazz single to sell more than a million copies. Irrepressible bassist Charles Mingus put out a masterpiece too: ‘Mingus Ah Um’ (Columbia). ‘Kind Of Blue’ (Miles Davis) has one thing in common with the latter: both albums were highly commended by the prominent Penguin Guide To Jazz with the highest score: **** completed by the famous crown, only allocated to the greatest of the great.

Miles Davis' ‘Kind Of Blue’ is often – though exact numbers are lacking – cited as the best sold jazz album of all time, by some even labeled as the best jazz album ever, but – and this is certainly typical: ‘Kind Of Blue’ often appears in prominent 'Best Record Ever' charts across many different genres. So it was that this album ended in – say - the Rolling Stone 500 Great Albums Of All Time at # 12. These days a work could be labeled a 'universal masterpiece' for less! But ‘Kind Of Blue’ does belong to the pantheon of modern music. To think that the recordings were often first-takes, that there were no rehearsals held and no written music existed before Miles Davis and his colleagues dived into the studio to record ‘Kind Of Blue’.

In 2009 ‘Kind Of Blue’ is exactly 50 years-old, but it sounds just as contemporary and relevant as ever. Drummer Jimmy Cobb is the last survivor of the original players (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb). In connection with ‘Kind Of Blue at 50’, Cobb will be curating an evening with a contemporary all-star band consisting of performers directly connected to Jimmy Cobb himself or who have direct links with original members from the album recordings. You can expect straight-forward interpretations of the likes of ‘So What’ (the standard of this classic album) or ‘Freddie Freeloader’ and other interpretations of compositions from John Coltrane, Miles Davis or Cannonball Adderly.

For those who want to get themselves completely into this album: then re-read ‘Kind Of Blue. The Making Of The Miles Davis Masterpiece’ (2000) from Ashley Kahn. Mojo wrote of it: "… a model of research, artfully interposes his narrative with illuminating quotes which gives the book a trustworthy, multi-angled documentary feel".

Line up:
Jimmy Cobb - Drums
Wallace Roney - Trumpet
Javon Jackson - Tenor Saxophone
Vincent Herring - Alto Saxophone
Larry Willis - Piano

7:00 pm Screening of: ‘Celebrating A Masterpiece: Kind Of Blue’
(2009 – 55 min. – director: Chris Lenz)
A well-prepared person is worth two and so this very recent documentary from '09 couldn't be lacking. ‘Celebrating A Masterpiece: Kind Of Blue’ came about with the assistance of some rather big names. Director on duty was Chris Lenz, known from his work on the bonus DVD that accompanied the re-issue of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Live At Sin-É’. Co-producer was music historian and journalist Ashley Kahn (who also wrote the much praised book ‘Kind Of Blue. The Making Of The Miles Davis Masterpiece’). The script was in the hands of Michael Cuscuna, mainly known as the man responsible for the re-surfacing of the historic Blue Note recordings from forgotten archives. This documentary contains many black & white stills, interviews with both Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Horace Silver, Q-Tip and ‘Kind Of Blue’-drummer Jimmy Cobb.

Miles Davis - ‘Celebrating A Masterpiece: Kind Of Blue’