I don't understand Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue"


I'm new to Jazz. While I enjoy Amstrong and Fitzgerald duo and some of Amstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven pieces, I fail to appreciate "Kind of Blue" which is praised by many as cornerstone CD in jazz. What I hear from the CD is background music that is repetitous throughout the song and seemingly random saxo, or similar instrument - pardon my ignorance of instruments, in the front. The background music bothers me because it's simple and repetitive. Perhaps this is not my type of music. Or should I listen to other CDs before appreciate this one?

Can someone educate me what is great about this CD?
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Showing 2 responses by ben_campbell

Well J I think you raise a rather interesting question in general.
That is does a deeper understanding of anything make you like it better,it can but I do wonder,depends also if you like to challenge yourself,explore new things but surely at the end of the day you got to like something for what it is and enjoy it.
I remember on another mailing list I got involved in a big debate about later Stanley Kubrik movies-someone there went on to explain in great length about his genius,it was all worthy stuff and I could see his analysis had great depth but from point of view despite trying again to watch some of his later movies-I really don't like anything he did that much after Spartacus.
At the end of the day we like movies for different reasons and although I understand Kubrik's genius better it's not for me.
To get back to KOB,well as a mainly rock/popular music fan who has got into jazz a bit in the last say 5 years.
I think my namesake Sd will be much more worthy to comment on KOB but I will add some of my own.
I would suggest you listen to it a lot more before deciding.
You have to put it in context what went before and realise that Miles Davis created something new and unique with developing his modal style he'd been working on previously.
It was (I think) a very original record at the time and it's impact is such that over 40 years later people are still falling in love with it.
Of course there are many listeners who have "never got it" over the years.
The success and charm of this music to me is in it's simplicity,it is hypnotic,relaxing and at the same time strangely dynamic but that's just me,the record was some 37 years old before I heard it.
I would consider it mood maybe even ambient music in the wider sense.
Jazz can be a very difficult genre to get into,the smoother stuff can seem lightweight and the far out stuff as weird as music can get but KOB is really at the centre of the sophisticated,thoughtful side of things and maybe it's not for you.
Banksfriend there wasn't anybody in the history of Jazz who could be determined or tagged by one style less than Miles Davis-- your statement about him really isn't accurate at all -he had more styles than anybody in Jazz.
You don't like KOB fine,you can't be wrong about that.
I also don't think the fact it was recorded in one take (it wasn't but that's a different point)is the reason it is held it such high esteem at all but rather the quality of the music.