Is Kind of Blue the Best Jazz Album Ever

I'll conceed, "jazz" may be too broad a term. How about best ("best" as qualified in my original post) "Bebop Jazz" album.

I am not claiming that KOB is the best, as in technically or artistically above the rest in its genre. I know that there are many jazz albums of the era that surpass KOB (many of them have been mentioned in the thread above). I don't believe that any one can be considered the best as they all offer something unique.

But I like Kurt-tank's analogy with Dark Side of the Moon,(not sure about Beethoven 5th). Let me steel Tvad's term, these are "gateway" albums into their respective genres.

Jiminlongansquare,

I not what you mean, I feel guilty playing it when my wife is around, since I owned the record while I was still a bachelor. If vinyl could talk, the stories my collection could tell...

Wow, I thought this thread was dead. Far from it.

Coltrane1 thanks...

The point of this thread was never to try and claim that KOB was the absolute best. Rather, my point was that given that it was the most sold Jazz album and it can often be heard on tv or radio, it is widely recognized* by the ignorant pop music listner as the sound of Jazz.

*Let my qualify "recognized"
By recognized I do not mean that the ignorant person who hears it playing would say "Hey it's Miles, Coltrane and Company playing So What" like they would say "Hey that's Lady Gaga singing Poker Face, that's hot!". What I mean, is that if I invited this person over to listen to my system and put on the record they would say "hey that some really cool Jazz". Whereas if I put Jack deJohnette's Special Edition they would say "What is this noise! why do you still listen to records? haven't you heard of MP3, don't you have an I-pod, can I plug mine in I have the latest "37Cents", and turn up the volume and the bass..."
I digress but you get my point.

The sound of KOB is seductive and draws listners from almost any backround or preference. Clearly there are many jazz albums that are ground breaking and great in their own right "Time out" comes to mind and several others have been mentioned in this thread. But I don't believe that any of these have the same reach as KOB.

An anecdote to further support my point. My mother in law recently purchased a best of Miles Davis CD after seeing the Miles Davis exhibit at the Montreal Museum of fines arts. During Thanksgiving I was over at the in-laws and the CD was playing in the Kitchen as we were preparing the food, the track playing was "Call It Anything" from the Isle of Wight festival, which I love but it's Free Jazz and comes across as noise to most people specially when its played on a clock radio. So I asked my dear Mother in Law, Do you like this? to which she answered "No! its noise I just like the first few tracks" (refering to tracks from KOB and Sketches of Spain).

What was my point?

O yeah, my Mother in Law likes KOB, therefore it must be the best Jazz album ever...