This is a true story. Imagine that I just forked out over $40,000, some twenty five years ago for the stereo gear that I’d be saving up for over five years. Being in my young twenties, I wasn’t that familiar with jazz yet. I heard and read so many great things about Miles Davis’ ‘Kind Of Blue’ that I bought it to christen my new home stereo system. I’m as proud as any person could be as I set up my news components carefully, and positioned my speakers using a carpenter’s compass.
I am thinking, this will certainly bring more action with the young women in my life. I never have had a problem, but hey, young and adventurous isn’t a bad thing. I invited over a handful of close friends to show my new gear to them. I click play on my McIntosh amplifier. Within a half minute, there is all of this distortion. My friends are giving me the “WTF” look. I immediately put on the Magnolia soundtrack telling my friends to hang on, the vinyl has to be defective. I played ‘Save Me’ by Aimee Mann, and ‘Goodbye Stranger’ and The Logical Song’ by Supertramp off of the same soundtrack. Those three songs saved my life at that moment in time. Most of all, Aimee Mann. Very late in coming, but thank you Ms. Mann!
Sure enough, I called my audio shop dealer the next morning to hear expected news. He laughed and said, “you aren’t the only one who has used ‘Kind Of Blue’ by Miles as their first reference album!” He told me if I had asked, he would have recommended Art Blakey’s ‘Moanin’ if I wanted the best recorded jazz album ever. If I was stuck on playing a Miles Davis album, you can’t go wrong, except for Kind Of Blue. I must admit at the moment, I was Kind Of Embarrassed, and Kind Of Pissed off.
