Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower Child
Finally got my hands on a vinyl copy of his Kind Of Blue album. I must say I had very high expectations. I was a tad bit dissapointed. It had this great rainy day dreary lonely street feel, which I love, but it just didn't have any intense climaxes. Nothing jumped out and grabbed me throughout the entire album. I thought it walked a fine line between genius and....well.... boring. Maybe I just don't get it.
I still like it alright on rainy days though.
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I felt
exactly the same way about the album for a very long time. The funny thing is, I had night a few of years back on some hallucinogens and the album just "breathed" me in. It was my anchor for the entire evening. I don't really have any other way of articulating it. I ended up listening to
Blue in Green,
All Blues, and
Flamenco Sketches on repeat for about five hours!
As for the recognition that it gets as being
the quintessential jazz album, as a whole I don't think it's nearly worthy to be that revered, but I also believe that
Blue in Green and
Flamenco Sketches are two of the most beautiful songs ever created.
In it's defense, there are a lot of subtleties that when you focus in on them are really amazing, Bill Evans' piano work, for one, just understatedly holds down the entire album as a cohesive piece throughout its entire length. I've made the claim that
Kind of Blue should be considered a Bill Evans album, and then there's Coltrane, who's performances on this album are incredible and, in my opinion, better than most of the solo work he's done, (excluding
A Love Supreme, of course)
Really, it's an album to enjoy and let grow on you and that's a little easier if you complete disregard the reputation its built for itself.