Miles Davis - Kind of Blue: Corrected Speed Version (180g Vinyl 2LP) * * *

ANALOGUE PRODUCTIONS

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue: Corrected Speed Version (180g Vinyl 2LP) * * *

Miles Davis Kind of Blue: Corrected Speed Version on 180g 2LP Features Side 1 at the Corrected Speed and Bonus "Flamenco Sketches (Alternate Take)" Cut at 45RPM on Side 4: Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the Original Tapes

A minor audio complication with Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is addressed on this Analogue Productions 180g 33RPM 2LP reissue pressed at Quality Record Pressings.

Namely, the motor on the studio's 3-track master recorder was running slowly the day of the album's first session. This speed issue affected the album's first three tracks, "So What," "Freddie Freeloader" and "Blue in Green," making them a barely perceptible quarter-tone sharp. Before now, it was only addressed in 1995 for the Classic Records edition and by Columbia Records on a CD reissue in the late '90s. This edition also contains on Side 4 "Flamenco Sketches (alternate take)" cut at 45RPM.

If there was ever an album awaiting a high-fidelity vinyl treatment of the level you now hold in your hands, it is Kind of Blue. The top-selling jazz album of all time, it has been lauded, entered into "Best Of" lists and Halls of Fame, and universally acknowledged as a landmark recording - a five-track masterpiece of melancholy mood and melody.

It continues to be one of the most listened-to and studied recordings of all time, a required primer for many young musicians, and one of the most transcendent pieces of music ever recorded. Davis played trumpet sublime with his ensemble sextet featuring pianist Bill Evans, drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley with Wynton Kelly playing piano on "Freddy the Freeloader."

Kind of Blue is more than Miles Davis's most enduring recording, it's a testament to Miles' experimental approach, drastically simplifying modern jazz by returning to melody unlike the chord complexity more often heard at the time. "The music has gotten thick," Davis complained in a 1958 interview for The Jazz Review. "... There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them."

None of the musicians had played any of the tunes before heading into the first of two recording sessions in early spring of 1959. In fact Miles had written out the settings for most of them only a few hours before the session. Miles also stuck to his old recording procedure of having virtually no rehearsal and only one take for each tune.

History was on the side of Kind of Blue; it was born in 1959, at the peak of the golden age of high-fidelity, featuring innovations in studio equipment (magnetic tape, high-quality condenser microphones), matched by advancements in home audio reproduction (long-player records &mdash LPs; high-end turntables, and other stereo components). Kind of Blue also benefited from Miles' being signed to the leading major record company of the day &mdash Columbia Records, a part of the CBS media conglomerate. Columbia had the means and wisdom to invest in cutting edge recording technology, and their own professional recording studio.

This LP bridges the time span since the album's original recording in the best way possible, struck from the master reel of Kind of Blue, free of speed issues and replete with all the instrumental detail, sonic environment and minimal noise.

Track List

Side 1: (Corrected Speed) 33 1/3 RPM

1. So What (9:22)
2. Freddie Freeloader (9:46)
3. Blue In Green (5:27)

Side 2: 33 1/3 RPM

1. All Blues (11:33)
2. Flamenco Sketches (9:26)

Side 3: 33 1/3 RPM

1. So What (9:22)
2. Freddie Freeloader (9:46)
3. Blue In Green (5:27)

Side 4: 45 RPM

1. Flamenco Sketches (alternate take) (9:32)