It is the most singular of sounds yet among the most ubiquitous. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions. Miles Davis Kind of Blue" is the best selling piece of music in the history of jazz & for many listeners among the most haunting in all of twentieth-century music. It is also notoriously the only jazz album many people own. Recorded in 1959 (in nine miraculous hours) there has been nothing like it since. Its atmosphere
- slow dark meditative luminous
- became all-pervasive for a generation & has remained the epitome of melancholy coolness ever since. Richard Williams has written a history of the album which for once does not rip it out of its wider cultural context. He evokes the essence of the music
- identifying the qualities that make it so uniquely appealing
- while making effortless connections to painting literature philosophy & poetry. This makes for an elegant graceful & beautifully-written narrative."