1-17-12 Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue (5.1)
Singer Eartha Kitt born 1927, Singer / Songwriter Steve Earle born 1955; I really enjoy Eartha’s funky RCA 10” records!
Disc o’ the day: Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (5.1) (SA-CD, or DualDisc)
Disclaimer: This is a 3-track 5.1 disc; only the front 3 channels are used – but to great effect!
Yes, it can qualify for the ‘Top 10 Best Jazz Album Ever’ list. It’s a very professional (for 1958/9) Teo Macero recording for Columbia Records in New York City; a 3-track recording: the musicians in stereo, Miles on his own track. The 3-channel SA-CD / DualDisc is just that: John Coltrane and Bill Evans in stereo, and Miles in the center speaker. Wow.
Cool school? This is the sound of fully medicated jazz musicians playing with considerable restraint. It is pretty cool / groovy, but time will not tell us if that was what Miles was after. I mean, Bill Evans was a white guy!
After hearing “So What” about 500+ times, I have really warmed to “Freddie Freeloader” on this album. In 3-channel, the sound is so 3-D, alive, amazing…no kidding! I can seriously hang with all of it.
There’s at least one coffee table book on the subject of this LP. The first time it got issued on CD, it was at the wrong speed, and had the wrong cover art – a photo of Miles that, like the music, was about 15 years ahead of it’s time. I like the wrong-speed version, sounds groovy. But somebody figured it out, and now the album will forever more play at the speed that it should.
I have a US Columbia re-issue LP of it, both an original US Columbia CD and a re-mastered US Columbia CD; but now a 5.1 SA-CD and a DualDisc, where the 5.1 info is on the CD side. I also have this LP as a Sony MiniDisc; not sure if it’s at the correct speed or not, but…sounds good.
This is an LP that is used as an audiophile test of stereo systems. I don’t have an original LP of it; demand for it far exceeded the amount of pieces actually manufactured, at least initially. Like “Dark Side Of The Moon”, people want to hear this album, just to believe it actually exists!
Ronkanefiles's Blog 