Jan 30 2009
Where to start?
More than one would-be jazz aficionado has told me that as much as he or she
would like to “get into” jazz, they just don’t know where to begin. The answer,
as far as I’m concerned, is with Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959).
That’s a cliche recommendation, but it’s cliche for a reason: it’s an
introduction both to two of the most important forms (modal jazz and twelve-bar
blues) and to six of the most influential men jazz has seen (seven, if you
include Wynton Kelly, the pianist on “Freddie Freeloader”), and, to top it off,
contains brilliant, contrasting, and generally accessible playing. And, speaking as a sax player, Coltrane and Cannonball on the same album is almost too much to handle 
