Jazz Unlimited for May 10, 2015 will be “Exploring Kind of Blue.” Miles Davis’s iconic album is the best selling jazz album in history. By changing the harmonic underpinnings of the music from many chords to few chords with scales that related to them, known as modes, the music became light and airy and more approachable. We will explore all of the tunes in this album with big bands, vocalists and small groups. Some of the groups and musicians heard tonight include the Miles Davis sextet, the Grant Green quartet, the J.J. Johnson big band, the Ray Brown trio, the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, the Gary Burton quartet with Stephane Grappelli, Conrad Herwig and his “Latin Side of” band, the Mary Lou Williams duo, the Joe Henderson quartet and vocalists Eddie Jefferson, Jon Hendricks, Al Jarreau, George Benson, Bobby McFerrin, Judy Niemack and Kevin Mahogany.
The Slide Show contains my photographs of some of the musicians heard on this show.
The Archive of this show will be available until the morning of May 18, 2015.
Here is Miles Davis (tp) John Coltrane (ts) Wynton Kelly (p) Paul Chambers (b) Jimmy Cobb (d) members of the Gil Evans Orchestra playing "So What" on the television show "The Sound of Jazz" in 1959.
