Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

The album, one of the Prog Archives top 100 albums, is on sale as an mp3 download from Amazon. It's the daily $5 album on the android app today, but the price may be good a little longer.

wrong section.

Yes I don't like that it's in the top 100, but at the same time, I dont care. I'm pretty sure people can or have figured it out.

Nothing wrong with a prog fan possibly checking it out after seeing it in the list. It could be the reason that person starts getting into jazz and fusion, and it'd be all thanks to the PA top 100 albums list

thehallway wrote: I think I've mentioned this before, but the album being in our top 100 is a perfect example of how our rating and categorising system is flawed here on PA. Don't get me wrong, it's a jazz classic....... but it has about as much relevance on this site as the early Beatles albums. And the CD of Kind of Blue is always cheap on Amazon. I think I paid about £3 for it.

Agreed. Miles' music was indisputably essential to the foundation of Jazz-Rock, but while Kind of Blue remains my favourite album by him, it doesn't really have a place on this website.

But then how do you draw that line? I mean Kind of Blue is pretty clear cut. But then, if even though Miles has some prog albums, the rest of his albums get removed for being Not Prog (well I mean they're progressive but they're not rock, which is what this site is devoted to), what implications does that have? Do we axe Invisible Touch? 90125? Some say recent Dream Theater albums aren't "prog," do we get rid of those too?

Don't misunderstand me, I'm totally in favour of cleaning up the site here. But I'm saying that there needs to be a system worked out to accomplish it, and that regardless of what happens there'll be some significant resistance. It may possibly be that despite the current system's flaws, leaving things as they are will keep the most people happy.

I would say both Kind of Blue and early Beatles albums absolutely belong here (given that the site, once accepting an artist, accepts all albums).  Nah, they're not prog, but just where do you think prog came from?  Agreed, Miles is better served on jazzarchives, but I'd argue much of Mile's later output is purely progressive.

jammun wrote: I would say both Kind of Blue and early Beatles albums absolutely belong here (given that the site, once accepting an artist, accepts all albums).  Nah, they're not prog, but just where do you think prog came from?  Agreed, Miles is better served on jazzarchives, but I'd argue much of Mile's later output is purely progressive.

You must admit though, that when it is in the TOP 100 PROGRESSIVE ROCK ALBUMS, things are getting a bit silly. It's less of an issue if the album is hiding in some quiet corner of the site.

I appreciate though, that's it's difficult to come up with a system that further categorises what is already the hardest thing to categorise: art.

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: jammun wrote:    Nah, they're not prog, but just where do you think prog came from?  . Then lets add Chubby Checker, Elvis  and Chuck Berry, they have more influence in Progressive ROCK than "A Kind of Blue", and if we want to go back, then add Mussorgsky, Bach, etc. There's a limit I believe. Iván

Might as well add James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, and Karlheinz Stockhausen to this site, as that's who was influencing Miles Davis during the making of his late-60s and 70s albums.

Jazz had just as much influence on the development of 70s prog as The 50s and 60s rock idols did. The fact that prog rock and jazz-fusion started essentially at the time is no coincidence. You can't tell me 21st Century Schizoid Man doesn't have any jazz influence. However, there is no reason to start adding jazz artists with no fusion albums, or rock artists that didn't make some proggy albums.

The thing is Miles eventually started developing rock mixed with jazz (and eventually funk), which led to all sorts of development in jazz, rock, prog, etc. and actually made these progressive albums after 1967, whereas AFAIK, Elvis and all of them did not make eventually start making prog/fusion albums.

What does it matter?  So it is not Prog but that fact that he went on to make true Prog albums justifies it being in the top hundred.

Sheavy wrote: What does it matter?  So it is not Prog but that fact that he went on to make true Prog albums justifies it being in the top hundred.

But not really. People who gave 5 stars to the album pretty much go against the guidelines for giving out a 5 star rating to an album. It's for albums that the reviewer feels is a masterpiece of Progressive Rock. Whether it was highly influential to the development of the genre is irregardless. It has nothing to do with the fact that he did eventually make some highly progressive jazz-fusion. Now if In A Silent Way or Bitches Brew were in the top 100, it'd be a different story.

Wow. And I thought I was the only one who felt KOB in the top 100 is absolutely inane! Glad to see I'm not.

I don't feel bad at all for giving Kind of Blue five stars here.