KIND OF BLUE

How do you properly size up one of THE landmark marquee jazz albums of all time? I'm going to try to offer the perspective of first hearing KIND OF BLUE fifty-two years after its initial release and being more attracted to Miles's fusion/electric period in the late '60s. But after a couple of listens, I now understand why KIND OF BLUE is so widely lauded.

The key thing to understand is that from a prog rock viewpoint, this does not typify anything we call ''prog'' or even fusion; it is pure, unabashed jazz. But it sounds fresh, even if you weren't around back in 1959 to hear it in its inaugural format. It sounds like no specific time period, so it's unlikely you'll be repelled by KIND OF BLUE unless you have a natural aversion to jazz.

The structure is quite simple; the drums take the rhythm, the piano lays the chord patterns down (unusual ones compared to safer music styles), the bass walks through everything and the horns melodize/solo over everything. If you have any familiarity with Miles Davis's music ethos, you know the solos are well-planned even if improvised, sounding welcome and never spiking it on the indulgence scale. With Davis on trumpet and Cannonball Adderly and John Coltrane on saxophones, there's some wonderful soloing.

Most of all, this album is pure joy to listen to if you can take a bit of pure jazz. The feel of songs like ''So What'', ''All Blues'' and ''Freddie Freeloader'' are enough to hook the listener in, but calmly. What the rhythm section does keeps me sucked in long enough not to skip anything with the solos being the icing on the cake. Nothing is overdone or unwarranted.

Within PA, the later '60s, early '70s albums of Davis's should be what a prog/fusion fan should go after first. If you like music in general, this classic is too good to pass up.