The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music

It is a most singular of sounds, yet amongst the most widespread. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions. Miles Davis's Kind of Blue stands as the best-selling piece of music in the history of jazz, and for many listeners, amongst the most haunting in all of twentieth-century music. It is also, notoriously, the only jazz album many people possess.

Recorded in 1959 (in nine remarkable hours), there has been nothing quite like it since. Its atmosphere – slow, dark, meditative, luminous – became all-pervasive for a generation and has remained the epitome of melancholy coolness ever since. Richard Williams has penned a history of the album which, for once, does not detach it from its broader cultural context. He evokes the very essence of the music – identifying the qualities that render it so uniquely appealing – while making effortless connections to painting, literature, philosophy, and poetry. This results in an elegant, graceful, and beautifully written narrative.