Blue Turns Fifty

Fifty years ago today, Columbia Records released Miles Davis’ groundbreaking album Kind of Blue. In a year of amazing jazz releases – among them John Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Charles Mingus’ Mingus Ah Um – Blue stands out. Fifty years later, it’s still the album that hardcore jazz buffs and neophytes can agree is one of the all time greats.

In 2007, Ave Carrillo talked to drummer Jimmy Cobb and professors Ashley Kahn and Gerald Early about why a copy of Kind of Blue in your record bin still makes you the coolest cat in the room.

Listen to the American Icons segment on Kind of Blue: