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Right off the bat, I'm going to say that this Miles Davis recording, Kind of Blue is a must-have for any jazz collection, and should be considered by other music fans as well. I won't go so far as to say it is the best album of all time, but it certainly one of the most respected albums in jazz. And it is certainly one of my all-time favorite jazz recordings. Kind of Blue was recorded in 1959 at the tail end of the big be-bop movement in jazz. Miles had grown tired of be-bop and wanted to explore different avenues of self-expression. This album was one of the first to feature "modal" improvisations. This kind of improvisation is based more on a scale or series of scales rather than sequences of chords and harmonies. In the context of Kind of Blue, the resulting improvisations came out as free-flowing melodies, which was what Miles was after. Miles used some of the finest musicians available for this recording; today it could pass as an all-star band. Miles' reed section had Cannonbal Adder