Chaser ” ( the music was later issued as Jazz at the Plaza ) – in the same harmonic manner . The cast-list acts according to type : Miles , cool and detached , playing minimally at times , but with sudden caustic spits ; Adderley , bluesy and expansive , all rubicund cheer ; Coltrane , inward and intense ; Evans , slightly other-worldly but precise ; the remainder of the rhythm section playing with relaxed accuracy . The group , with Garland briefly back in place of Evans , who had moved on , was recorded again on November 1 at the Spotlight Lounge in Washington , DC , as part of a Bandstand USA programme , a reminder that live jazz was still a broadcasting staple , not yet overtaken entirely by recorded rock and roll . Wynton Kelly came in as piano player when Evans moved on to his own projects . Kelly was to play a significant role in Kind of Blue as an alternate player to the recalled Evans . Davis had ended the previous year with a “ Bandstand USA ” recording with Red Garland in the piano set for a date at the Spotlight Lounge in Washington DC . But then in the first weeks of January , Kelly is at the keyboard for the same show , but this time from the fabled Birdland . Only two performances survive from that date , both mistitled on some unofficial releases : “ Bags ’ Groove ”, recognisable enough , is given as “ Walkin ’”, while “ All of You ” is given a faintly egotistical twist as “ All of Me ”, an error arguably justified by Miles ’ rather subjective appropriation of the tune . The period in between had been taken up by sessions with Gil Evans for Porgy & Bess , one of their best-loved collaborations .
There was nothing , though , to prepare the ear for what began to unfold at Columbia ’ s 30th Street studios in New York on March 2 , 1959 . And yet the musical innovations that made Kind of Blue a unique and in its quiet way revolutionary recording , was already part of a changed cultural and musical air . George Russell ’ s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization had been around as a self-published pamphlet for six years . It is one of those texts that influenced many
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