Tag Archives: Teo Macero

Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue

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MilesDavis Kind o fBlue

On August 17, 1959, “Columbia” label released “Kind of Blue” album by Miles Davis. It was recorded March 2 and April 22, 1959, at  “Columbia’s 30th Street Studio” in New York City, and was produced by Teo Macero and Irving Townsend. The album 46 minutes of innovations, improvisation and musical excellence has changed not only the face of jazz but the course of modern music. “Kind of Blue” is not only the best selling jazz album of all times (it was certified quadruple platinum in sales by the “Recording Industry Association of America”) and Davis personal masterpiece but is also regarded as one of the most influential albums in the history of modern music ever. “Rolling Stone” magazine ranked “Kind of Blue” at number 12 on its list of the “500 Greatest Albums of all Time”.

Personnel:

  • Miles Davis – trumpet, band leader
  • Julian “Cannonball” Adderley – alto saxophone
  • John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
  • Bill Evans – piano
  • Wynton Kelly – piano
  • Paul Chambers – double bass
  • Jimmy Cobb – drums
  • Fred Plaut— engineer
  • Bill Evans — original liner notes
  • Don Hunstein — photography

Track listing

  1. So What – Miles Davis
  2. Freddie Freeloader – Miles Davis
  3. Blue in Green – Miles Davis, Bill Evans
  4. All Blues – Miles Davis
  5. Flamenco Sketches – Miles Davis, Bill Evans

Charles Mingus

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On January 5, 1977, Charles Mingus Jr. Died aged 57. He was musician (bass), composer and bandleader, regarded as one of the most creative and influential Jazz artists of all times.

For his work and contribution to the modern music, Mingus has received many awards including:

  • “Guggenheim Fellowship” (1971).
  • Inducted in the “Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame” (1971).
  • “National Endowment for the Arts” provided grants for a Mingus nonprofit called “Let My Children Hear Music” which cataloged all of Mingus’s works (1988)
  • “The Library of Congress” acquired Mingus’s collected papers in what they described as “the most important acquisition of a manuscript collection relating to jazz in the Library’s history.(1993)]
  • “The United States Postal Service” issued a stamp in his honor (1995).
  • Posthumously awarded the “Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award” (1997)
  • Album “Mingus Dynasty”(1959) inducted in the “Grammy Hall of Fame” (1999)
  • Inducted in the “Jazz at Lincoln Center”, Nesuhi Ertegun “Jazz Hall of Fame” (2005)

Mingus has recorded and performed with some of the most important musicians of the modern music, including: Illinois Jacquet, Dinah Washington, Wilbert Baranco, Ivie Anderson, Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo, Billy Taylor, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach,  Bud Powell, Paul Bley, Teo Macero, Oscar Pettiford,  Ada Moore,  Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, Hazel Scott, John Mehegan,  Thad Jones, John Dennis, Ralph Sharon, Miles Davis, Teddy Charles, The Metronome All-Stars, Jimmy Knepper, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Max Roach and Eric Dolphy.