Columbia/Legacy recordings will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’s landmark album, Kind of Blue, with the release of a special collector’s edition that will include the original album, alternate takes, a DVD jazz documentary, and more.  The box set will be released on September 30th.

Ranked as #12 among Rolling Stones‘ 500 greatest albums of all time (not that they’re always right, but in this case, it should definitely be in there somewhere), the album features Davis and other jazz legends including Cannonball Adderly, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb.

Packaged in a 12-inch slipcase box, the 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition will include:

• Two CDs (original album plus studio sequences, false starts, and alternate takes from 1958-59 sessions, plus 17-minute “So What” live in Holland, 1960);

• DVD: newly-produced documentary featuring superstars of jazz;

• 60-page 12×12 full-color book, tons of photos; and

• 180-gram blue vinyl 12-inch LP — first time ever in a Legacy box set!

The original five tracks on Kind of Blue are part of the foundation of modern jazz: five titles –- “So What,” “Freddie Freeloader,” “Blue in Green,” “All Blues,” and “Flamenco Sketches.”  The music is featured on the first CD, along with revealing alternate takes and other rare studio excerpts.  The second CD spotlights sessions from May 26, 1958 with producer Cal Lampley: “On Green Dolphin Street,” “Fran-Dance” (with an alternate take), “Stella by Starlight,” and “Love for Sale.” These tracks are the only other studio recordings of the Davis sextet with Adderley, Coltrane, Evans, Chambers, and Cobb.

The anniversary editon booklet includes liner note-essays by Francis Davis and Gerald Early, session transcripts by Ashley Kahn, and a detailed 1957-60 Miles Davis quintet/sextet timeline by Bob Belden and Ken Vail. The package will also come with three handwritten liner notes by Bill Evans, a reproduction of the 1959 Columbia promo brochure, plus photos and a poster.

The new DVD incorporates material from the 2004 mini-documentary, Made In Heaven, including black-and-white still photography of the recording sessions and the voices of Davis (at the sessions), as well as excerpts of radio interviews with the late Evans and Adderley.  Additionally, there are interviews with musicians, journalists and such that include composer/performer David Amram, the late Ed Bradley, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Bill Cosby, Herbie Hancock (who demonstrates “So What” at the piano), Eddie Henderson, Shirley Horn, Dave Liebman, the late Jackie McLean, funk-rocker Me’Shell Ndege’Ocello, hip-hop’s Q-Tip, Carlos Santana, John Scofield, Horace Silver, and others.

The DVD also unearths the group’s entire 26-minute in-session appearance on Robert Herridge Theatre: The Sound of Miles Davis, a CBS-TV program recorded in 1959 and broadcast in 1960.

Also look for a four-week exhibit of Miles Davis photography at New York’s downtown Morrison Hotel Gallery in November-December 2008 (also featuring live music). The exhibit is scheduled to travel to other Morrison Hotel locations and Starwood Hotels in 2009.

KIND OF BLUE: 50th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION - Tracklists and Musician Credits:

(88697 33552 2, originally issued August 17, 1959 as Columbia 8163)

CD One – Selections: 1. “So What” (B) • 2. “Freddie Freeloader” (B) • 3. “Blue in Green” (B) • 4. “All Blues” (C) • 5. “Flamenco Sketches” (C) • 6. “Flamenco Sketches” (alternate take) (C) • 7. “Freddie Freeloader” – studio sequence 1 (B) • 8. “Freddie Freeloader” – false start (B) • 9. “Freddie Freeloader” – studio sequence 2 (B) • 10. “So What” – studio sequence 1 (B) • 11. “So What” – studio sequence 2 (B) • 12. “Blue in Green” – studio sequence (B) • 13. “Flamenco Sketches” – studio sequence 1 (C) • 14. “Flamenco Sketches” – studio sequence 2 (C) • 15. “All Blues” – studio sequence (C).

CD Two – Selections: 1. “On Green Dolphin Street” (A) • 2. “Fran-Dance” (A) • 3. “Stella by Starlight” (A) • 4. “Love for Sale” (A) • 5. “Fran-Dance” (alternate take) (A) • 6. “So What” (D, previously released in unauthorized form).

180-gram LP – Selections: (Side One) 1. “So What” (B) • 2. “Freddie Freeloader” (B) • 3. “Blue in Green” (B) • (Side Two) 4. “All Blues” (C) • 5. “Flamenco Sketches” (C).

DVD – Celebrating A Masterpiece: Kind of Blue documentary (55 mins); “Robert Herridge Theatre: The Sound of Miles Davis” (26 mins); photo gallery by Don Hunstein

Key to recordings: 
(A) – Session of Monday, May 26, 1958: MD, CA, JC, BE, PC, JCB. 
(B) – Session of Monday, March 2, 1959: MD, CA, JC, WK (on “Freddie Freeloader” only), BE, PC, JCB. 
(C) – Session of Wednesday, April 22, 1959: MD, CA, JC, BE, PC, JCB. 
(D) – Concert of Saturday, April 9, 1960: MD, CA, JC, WK, PC, JCB (at the Kurhaus, Den Haag, Holland).

Musicians: 
MD – Miles Davis (trumpet) 
CA – Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley (alto saxophone) 
JC – John Coltrane (tenor saxophone) 
WK – Wynton Kelly (piano) 
BE – Bill Evans (piano) 
PC – Paul Chambers (bass) 
JCB – Jimmy Cobb (drums)

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