The Blue Moment

Miles Davis's Kind of Blue is the bestselling piece of music in the history of jazz, and for many listeners among the most haunting in all of twentieth century music. It is also, notoriously, the only jazz album many people own. Recorded in 1959 (in nine miraculous hours), there has been nothing like it since. Its atmosphere slow, dark, meditative, luminous - became all pervasive for a generation, and has remained the epitome of melancholy coolness ever since. Richard Williams has written a history of the album which for once does not rip it out of its wider cultural context. He evokes the essence of the music - identifying the qualities that make it so uniquely appealing - while making effortless connections to painting, literature, philosophy and poetry. This makes for an elegant, graceful and beautifully written narrative.