Sunday, October 20, 6 p.m.
The Redstone Room, 129 Main Street, Davenport IA
Held in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Miles Davis' seminal Kind of Blue, widely cited as the best-selling jazz record of all time, the latest presentation in Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Workshop and Matinée Series finds the Kind of Blue Tribute Band playing Davenport's Redstone Room on October 20 – a concert set honoring Davis' album achievement certified quadruple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Recorded on March 2 and April 22 of 1959 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, Kind of Blue was released on August 17 of that year by Columbia Records. The album features Davis' sextet consisting of saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelley also performing on one of the album's tracks. In part owing to Evans' joining the sextet during 1958, Davis followed up on the modal experimentation of 1958's Milestones by basing Kind of Blue entirely on modality, departing further from his earlier work's hard-bop style of jazz. Kind of Blue has consequently been regarded by many critics as America's greatest jazz record, Davis's masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including the genres of jazz, rock, and classical, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. Davis' recording was one of 50 chosen in 2002 by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, and in 2003, it was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
For the October installment of Polyrhythms' monthly Third Sunday Jazz Series, the Kind of Blue Tribute Band celebrates the 60th anniversary of Kind of Blue with the Kind of Blue Tribute Band composed of Quad Cities and Central Illinois musicians Edgar Crockett on trumpet, Larry Harms on alto saxophone, Dan Burke on tenor saxophone, Derel Monteith on piano, Andy Crawford on bass, and Jason Brannon on drums. The sextet will perform music from Davis' Kind of Blue album with respect to the past while also seeking to play in a contemporary vein, and their second set of the night will explore music from other legendary jazz artists who also released landmark jazz recordings in 1959. These records include Giant Steps by John Coltrane, Ah Um by Charles Mingus, The Shape of Jazz to Come by Ornette Coleman, Blowin' the Blues Away by Horace Silver, and Time Out by Dave Brubeck.
As Polyrhythms executive director Nate Lawrence states, “Each of these records had a profound impact on new directions in jazz. The release of Kind of Blue served as the advent of modal jazz. The Shape of Jazz to Come became the standard for the free jazz movement. Time Out opened the door for mixed meter and odd time signatures in jazz. Giant Steps reshaped the way harmonic structures are used to build jazz compositions. And Ah Um builds on the music of Duke Ellington, while Blowin' the Blues Away proves that swingin' Hard Bop never gets old.”
The Kind of Blue Tribute Band plays its Davenport engagement at 6 p.m. on October 20, and the concert will be preceded by a 3 p.m. “Jazz Demystifying” workshop. Admission is $10-15 for the evening performance, with the workshop $5 for adults and free for students, and tickets and information are available by contacting Polyrhythms at (309)373-0790 or Polyrhythms.org or the Redstone Room at (563)326-1333 or RiverMusicExperience.org.
