Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It is regarded by many critics as jazz’s greatest record, Davis’s masterpiece, and one of the best albums of all time. Its influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical genres, has led writers to also deem it one of the most influential albums ever recorded. The album was one of fifty recordings 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 magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Kind of Blue was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released later that year on August 17 by Columbia Records. The album featured Davis’ ensemble sextet consisting of saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with former band pianist Bill Evans appearing on most of the tracks in place of Kelly. In part owing to the entry of Evans into the sextet during 1958, Davis followed up on the modal experimentations of Milestones by basing Kind of Blue entirely on modality, in contrast to his earlier work with the hard bop style of jazz.

180-gram pressing. Recorded in 1959, “Kind of Blue” remains one of the most celebrated and influential jazz albums ever made. It combined the talents of such soloists as Miles Davis, the leader, on trumpet, Cannonball Adderley on alto sax, John Coltrane on tenor sax, Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums.