Kind Of Blue – 50th Anniversary Collectors Edition

Columbia Legacy have pushed the boat out to mark the half century of the Miles Davis masterpiece, Kind Of Blue - a massive seller, with wide appeal well beyond the core jazz audience.

The new Collectors product includes:

* the most recent version of the CD, slowed down to correct pitch and with bonus track. (It normally retails for a discounted £5).

* a CD of earlier recordings by the KOB line-up. (Otherwise available on Miles ‘58 Sessions and as part of Jazz Track)

* out-takes (from the Miles/Coltrane box, and bootlegged on The Making Of Kind Of Blue).

Plus artefacts you’d find impossible to buy elsewhere – 2 DVD programmes, book, photo set, poster - or would probably no longer have a use for – a vinyl version of the LP. The rigid, tight packaging has been criticised for scuffing the discs.

It’s available from play.com for £55 (delivered).

The intended audience is in the title – collectors, who will love it. Fans of Miles music - rather than Miles artefacts - will already have the audio material and will mostly ignore it.

Grown-up listeners who don’t know the great album should spend £5 on the latest (slowed down) CD version - Kind Of Blue is timeless great art (though second to In A Silent Way in Music For Grown-Ups’ Top Ten Miles releases).


Gerry Smith