“All Blues” | Listener Picks, April 1

Composed by Miles Davis, “All Blues” was recorded in April 1959 during the second session of Kind of Blue, one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time.

Currently, there are more than 565 recorded versions of “All Blues.” Tune in today as we kick off Jazz Appreciation Month with some of this compositions most notable covers!

To capture the spontaneity of the recording sessions, Davis did not write out the compositions for “All Blues” or any of the tracks on Kind of Blue. He only provided the sextet with harmonic sketches.

The original recording band included Bill Evans on piano, Cannonball Adderley on alto sax, John Coltrane on tenor sax, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

Davis was influenced by the dancers, drummers, and finger piano player of the Ballet Africaine and was trying to bring that feeling to Kind of Blue, especially “All Blues” and “So What.” In the book Miles: The Autobiography, Davis says he wasn’t able to capture the exact sound he was looking for.

Miles said, “When I tell people that I missed what I was trying to do on Kind of Blue, that I missed getting the exact sound of the African finger piano up in that sound, they just look at me like I’m crazy…”

In 1965 Davis revisited “All Blues,” recording an uptempo version for his Live at the Plugged Nickel album.

This song was originally an instrumental composition and is usually preformed as such. However, Oscar Brown Jr. later wrote lyrics for it. Several vocalists, including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ernestine Anderson, Mark Murphy and Judy Niemack have performed the song with Brown’s lyrics.