Stories of Standards: “All Blues” by Miles Davis

Tune in to Jazz with Victor Cooper – weekdays from 6-9 a.m. MT – for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of this song all week long, December 10 through 14, presented by Rodney Franks!

Stories of Standards is sponsored by ListenUp - If you love music, you’ll love ListenUp.

The song “All Blues” only ranks #248 at www.JazzStandards.com, but it is beloved and much recorded.

The roots of “All Blues” may go back to an era before the blues, perhaps back to Africa. In his autobiography, iconic trumpeter/bandleader Miles Davis said about the 1959 recording session, “I wanted a lot of spontaneity in the playing just like I thought was in the interplay between those dancers and those drummers and that finger piano player with the Ballet Africaine.”

The sound was also influenced by the modal approach to jazz that Davis and pianist Bill Evans developed in the late 1950s, after pioneering the hard bop sound.  Davis describes the difference he was looking for in the 2001 book by Ashley Kahn: “No chords … gives you a lot more freedom and space to hear things. When you go this way, you can go on forever. You don’t have to worry about changes and you can do more with the [melody] line.”

Lyrics to “All Blues” were written by Oscar Brown, Jr.

“All Blues” was included on what is arguably the best-selling jazz record of all time, Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue.”  Originally the first track on side two, “All Blues” was the longest of the five songs, at more than 11 minutes.