The filmmakers behind the upcoming documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the jazz innovator’s groundbreaking record Kind of Blue with an exclusive cut from the film that offers a peek into the album’s recording process.
Though the film tracks Davis’ entire life and career, the extended clip focuses on the critical moment in the late trumpeter’s early phase as development began for his post-bebop pivot Kind of Blue. Over the iconic introduction of album opener “So What,” the documentary uses Davis and company’s recollections of the seminal recording sessions to set the scene, from the assembling of his all-star supporting players, including saxophonists John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb, to Davis’ budding philosophy of loose arrangements and improvisation.
The album, released 60 years ago this week on August 17, 1959, served as a career-defining moment for Davis that built his reputation to deftly blend jazz with the unconventional while influencing generations to come, including Birth of the Cool director Stanley Nelson.