GLT Jazz Celebrates 1959

Time: Mon-Fri, 9 AM to 4 PM; Mon-Thurs, 9 PM to Midnight; Mon-Fri, Midnight to 5 AM.
Host: Jon Norton and Laura Kennedy

Two albums that show up in every serious music collection – even if there are no other jazz CDs in it – are Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out. Both were released in 1959.

Fifty years later, GLT Jazz pays tribute to these two popular releases from 1959 during the month of June. You’ll hear lots of music from these two landmark albums and you’ll hear today’s jazz artists talk about what makes them so important.

Kind of Blue continues to endure perhaps because of Davis’ original approach in the studio and the melodic results. Davis provided his musicians with ideas and concepts and music scales, but no written music. If there were ever a group of musicians who would get his concepts, it was the group gathered in the studio in March and April of ’59: alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley , tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, pianists Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans, long-serving bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb.

Kind of Blue is one of the best-selling jazz recordings of all time and was certified quadruple platinum in October of 2008. In 2002, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Time Out , recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, was added to the same registry in 2005. Unlike Kind of Blue, Time Out includes compositions in the more traditional sense, written by Brubeck and alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. The concept is simple: the songs are recorded in a variety of unusual time signatures. For instance, instead of the simple 4/4 of most jazz, the most recognizable song on the Brubeck album, Take Five, was recorded in 5/4. Blue Ronda a la Turk is a “double waltz” in 9/8

During June, we’ll also bring you recognizable music from a few other memorable jazz releases of 1959, including Giant Steps, recorded by John Coltrane just three weeks after he worked with Miles on Kind of Blue; The Bill Evans Trio’s Portrait in Jazz, recorded a few months after that; and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book , with its impeccable vocals.

Our nod to 1959 can be heard throughout June during GLT Jazz. On Thursday, June 25 th we take it a step further during GLT Jazz with nothing but Brubeck to mark the 1st of three recording dates for Time Out.