Since its release on August 17, 1959,
Kind of Blue has been regarded by critics as Davis's greatest work. It is his most acclaimed album, and became, along with Davis's 1970 album
Bitches Brew, his best-selling record, cementing him as one of the most successful jazz artists in history. Music writer Chris Morris cited
Kind of Blue as "the distillation of Davis's art." Cobb said the album "must have been made in heaven".
Kind of Blue has been lauded as one of the most influential albums in the history of jazz. One reviewer has called it a "defining moment of twentieth century music". Several of the pieces from the album have become
jazz standards.
Kind of Blue is consistently ranked among the greatest albums of all time. In a review of the album,
AllMusic senior editor
Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated: In 1959, the arrival of
Ornette Coleman on the jazz scene via his fall residency at the
Five Spot club, consolidated by the release of his
The Shape of Jazz to Come LP in 1959, muted the initial impact of
Kind of Blue, a happenstance that irritated Davis greatly. Though Davis and Coleman both offered alternatives to the rigid rules of bebop, Davis would never reconcile himself to Coleman's
free jazz innovations, although he would incorporate musicians amenable to Coleman's ideas with his great quintet of the mid-1960s, and offer his own version of "free" playing with his
jazz fusion outfits in the 1970s. The influence of
Kind of Blue did build, and all of the sidemen from the album went on to achieve success on their own. Evans formed his influential jazz trio with bassist
Scott LaFaro and drummer
Paul Motian; "Cannonball" Adderley fronted popular bands with his brother
Nat; Kelly, Chambers and Cobb continued as a touring unit, recording under Kelly's name as well as in support of Coltrane and
Wes Montgomery, among others; and Coltrane went on to become one of the most revered and innovative of all jazz musicians. Even more than Davis, Coltrane took the modal approach and ran with it during his career as a leader in the 1960s, leavening his music with Coleman's ideas as the decade progressed.
Kind of Blue has appeared on professional listings of the greatest albums. In 1994, it was ranked number one in
Colin Larkin's
Top 100 Jazz Albums. Larkin described it as "the greatest jazz album in the world". In 2019, the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album
five-times platinum, indicating five million units recorded there. Many improvisatory rock musicians of the 1960s referred to
Kind of Blue for inspiration, along with other Davis albums, as well as Coltrane's modal records
My Favorite Things (1961) and
A Love Supreme (1965). Guitarist
Duane Allman of
the Allman Brothers Band said his soloing on songs such as "
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," "comes from Miles and Coltrane, and particularly
Kind of Blue. I've listened to that album so many times that for the past couple of years, I haven't hardly listened to anything else."
Pink Floyd keyboardist
Richard Wright said that the chord progressions on the album influenced the structure of the introductory chords to the song "
Breathe" on the album
The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). In his book
Kind of Blue: The Making of a Miles Davis Masterpiece, writer
Ashley Kahn wrote "still acknowledged as the height of hip, four decades after it was recorded,
Kind of Blue is the premier album of its era, jazz or otherwise. Its vapory piano introduction is universally recognized". Producer
Quincy Jones, one of Davis's longtime friends, wrote: "That [
Kind of Blue] will always be my music, man. I play
Kind of Blue every day—it's my orange juice. It still sounds like it was made yesterday".
Gary Burton, of
Berklee College of Music, noted the consistent innovation present throughout the album, stating: "It wasn't just one tune that was a breakthrough, it was the whole record. When new jazz styles come along, the first few attempts to do it are usually kind of shaky. Early Charlie Parker records were like this. But with
Kind of Blue [the sextet] all sound like they're fully into it." Along with
Time Out by the
Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959) and Coltrane's
Giant Steps (1960),
Kind of Blue has often been recommended by music writers as an introductory jazz album, for similar reasons: the music on both records is very melodic, and the relaxed quality of the songs makes the
improvisation easy for listeners to follow, without sacrificing artistry or experimentation. Upon the release of the 50th anniversary collector's edition of the album, a columnist for
All About Jazz stated "
Kind of Blue" heralded the arrival of a revolutionary new American music, a post-bebop modal jazz structured around simple scales and melodic improvisation. Trumpeter/band leader/composer Miles Davis assembled a sextet of legendary players to create a sublime atmospheric masterpiece. Fifty years after its release,
Kind of Blue continues to transport listeners to a realm all its own while inspiring musicians to create to new sounds—from acoustic jazz to post-modern ambient—in every genre imaginable." Renowned hip-hop artist and rapper
Q-Tip reaffirmed the album's reputation and influence when discussing the significance of
Kind of Blue, stating "It's like the Bible—you just have one in your house." The singer
Bilal names it among his 25 favorite albums and "an important record" for him. The 2014 album
Blue by
Mostly Other People Do the Killing is a note-for-note reproduction of
Kind of Blue. The
Kind of Blue musicians appeared together in further recorded ventures through the 1960s. Davis had made a rare post-1953 sideman appearance in 1958 on Adderley's ''
Somethin' Else'' album; Evans and Adderley collaborated on the latter's LP
Know What I Mean? from 1961. Kelly and Chambers backed
Hank Mobley on
Soul Station in 1960, and Evans and Chambers played on the sessions for
The Blues and the Abstract Truth by
Oliver Nelson in 1961. The rhythm section of Kelly, Chambers, and Cobb played on
Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago, supported Benny Golson on
Turning Point and Coltrane for
Coltrane Jazz and one track on Coltrane's landmark
Giant Steps, which featured Chambers throughout. That trio stayed with Davis for the recordings
Someday My Prince Will Come and the live sets
at the Blackhawk and
at Carnegie Hall.
Davis in retrospect Late in his life, from the electric period on, Davis repeatedly disregarded his earlier work, such as the music of
Birth of the Cool or
Kind of Blue. In Davis's view, remaining static stylistically was the wrong option. When
Shirley Horn insisted, in 1990, that Davis reconsider playing the gentle ballads and modal tunes of his
Kind of Blue period, he demurred: "Nah, it hurts my lip." ==Release history==