It was in a converted Greek Orthodox Church, one subsequently destroyed to make way for yuppie flats. Despite all this, the man Duke Ellington dubbed “the Picasso of jazz” knew he had it within him to create something as momentous as Kind of Blue.Īt 2.30pm on Monday 2 March 1959, Davis assembled a magnificent band at East 30th Street in New York, the site of Columbia’s recording studio. Musically, he was worried about being overshadowed by younger rival Chet Baker, who had recently won the DownBeat critics poll for “best trumpet player”. He was 32, still thin after recovering from an addiction to heroin, and widely considered to be unreliable. Sixty years ago, as he was about to make a quantum leap in music, the reputation of trumpeter and composer Davis was tarnished.
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