2007 edition, featuring a new afterword by author Ashley Kahn. Kind Of Blue is the most popular straight-jazz album of all time, the one that even those people who don't really listen to jazz but want to seem smart, hip and cultured can connect with. Even 45 years after its initial release in August 1959, it remains the standard-bearer for an entire culture, and continues to sell in the neighborhood of 100,000 copies a year. This book is part of a recent tendency in music-related publishing, the "making of" study of classic albums. No matter how many times you've heard this record, Ashley Kahn's thorough and impassioned excavation of the facts and details regarding its creation, and the context in which it was made, will fascinate and enlighten. Not a mean feat considering that everybody on the record except the drummer is now dead, as well as most of the CBS staffers and engineers who were present at those two historic sessions in March and April of 1959. The book studies each of the five tracks on Kind Of Blue in hair-splitting detail, and also provides an excellent perspective on the jazz and popular-music industries of the day. Rare, never-before-seen pictures that must be seen to be believed seal the deal. 230 pages.

reviewed by greg caz