“So What is a simple figure based on 16 measures of one scale, 8 of another and 8 more of the first, following a piano and bass introduction in free rhythmic style”, reads the notes to A Kind of Blue. The back of the album features a short essay by Bill Evans entitled “Improvisation in jazz”.

“There is a Japanese visual art – Evans writes – in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous. He must paint on a thin stretched parchment with a special brush and black water paint in such a way that an unnatural or interrupted stroke will destroy the line or break through the parchment. Erasures or changes are impossible. These artists must practice a particular discipline, that of allowing the idea to express itself in communication with their hands in such a direct way that deliberation cannot interfere.”

Evans continues: “As the painter need his framework of parch-ment, the improvising musical group needs its framework in time. Miles Davis presents here frameworks which are exquisite in their simplicity and yet contain all that is necessary to stimulate performance with a sure reference to the primary conception […] The group had never played these pieces prior to the recordings and I think without exception the first complete performance of each was a ‘take.’ Although it is not uncommon for a jazz musician to be expected to improvise on new material at a recording session, the character of these pieces represents particular challenge.”

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