Personnel: Miles Davis (trumpet); Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto saxophone); John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans (piano); Paul Chambers (double bass); Jimmy Cobb (drums). Liner Note Authors: Robert Palmer; Nat Hentoff. Recording information: Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York, New York (03/02/1959); Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York, New York (04/22/1959). With BIRTH OF THE COOL, Miles Davis distilled a new tonal palette for jazz. As early as 1954, Miles reacted to the escalating chordal complexity of hard bop by fashioning an evocative blues based on a simple scalar pattern ("Swing Spring"). KIND OF BLUE was the ultimate fulfillment of this approach, with Miles providing his collaborators little more than outlines for melodies and simple scales for improvisation. By emphasizing the blues and the improvisor's melodic gifts, KIND OF BLUE precipitated a major stylistic development--modal jazz. Charles Mingus had experimented with pedal points throughout the 1950s, and the... Minimize