1959: The Year that Changed Jazz

This is one of a series of posts that will focus on 1959 and the four albums released in that pivotal year that changed jazz. The albums are:

1. Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet
2. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis
3. Ah Um by Charles Mingus
4. The Shape of Jazz to Come by Ornette Coleman

I'll discuss each of these albums in subsequent posts (with an emphasis on Kind of Blue.) For now, though, this documentary on 1959 will provide background information that will put these albums into their proper historical context.

For the more academically inclined, Gregg Gelb's 1959 Jazz: A Historical Study and Analysis of Jazz and Its Artists and Recordings in 1959 is a fascinating and insightful paper. The next post will focus on the best selling jazz album of all time: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis.