On this day in 1959, Miles Davis released his album “Kind of Blue”.

17 August 1959

Miles Davis, the innovative trumpeter of jazz, released his album “Kind of Blue”, which had a profound influence on jazz, rock and classical music. Many critics consider it the greatest jazz album of all time, and Rolling Stone ranked the album as the 12th greatest jazz album of all time.^th best album of all time.

Davis got his first trumpet at age 9 and developed such a talent that by age 18 he was playing with jazz legends like Dizzy Gillespie and legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker. After moving to New York City, he would room with Parker.

Davis became addicted to heroin and eventually managed to kick the habit. Two years after “Kind of Blue,” he urged Columbia Records to print a picture of his then-wife on a record cover. Davis himself admitted to being guilty of domestic violence and mistreatment of women – something he later regretted.

In 1972, he broke his ankles in a car accident and plunged back into the drug world, alternating painkillers and cocaine. After that, he later wrote, “everything started to blur.” His habits began to affect his performance, and his health problems also increased.

In 1979, he married Cicely Tyson, who helped him overcome his drug addiction. This marriage, like the others before it, failed. A year before his death, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2006 he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Don Cheadle portrayed the contradictory musical genius in the 2015 film “Miles Ahead,” and filmmaker Stanley Nelson featured him in the 2019 documentary “Miles Davis: Birth of Cool.”