Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Art of Escapism

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (1959) 

Although Miles Davis's jazz record Kind of Blue (1959) contains a dreamlike quality and perpetuates feelings of serenity, I am intrigued by the narrative that Davis is attempting to create with this music in relation to the time period. In the YouTube link containing the full album, there are accompanying pictures of Davis for each of his songs. What struck me was the image of Davis during the track “Blue in Green.” In the picture, Davis is in a reclining position with his eyes closed, furthering the album’s overall smooth composition which triggers the qualities of being at peace. Even the titles of the tracks on Davis’s albums, such as “So la What” and “Freddie Freeloader,” prescribe to this relaxed disposition. 

However, I am critical of this perception of tranquility because of Davis’s racial identity at the time of the album's creation. Kind of Blue seems to give off the impression that the mid-twentieth century was a time in which there was a sense of nonchalance on the topic of upward mobility, leading me to question the audience and accessibility of this album. Just four years prior to the record’s release, a young Emmett Till was lynched, because the color of his skin infringed upon the sanctity of the southern way of life and white supremacy, signifying the height of racial tensions. It is evident that Davis created a new sound for jazz through the “modal” style. Potentially, this experimentation with different scales and sounds could have been an outpouring of Davis’s racial dialogue. Due to its widespread popularity, could this album have legitimately transcended beyond racial boundaries?

It is essential to note that Davis created Kind of Blue at the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. Under this context paired with the record's tone, I argue that this album evokes a sense of escapism as a means to cope with the political landscape of America at the time.  As we have mentioned during our class sessions, art often promotes activism through its cultural message. In this case, Davis's album serves as an escape from the political and social climate of the mid-twentieth century. Could it be argued that the artistic creation of Kind of Blue fits under the category of activism since this escapism could be understood as a form of survival? Additionally, in dialogue with the creation of spaces for African Americans, Davis is actively contributing to an artistic and cultural space for African Americans. Could this album be making a platform for black people to survive through hardships, or is it curtailing the resistance against racial disparities?