So..I've had this album for awhile, but it's sheer brilliance has only recently hit me. I got into Jazz through Kind of Blue, which is an excellent starting point, yet it seems like there is nowhere to go from there. How can you expand your horizons when you started with (arguably) the best stuff out there?

After memorizing Kind of Blue note for note, I went to my uncle (former jazz columnist for the Chicago Sun Times) and asked him for some good jazz. He led me to Thelonious Monk. Now, let me just say, Monk is brilliant. Really great stuff. Yet, he's a far cry from Miles. Aside from the fact that Monk was a pianist, their basic styles of jazz are completely different. Monk is Monk; he's completely unique. However, his sharp technique and wild notation contrast the almost epic sounds that Miles can create with his trumpet. Monk is a genius in his own right, but his work is incomparable to the sound found on Kind of Blue. But, as Pat would say, I digress.

So, after being thoroughly saturated with Thelonious, I returned to my search to find something akin to Kind of Blue. When my uncle learned that I was into Miles Davis, he quickly gave me a list of albums to start with. Of course, Kind of Blue was there. Underneath it, however, was an album that I had heard talk about, but was completely unfamiliar with--Porgy & Bess. On my next trip to good old Rolling Stones Records, I picked up a copy.

My first listen was a bit shocking. I was completely unprepared for what I heard. I was expecting a quartet and got slammed with an orchestra, and it appeared that this Gil Evans character was behind the madness. I gave the album a couple more listens before putting it away for months. I suppose I thought it was mediocre at the time because it was not at all what I was expecting/looking for.

After a continued period of searching that turned up such gems as Hancock's Maiden Voyage, Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and Davis' own Birth of the Cool, I lay down my quest for a successor to Kind of Blue and reveled in my jazz collection, savoring what I'd found. It was only then that I returned to Porgy & Bess. "Might as well give it another listen," I thought. I'm very glad I did. Only now is the sheer majesty of Gil Evans' orchestra apparent to me, not to mention the way Miles' trumpet cuts through the other horns to carve the pure jazz out of Gershwins score. From the tuba on "Buzzard Song", to the classic "Summertime", to the crescendo on "Prayer", to the triumphant finale of "There's A Boat That's Leaving...", Porgy & Bess is a landmark in jazz, and should not be missed.