“The Blue Moment: Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and the Remaking of Modern Music” by Richard Williams: Richard Williams acknowledges early on in “The Blue Moment” that there is not much more to say about Miles Davis’ jazz masterpiece “Kind of Blue” that hasn’t already been covered in two 2001 books by other authors.

Rather, his book is an attempt to examine the groundbreaking album’s impact on the music that followed it: “Like the ripples from a pebble dropped into an ever expanding lagoon.”

Recorded in 1959, “Kind of Blue” is certainly one of the most popular and influential jazz albums of all time with its modal approach signaling a shift away from conventional chord changes to more static patterns that freed up the musicians to improvise in new directions.

Read more.