Who plays the first saxophone solo on the Late Great Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album on the song All Blues is it Jullian “Cannonball” Adderly or is it John Coltrane?
The liner notes by Bill Evans aren’t quiet clear on this … and I gots to know!
Zeldar is busy flipping pages in the book Kind of Blue. If it’s there, he will find it…Here it comes…He’s looking at the music…It’s Cannonball!
Coltrane comes after Cannonball!
It took about three minutes from the time I saw the question. That is one of Zeldar’s favorite albums of all times.
He used to play that for me over the phone before we ever met face to face.
Welcome to the Straight Dope!
Also of note is that Bill Evans plays piano on every track of the album except for Freddie The Freeloader, which is played by Wynton Kelly. Kelly was Miles’ first choice, but Columbia wanted to get a white musician on the album to promote it to both black and white audiences.
Bill Evans had a great admiration for Miles and to the day he died he would always play at least one Miles Davis composition on each of his sets. He took the personnel substitution as criticism on his ability to play the blues and as a result, you won’t find many (if any) recordings of Bill Evans playing a blues after 1959.