The Atlantic: Why Did This Band Recreate Jazz’s Most Famous Record Note-for-Note?

David A. Graham
The Atlantic

If you’re unfamiliar with the band Mostly Other People Do the Killing, the first sign that they might have an offbeat sense of humor ought to be the name. That hasn’t stopped plenty of people from being outraged at the group’s new album.

It’s called Blue, and it’s a reproduction of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, perhaps the most famous jazz album of all time. Not a tribute; not “inspired by”; not even a simple covers album. It’s a painstaking, note-for-note reproduction. The musicians have transcribed and reproduced each walking bass line, each cymbal tap, each Bill Evans piano flourish, each note of John Coltrane’s and Cannonball Adderley’s and Miles Davis’s solos.

What can be said about such a peculiar act? First, it’s not jazz. Second, it’s hilarious and important.

Source: The Atlantic