Miles Davis
Kind of Blue

Dear friend, don't know anything about jazz? Coming from other musical realms and don't know where to start? Begin with Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, from '59; lineup: Miles Davis-Trumpet, John Coltrane-Tenor Sax, Cannonball Adderley-Alto Sax, Bill Evans-Piano (except the second track, Wynton Kelly), Paul Chambers-Bass, Jimmy Cobb-Drums. It is perhaps THE masterpiece of modern jazz, and the first album entirely conceived in a "modal" key, where improvisation is freed from the constraints of chord changes and is based on various combinations of scales. This way, you are not obliged to use only the notes corresponding to individual chords, and the challenge becomes seeing how inventive you can be on the melodic front. The entire album represents a "return to melody", while at the time the main trend in jazz was to make improvisations more complex from a harmonic perspective.
It was an enormous revolution and opened up previously unthinkable prospects, even in rock; the best guitarists, in particular, studied this way of playing deeply, as confirmed by Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers, and they applied it especially in jam sessions or live during their solos, as it allowed them to phrase for a long time with excellent sound and create very incisive licks. Except in "Freddie Freeloader", the album is permeated by a relaxed melancholy, barely perceptible, except in "Blue in Green", masterpiece of the group's pianist, Bill Evans, the most minimalist and poignant piece in all of jazz, a true hymn to Beauty. Listen to the purity of sound and the perfect choice of notes from everyone! Even when you've memorized every detail, it's one of those rare (unique) pieces of music that you will NEVER tire of listening to. You will always manage to cry from emotion, if its song finds you alone, in the dark, in silence. The other tracks are masterpieces as well, and each will earn your preference in turn. It is not an immediately accessible album on first listen, it might even say nothing to you! Even if it means forcing yourself, make sure to listen to it attentively at least 4-5 times; you need to get used to the sound... forget speed and decibels and you'll manage to enter a sublime poetic world made of highest art, and you'll fall in love. It might even change your life, as it did for me a long time ago.

(NOTE for jazz enthusiasts: this was intended as just a "word in the ear" to encourage non-jazz enthusiasts to approach this essential milestone of 20th-century culture!)