LET’S DISCOVER JAZZ: Kind of Blue

On the centenary of the births of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the ‘Kind of Blue’ project presents itself as an artistic and cultural endeavour that goes beyond the mere re-enactment of a musical masterpiece. ‘Kind of Blue’, recorded in 1959, is not merely one of the most influential albums in the history of jazz: it is a seminal work, a turning point that redefined the relationship between composition and improvisation, between form and freedom, and between individuality and the collective construction of sound. 

From this, a project takes shape in which music engages in dialogue with critical reflection. Each track is introduced by the musicologist Maurizio Franco, offering the pupils a historical, aesthetic and analytical framework for listening.
A central element is the reference to the method Miles had developed whilst recording the soundtrack for the film *Ascenseur pour l’échafaud*. A sort of sensory laboratory from which emerges music that is strongly unified and cohesive, despite the stylistic diversity of the musicians involved. This poetics of subtraction – of ‘less is more’ – finds its expression in *Kind of Blue*: modal centres, open forms, and a deep trust in the musicians’ individuality. Reviving that method today means reaffirming a vision of jazz rooted in the intensity of sound, the quality of interaction and the depth of the rhythmic pulse.

Each track – from ‘So What’ to ‘Flamenco Sketches’ – is thus restored to its formal identity whilst simultaneously being reopened as a living space. It is not a question of turning a masterpiece into a museum piece, but of demonstrating how its strength lies precisely in its capacity to be continually revitalised.

In an age marked by acceleration and fragmentation, *Kind of Blue* continues to offer a model of depth, simplicity and attentive listening. To reinterpret it with philological awareness and creative energy means reaffirming a vision of jazz as an ethical language even before a stylistic one, capable of combining freedom and responsibility, memory and the present.

“Improvisation at School” is part of Youth Club, an initiative promoted by the Cariplo Foundation to encourage younger generations to engage with the performing arts.