So What - Jimmy Cobb's sublime moment

With soft brushes of the cymbal, Jimmy Cobb, who passed away ten days ago and who was the last surviving member of Miles Davis sextet behind Kind of Blue, starts the gentle groove that underpins "So What", one of the greatest and most famous pieces in all of Jazz.

Recorded for Miles Davis' 1959 masterpiece Kind of Blue, it opens what many say is the greatest jazz album of all time, having sold millions of copies worldwide and been streamed millions of times ("So What" alone has been streamed 49million times on Spotify at the time of writing, not bad for a 60 year old piece of music).

Kind of Blue would mark the moment where Miles Davis vision of modal jazz really came to fruition, after initially exploring it in the preceding two albums. Modal jazz sets the music around a mode rather than specific tone and by treating all chords equally, it gives musicians more freedom to play. "So What" is one of the best examples of modal jazz as it particular showcases how breezy the music can be due in part to the relaxed tempo - a much marked slower pace than the preceding year's "Milestones" - but also the less than instinctive chord progressions, which can be slow or even boring.

The piece is undoubtedly initially based on one of Miles Davis's favourite pianists Ahmad Jamal and his 1955 cover of Morton Gould's "Pavanne". The piece itself starts with a piano-and-bass intro written by pianist Bill Evans and bassist Paul Chambers and it is 36 seconds in when Jimmy Cobb hits the first ride cymbal to start the groove. Miles then plays the basic chords before various members solo over the beat, all before Miles then plays the opening chords again and the focus returns to the opening piano-bass intro:

To listen to "So What" and Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on Spotify click here...

Jimmy Cobb and this sextet went on to play on other classics, most notably 1960's Sketches of Spain but it's Kind of Blue and particularly this simple, catchy, melodic track that I find myself coming back to again and again. It is effortless and not least due to Jimmy Cobb's laidback groove.