| "All Blues" | |
|---|---|
| Composition by Miles Davis | |
| from the album Kind of Blue | |
| Released | August 17, 1959 |
| Recorded | April 22, 1959 |
| Genre | Modal jazz |
| Length | 11:33 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Composer(s) | Miles Davis |
| Producer(s) | Irving Townsend[1] |
"All Blues" is a jazz composition by Miles Davis first appearing on the influential 1959 album Kind of Blue. It is a twelve-bar blues in 6
8; the chord sequence is that of a basic blues and made up entirely of seventh chords, with a ♭VI in the turnaround instead of just the usual V chord. In the composition's original key of G this chord is an E♭7. "All Blues" is an example of modal blues in G Mixolydian.[2][clarification needed]
A particularly distinctive feature of the piece is the bass line that repeats through the whole piece, except when a V or ♭VI chord is reached (the 9th and 10th bars of a chorus). Further, there is a harmonically similar vamp that is played by the horns (the two saxophones in the case of Kind of Blue) at the beginning and then (usually) continued by the piano under any solos that take place. Each chorus is usually separated by a four-bar vamp which acts as an introduction to the next solo/chorus.
While originally an instrumental piece, lyrics were later added by Oscar Brown Jr.