111. Miles Davis - ‘Kind of Blue’ + Martini (Dry)
Ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces dry gin, 3/4 ounce dry vermouth, lemon peel or olive for garnish.
Mixing Instructions: Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice. Stir well and strain into a chilled martini glass. Squeeze oil from a lemon peel or garnish with an olive.
Notes: The best-selling jazz album of all time carries so much legend and weight that one feels completely foolish when trying to describe it in writing. Even the words of a great poet could do nothing more than dance in the shadows of its true substance. Like things that are mystical in nature, much of the album lies beyond description…you just have to feel it for yourself.
Brought together for this album were the following jazz musicians, all in their prime: John Coltrane, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, and of course Davis himself. It’s scary the amount of talent that was contained in that group. Davis gave the musicians some outlines of the songs, but nothing more as he wanted to capture the spontaneity that he knew contained much of the magic of jazz. It all worked just as one would expect, perfectly. Take a night, tune everything else out, make yourself a martini and let yourself feel beauty and greatness.