Miles Davis

Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (1959) is widely regarded as the greatest jazz album of all time. It is the best-selling record in the genre's history, having sold over five million copies in the U.S. alone.

The album's enduring fame stems from its pioneering of modal jazz. Instead of soloing over rapidly changing, complex chord progressions common in bebop, Davis used simpler musical scales (modes). This shift gave the musicians more "room" to focus on melody, space, and emotional expression.