Today is the 50th anniversary of an exceedingly important tune in the history of music.

Dave, exceedingly important as it is (arguably) the first tune where the bass takes the lead?

I totally agree and there have been a few cover versions...Ronny Jordan does a funky version with a cool swing part in the middle.
Played it many times, the arrangement sometimes catches other people out if they miss the semitone change to Ab.
A great tune that has stood the test of time.

It will also catch the bassist out if you're playing it at the Ronny Jordan speed, and you forget that the theme starts just after the 1 on the very last measure of the AABA form. Ah - the memories ...

Check out the version by Brian Melvin on his disc Standards Zone...more upbeat than Miles version.  Oh, and they have a bass player on that session who is not too shabby...Jaco Pastorius.

Excellent tune! I like these old videos...
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8QhjwVy7Ng&feature=related
 
Too cool!
 
Here's Ronny Jordan's version (I never heard it before)...
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPAQUpW-wdc&feature=related
 
I wasn't able to find the Brian Melvin version.

I'll never forget the first time I heard Kind of Blue.  I was about 20, and in college, and I think I went through one of the greatest musical revelations of my life within the period of about an hour.

Mike; that Miles and Coltrane video is very cool!

The Ronnie Rordan version is excellent, there is a second version where the swing middle part is extended with Ronnie playing a nice solo.
One band I was did that version...was always a winner as most audiences know the original version by Miles..which is really hard to beat at any time!

Thanks for both of these links , Mike.
I got turned on to So What by a keyboard player (Lisa) at a jam in Aurora about 8 years ago.  
Okay, I was sheltered (perhaps blinkered) as a child.  
Frequently when we get stalled on-stage (waiting for sound check or a broken guitar string) I'll softly start All Blues just to see if anyone in the (young) crowd notices
 
Mike

Terry, a question; you mentioned Ab change in So What.  I have always played it in the key of Dm with the bridge moving up a half step to Eb. Everything I have read supports that too, including this months Bass Player Magazine with Paul Chambers on the cover.  Perhaps the Ab was simply Ronnie Jordan's version?
Thanks.

I mean on the theme, the bass starts on G in myxolydian them moves up to Ab, I know the whole tune is Dm to Eb when it gets rolling.

Terry - it's actually Dorian mode. That's the minor scale, but with a b7 (ascending as well as descending).
 
It's one of the Gregorian modes - on a keyboard, you pick any white key as the key, and you hit only the white keys as you go along. Dorian starts from D - but obviously you can play minor with a b7 in any key.
 
IIRC, this was from the system before they started adding black keys on organ keyboards. But it is a little confusing, because the first key to be added moved Bb away from its white key to add B natural. The Germans still call a B an H - and a B in German is what the rest of the world considers a Bb.

Ah well - you must have meant that the intro to So What is in mixolydian.

adriaan..yep that is what I meant but I do get the other stuff...and we all thought that music was simple!!!