"All Blues" is a 6/4 blues in G from Miles Davis's 1959 album Kind of Blue, its hypnotic, rocking rhythm and simple modal structure creating one of the album's most immediately appealing performances. The composition reimagines the 12-bar blues through a modal lens, its oscillating bass line and shimmering piano tremolo establishing a groove that feels simultaneously ancient and modern. Davis opens the solo sequence with four choruses of muted trumpet that are models of restraint and melodic invention, his phrases hanging in the air with an almost physical presence. Cannonball Adderley follows with four ebullient alto saxophone choruses that bring the blues to vivid, full-throated life, his playing radiating the warmth and accessibility that made him one of jazz's great communicators. Coltrane's four tenor saxophone choruses chart a more harmonically complex path through the changes, his improvisations suggesting the intense spiritual searching that would define his later work. Evans closes with two choruses of piano that provide a gentle, contemplative coda to the extended solo sequence. The composition's waltz-like feel, unusual for a blues, gives "All Blues" a distinctive swaying quality that sets it apart from any other blues performance in jazz. The track has become a staple of jazz education and remains one of the most frequently performed pieces in the repertoire.
