So What

Recorded in 1959 for Prestige Records, the track features Jefferson vocalese over Miles Davis's modal classic from Kind of Blue, applying Jefferson's pioneering technique of setting improvised jazz solos to lyrics. Jefferson's vocalese treatment of Davis's landmark modal composition demonstrated the full expressive potential of the form he had pioneered, arriving at a moment when Kind of Blue was reshaping the jazz world. The recording stands as a definitive example of vocalese and directly influenced subsequent vocal jazz practitioners, cementing Jefferson's reputation as the originator of a technique later carried forward by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross and King Pleasure.