In 2008 Haffner came up with a minor masterpiece for the ACT label in Acoustic Shapes that seemed to capture the spirit of a newfound confidence in contemporary European jazz that was sweeping the continent at the time. It proved a hard act for him to follow, whether in an acoustic or electric context, but this album comes close. Other than three Haffner originals, this is a fresh look at some classic jazz standards and staples of the American Popular song given luminance by an A-list of European jazz musicians. It's an album of unexpected depth for several reasons. While the album title invokes Kind of Blue it also functions in the same way – the choice of slow/medium tempos sustains a specific mood, which can function effectively as both background music (drummer Jimmy Cobb once said he had lost count of the number of people who told him they had made love to KoB), and foreground music, the exemplary playing by every musician on the album enabling it to withstand foreground scrutiny. Similarities don't end there: two tracks use the 32 bar ‘So What’ sequence – ‘Hippie’ and ‘So What’ itself – and sustain a Miles-like groove throughout. Here are European musicians congregating around the American jazz ethos of blues and swing and doing what European musicians – according to many American commentators – fail to do: swing. Haffner is an exemplary drummer, one of the leading exhibits on the German jazz scene, and the way he combines with Berglund and Landgren is an object lesson in rhythm section playing while Dell, Perko and Goykovitch (a hero of the Woody Herman band in the 1960s) are pan-European stars who feel no need to ‘prove’ themselves, but instead relax and enjoy themselves. This is perhaps the key. Recordings today have become expensive business cards intended to impress agents, bookers, club owners and festival producers and anyone else who can offer work opportunities, so tend to strain for effect. In contrast, here is an album where everyone is confident in their own abilities and of those around them so they play what is right for the music, rather than what they think will get them ‘noticed’. It's an album that does not set out to impress, but as it grows on you, you realise that the very act of making it all sound so easy is impressive.