Is Kind of Blue the Best Jazz Album Ever

Certainly one of the most popular and successful. Does that make it the "best"?

No. Jazz took a wrong turn with bebop.

I'll conceed, "jazz" may be too broad a term. How about best ("best" as qualified in my original post) "Bebop Jazz" album.

I am not claiming that KOB is the best, as in technically or artistically above the rest in its genre. I know that there are many jazz albums of the era that surpass KOB (many of them have been mentioned in the thread above). I don't believe that any one can be considered the best as they all offer something unique.

But I like Kurt-tank's analogy with Dark Side of the Moon,(not sure about Beethoven 5th). Let me steel Tvad's term, these are "gateway" albums into their respective genres.

Many do not like HardBop as Lloydc may have mentioned but I find it impossible to listen to ....... lets say..... Art Blakey's Moanin title track with out moving some body parts :) Just one of many. Everyone should own at least Lee Morgan's Sidewinder, John Coltrane's Blue Train,and Grant Green's Idle moments.

I'd definitely put in a word for Kind of Blue as the greatest jazz make-out album of all time. Not to denigrate it from a purely musical standpoint (because it truly is amazingly good playing, especially the miraculous way Miles turned this group into a cohesive ensemble), I wonder how many who consider it the "greatest jazz album" have fond memories similar to my own for which Kind of Blue was merely a soundtrack? =^)