So What is a 1959 jazz composition by Miles Davis and the first track on the album Kind of Blue. It was recorded on March 2, 1959 and released August 17, 1959 on the Columbia label, produced by Teo Macero. The tune is a landmark of modal jazz, set in the Dorian mode with a 16 bar D Dorian section, followed by 8 bars of Eb Dorian and 8 bars of D Dorian, in a 32 bar AABA form, and runs about 9 minutes and 22 seconds. The piano and bass introduction was written by Gil Evans for Bill Evans and Paul Chambers, and an orchestral version by Gil Evans was later performed with Miles’s first quintet minus Cannonball Adderley. The piece is notable for its unusual use of the double bass to state the head, and its chord voicings known as the So What chord. The tune influenced later works such as Coltrane’s Impressions and traces its harmonic roots to Ahmad Jamal’s 1955 Pavanne. In live performances the tempo often speeds up, and So What remains a milestone of modal jazz; in 2024 Rolling Stone ranked it 492 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
