Kind of Blue Adderley had joined in the fall of 1957, with tenor saxophonist Coltrane returning at the beginning of 1958; pianist Evans had replaced Red Garland in April 1958, but quit in November to be replaced in turn by Kelly; and drummer Cobb had been hired in May 1958. The Davis band played a mixture of pop standards and bebop originals by Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Tadd Dameron. As with all bebop-based jazz, Davis's groups improvised on the chord changes of a given song. Davis was one of many jazz musicians growing dissatisfied with bebop, however, and saw its
Jazz include Jackie McLean, and two of the musicians who had also played on "Kind of Blue": John Coltrane and Bill Evans. By the 1950s, Afro-Cuban jazz had been using modes for at least a decade, as much of it borrowed from Cuban popular dance forms which are structured around multiple ostinatos with only a few chords. A case in point is Mario Bauza's "Tanga" (1943), the first Afro-Cuban jazz piece. Machito's Afro-Cubans recorded modal tunes in the 1940s, featuring jazz soloists such as Howard McGhee, Brew Moore, Charlie Parker, and Flip Phillips. However, there is no evidence that Davis or