"[Miles Davis'] recordings, along with the live performances of his many seminal bands, were vital in jazz's increased artistic acceptance" - could somebody explain the word seminal in this context for me? I am translating the article for the Dutch Wikipedia, but the definitions in dictionaries do not seem to help here.--branko

Well, when we say "the seminal work" in science, it means the work that everyone looks to as a reference, being first and/or best on the topic. I presume that the usage above is meant to convey that the bands were considered the models for others to emulate. I could be wrong. -- April

Sounds good to me. Thanks. (And if somebody thinks April's definition is wrong or skewed after all, please drop a note at http://nl.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=edit&id=Miles_Davis/Overleg )--branko

That was pretty much what I meant. Where Davis led (re: electrification, modality, "free" jazz, pretty much everyone else followed. They were usually (amongst) the first, and frequently the best (at least till '72, or thereabouts)

When Gareth Owen entered info about Kind of Blue, he added the following comment:

"What can you say about KoB. Well, I can only gush. Let someone else impose NPOV. (How can you be neutral about genius? Hamlet: has its moments, Relativity: quite a good idea ... I'm babbling)"

Well, to begin with, you do not have to talk about the moments of Hamlet, nor about the merits of the idea of relativity. Rather, you can speak of their (perceived) influence in their respective fields and outside.

Hey, I was babbling...

Also, my copy of KoB has got this big yellow sticker on front that enthuses: "Perhaps the most influentual and best-selling jazz record ever made" -- if marketing drones can use words like 'perhaps', I bet so can you.?:-)

yeah, well I could. But I don't wanna?:)

And third, you could just gush and let someone else impose NPOV. That is the Wikipedia thing to do (well, _a_ Wikipedia thing to do).?:-)--branko

There's nothing wrong with reporting on gushing; our NPOV policy just says that the article should avoid expressing its own value judgments, but if many people believe that KoB was the most influential jazz recording of its time, it would in fact be contrary to Wikipedia's goals not to report that "many people believe that KoB was the most influential jazz recoding of its time." -- Lee Daniel Crocker