Featured Album | Alternative Liner Notes
062 | Miles Davis | Birth of the Cool | Capitol CAPS 1024 | 1957
The Birth of the Cool is actually a 1957 compilation LP of recordings from the late 1940s, when Miles Davis began experimenting with a nonet format, after serving an apprenticeship with the giant of Bebop, Charlie Parker. Striving to discover a new direction in jazz, a handful of musicians worked towards this new direction by staging three sessions, which took place between 1949 and 1950, bringing together the collective talents of Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz and Bill Barber, who played on all the sessions, plus Kai Winding and Al Haig amongst others, each keen to explore the new orchestral sounds of what would later be referred to as ‘cool jazz’. It’s difficult to track down the original individual 10” 78s, therefore this release, which includes all the available takes, makes up for it and could be considered an essential item in any jazz collection. Birth of the Cool really paved the way for the West Coast jazz scene that was to follow shortly afterwards, with one or two of these musicians moving West for what was to become a highly productive period in jazz. Some of the compositions on the album are now considered classics, with Mulligan writing no fewer than three of the numbers, “Jeru”, “Rocker” and “Darn That Dream”, and Davis, co-writing a further three, “Budo”, in collaboration with Bud Powell, “Boplicity” with Gil Evans and “Deception” with a nod towards George Shearing’s “Conception”. Birth of the Cool could be considered a template for some of Divis’ later work in collaboration with Gil Evans, Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain amongst them.
Playlist:
Sanctity – Coleman Hawkins (The Hawk Flies High)
Jeru – Miles Davis (Birth of the Cool)
I’m an Old Cowhand – Donald Byrd & Pepper Adams (Out of This World)
Cry Tender – Yusef Lateef (Cry! – Tender)
Brilliant Corners – Thelonious Monk (Brilliant Corners)
Lazy Piano Man – Muggsy Spanier (And His Dixieland Band)
Sainte-Louis Blues – Sammy Price (Piano Solo)
Night Time is the Right Time – Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy (Twilight Dreams)
Budo – Miles Davis (Birth of the Cool)
Swing Valse – Bireli Lagrene (Bireli Swing ’81)
