Birth of the Cool

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Birth of the Cool
Compilation album by
Miles Davis
ReleasedFebruary 1957
RecordedJanuary 21 and April 22, 1949; March 9, 1950; in New York City
GenreCool jazz
Length35:29
LabelCapitol
ProducerWalter Rivers, Pete Rugolo
Miles Davis chronology
Collectors' Items
(1956) 		Birth of the Cool
(1957) 		'Round About Midnight
(1957)
Miles Davis compilation chronology
Miles Davis Volume 2

(1955) 		Birth of the Cool
(1957)
Basic Miles

(1973)

Birth of the Cool is a compilation album by American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis, released in February 1957 by Capitol Records.[nb 1] It compiles eleven tracks recorded by Davis's nonet for the label over the course of three sessions during 1949 and 1950.[5]

Featuring unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music consisted of innovative arrangements influenced by classical music techniques such as polyphony, and marked a major development in post-bebop jazz. As the title suggests, these recordings are considered seminal in the history of cool jazz. Most of them were originally released in the 10-inch 78-rpm format and are all approximately three minutes long.

Background

Davis (right center) playing in Charlie Parker's quintet, 1947.

From 1944 to 1948,

Parker's Sessions for the Savoy and Dial labels. Davis' first records released under his own name were recorded with Parker's band, in 1947, and were more arranged and rehearsed than Parker's usual approach to recording.[6] By 1948, Davis had three years of bebop playing under his belt, but he struggled to match the speed and ranges of the likes of Gillespie and Parker, choosing instead to play in the mid range of his instrument.[7] In 1948, Davis, becoming increasingly concerned about growing tensions within the Parker quintet, left the group and began looking for a new band to work with.[8]

At the same time, arranger Gil Evans began hosting gatherings of like-minded, forward-looking musicians at his small basement apartment, located on 55th Street in Manhattan, three blocks away from the jazz nightclubs of 52nd Street. Evans had gained a reputation in the jazz world for his orchestration of bebop tunes for the Claude Thornhill orchestra in the mid-1940s. Keeping an open door policy, Evans' apartment came to host many of the young jazz artists of late-1940s New York. The participants engaged in discussions about the future of jazz, including a proposed group with a new sound. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia:

[The participants] were developing a range of tools that would change the sound of contemporary music. In their work together, they relied on a rich palette of harmonies, many of them drawn from European impressionist composers. They explored new instrumental textures, preferring to blend the voices of the horns like a choir rather than pit them against each other as the big bands had traditionally done with their thrusting and parrying sections. They brought down the tempos of their music ... they adopted a more lyrical approach to improvisation ...[9]

Recording

Pete Rugolo produced the sessions for Birth of the Cool.[10]

The nonet recorded twelve tracks for Capitol during three sessions over the course of nearly a year and a half. Davis, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan and Bill Barber were the only musicians who played on all three sessions, though the instrumental lineup was constant (excepting the omission of piano on a few songs and the addition of Kenny Hagood on "Darn That Dream"). The first session occurred on January 21, 1949, recording four tracks: Mulligan's "Jeru" and "Godchild" as well as Lewis's "Move" and "Budo". Jazz critic Richard Cook hypothesizes that Capitol, wanting to get a good start, recorded these numbers first because they were the most catchy tunes in the nonet's small repertoire.[11] That date Kai Winding replaced Zwerin on trombone, Al Haig replaced Lewis on piano, and Joe Shulman replaced McKibbon on bass.

The second recording date came three months later on April 22, 1949 with Davis filling in for Fats Navarro in Tadd Dameron's band with Charlie Parker during the interim. The band returned to the studio with five substitutions in personnel: J. J. Johnson on trombone, Sandy Siegelstein on French horn, Nelson Boyd on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums, and John Lewis returning to piano. At this session, the nonet recorded Mulligan's "Venus de Milo", Lewis's "Rouge", Carisi's "Israel", and "Boplicity", a collaboration between Davis and Evans, credited to the pseudonym "Cleo Henry".[12]

The band did not return to the studio again until March 9, 1950. Davis did not call the band for any rehearsals or live performances between the second and third recording dates. The March 1950 date featured Mulligan's "Darn That Dream", "Rocker", and "Deception", and Evans's arrangement of Chummy MacGregor's "Moon Dreams", which had been released in a jazz arrangement by Glenn Miller and the AAF Band in 1944 on V-Disc. The band saw more substitutions, with Gunther Schuller on French horn and Al McKibbon on bass. Hagood returned for vocals on "Darn That Dream".

Composition

Music and style

One of the features of the Davis Nonet was the use of paired instrumentation. An example of this can be heard on the

head arrangement.[16]

Thornhill's influence

One of the largest stated influences on the sound of Birth of the Cool was band leader

impressionistic style, innovative use of instrumentation, such as the use of tuba and French horn, and a non-vibrato playing style, hallmarks that the Miles Davis Nonet adopted for Birth of the Cool.[17][20] According to Evans:

Miles had liked some of what Gerry and I had written for Claude. The instrumentation for the Miles session was caused by the fact that this was the smallest number of instruments that could get the sound and still express all the harmonies the Thornhill band used. Miles wanted to play his idiom with that kind of sound.[21]

Davis saw the full 18-piece Thornhill orchestra as cumbersome and thus decided to split the group in half for his desired sound.[22] As arrangers, both Evans and Mulligan gave Thornhill credit for crafting their sound.[17][15] Thornhill's band gave Evans the opportunity to try his hand at arranging small-group bebop tunes for big band, a practice few others were participating in. Mulligan recalls Thornhill teaching him "the greatest lesson in dynamics, the art of underblowing."[15] Thornhill has also been credited with launching the move away from call and response between sections and the move towards unison harmonies.[23]

Release history

Classics in Jazz: Miles Davis
Compilation album by
Miles Davis
Released1954
LabelCapitol
Miles Davis 10" LP chronology
Miles Davis All Star Sextet

(1954) 		Classics in Jazz: Miles Davis
(1954) 		Miles Davis Quintet
(1954)

The four tracks from the January 1949 session were released soon after recording as two singles. From the April 1949 date, "Israel" and "Boplicity" were doubled together on a

78 and released as well. Of the twelve tracks recorded, Capitol released relatively few. In 1954, after persuasion from Rugolo, Capitol released eight of the tracks on a 10" LP record titled Classics in Jazz—Miles Davis (H-459). In 1957 eleven of the tracks (all except for "Darn That Dream") were released by Capitol as Birth of the Cool. The final track, "Darn That Dream" (the only song with vocals, by Hagood), was included with the other eleven on a 1972 LP Capitol Jazz Classics, Vol. 1: The Complete Birth Of The Cool (M-11026). Subsequent releases have been based on this last compilation. The album has since been reissued many times in various formats.[24] The live recordings of the nonet from its time at the Royal Roost were released as Cool Boppin.[25] In 1998, Capitol Records released The Complete Birth of the Cool, which was remastered by Mark Levinson
and collected the nonet's live and studio tracks onto a single CD.

Note from the 2000 Capitol CD reissue producer Michael Cuscuna:

All previous reissues of this material have been derived from the 1957 12-inch LP master, which turns out to be second or third generation. The original tapes of each tune were filed individually and sound considerably better. Rudy Van Gelder returned to these masters, transferred them in 24-bit to digital and worked his sonic magic. The result is a clearer and more present sound than ever before on these classic recordings.[26]

Reception and legacy

Retrospective professional reviews
Review scores
SourceRating
Tom Hull – on the Web
B[34]

The band's debut performance at the Royal Roost received positive, but reserved reactions.[35] Count Basie, the Roost's headliner during the Nonet's brief tenure, however, was more open to the group's sound, saying, "Those slow things sounded strange and good. I didn't always know what they were doing, but I listened, and I liked it."[36] Winthrop Sargeant, classical music critic at The New Yorker, compared the band's sound to the work of an "impressionist composer with a great sense of aural poetry and a very fastidious feeling for tone color... The music sounds more like that of a new Maurice Ravel than it does like jazz ... it is not really jazz."[37] Though he did not recognize the record as jazz, Sargeant acknowledged that he found the record "charming and exciting".[37] In the short term the reaction to the band was little to none,[37] but in the long term the recordings' effects have been great and lasting. They have been credited with starting the cool jazz movement[38] as well as creating a new and viable alternative to bebop.[39]

In 1957, after the release of Birth of the Cool,

Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums
3rd Edition (2000). [43]

Many members of the Miles Davis Nonet went on to have successful careers in cool jazz, notably

first album in 1951.[47]

Track listings

Arrangements by the composer unless otherwise noted.

Birth of the Cool (1957 12" LP, Capitol T-762)

Side A

  1. (1) "Move" (Denzil Best, arranged by John Lewis) – 2:29
  2. (2) "Jeru" (Gerry Mulligan) – 3:10
  3. (3) "Moon Dreams" (Chummy MacGregor, Johnny Mercer, arranged by Gil Evans) – 3:13
  4. (4) "Venus De Milo" (Mulligan) – 3:10
  5. (5) "Budo" (Miles Davis, Bud Powell, arranged by John Lewis) – 2:31
  6. (6) "Deception" (George Shearing, Davis, arranged by Gerry Mulligan) – 2:46

Side B

  1. (7) "Godchild" (George Wallington, arranged by Gerry Mulligan) – 3:08
  2. (8) "Boplicity" (Cleo Henry a.k.a. Davis and Gil Evans, arranged by Gil Evans) – 2:58
  3. (9) "Rocker" (Mulligan) – 3:04
  4. (10) "Israel" (Johnny Carisi) – 2:15
  5. (11) "Rouge" (John Lewis) – 3:13
Recording dates
  • Tracks 1, 2, 5, 7 on January 21, 1949
  • Tracks 4, 8, 10, 11 on April 22, 1949
  • Tracks 3, 6, 9 on March 9, 1950

Recorded at WOR Studios, New York, New York.

Birth of the Cool (1989 CD, Capitol)

  1. "Move" (Denzil Best, arranged by John Lewis) – 2:32
  2. "Jeru" (Gerry Mulligan) – 3:10
  3. "Moon Dreams" (Chummy MacGregor, Johnny Mercer, arranged by Gil Evans) – 3:17
  4. "Venus de Milo" (Mulligan) – 3:10
  5. "Budo" (Miles Davis, Bud Powell, arranged by Lewis) – 2:32
  6. "Deception" (Davis, arranged by Mulligan) – 2:45
  7. "Godchild" (George Wallington, arranged by Mulligan) – 3:07
  8. "Boplicity" (Cleo Henry (i.e. Davis and Gil Evans), arranged by Evans) – 2:59
  9. "Rocker" (Mulligan) – 3:03
  10. "Israel" (Johnny Carisi) – 2:15
  11. "Rouge" (John Lewis) – 3:13
  12. "Darn That Dream" (Eddie DeLange, Jimmy Van Heusen, arranged by Mulligan) – 3:26
Recording dates
  • Tracks 1, 2, 5, 7 on January 21, 1949
  • Tracks 4, 8, 10, 11 on April 22, 1949
  • Tracks 3, 6, 9, 12 on March 9, 1950

Recorded at WOR Studios, New York, New York.

The Complete Birth of the Cool (1998 CD, Capitol)

The Studio Sessions

  1. "Move" (Denzil Best, arranged by John Lewis) – 2:32
  2. "Jeru" (Gerry Mulligan) – 3:10
  3. "Moon Dreams" (Chummy MacGregor, Johnny Mercer, arranged by Gil Evans) – 3:17
  4. "Venus de Milo" (Mulligan) – 3:10
  5. "Budo" (Miles Davis, Bud Powell, arranged by Mulligan)[48] – 2:32
  6. "Deception" (Davis, arranged by Mulligan) – 2:45
  7. "Godchild" (George Wallington, arranged by Mulligan) – 3:07
  8. "Boplicity" (Cleo Henry (i.e. Davis and Gil Evans),[49] arranged by Evans) – 2:59
  9. "Rocker" (Mulligan) – 3:03
  10. "Israel" (Johnny Carisi) – 2:15
  11. "Rouge" (John Lewis) – 3:13
  12. "Darn That Dream" (Eddie DeLange, Jimmy Van Heusen, arranged by Mulligan) – 3:26
Recording dates
  • Tracks 1, 2, 5, 7 on January 21, 1949
  • Tracks 4, 8, 10, 11 on April 22, 1949
  • Tracks 3, 6, 9, 12 on March 9, 1950

Recorded at WOR Studios, New York, New York.

The Live Sessions

  1. "Birth of the Cool Theme" (Gil Evans) – 0:19
  2. "Symphony Sid announces the band" – 1:02
  3. "Move" (Denzil Best, arranged by John Lewis) – 3:40
  4. "Why Do I Love You?" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, arranged by John Lewis) – 3:41
  5. "Godchild" (George Wallington, arranged by Gerry Mulligan) – 5:51
  6. "Symphony Sid introduction" – 0:27
  7. "S'il vous plait" (John Lewis) – 4:22
  8. "Moon Dreams" (Chummy MacGregor, Johnny Mercer, arranged by Gil Evans) – 3:05
  9. "Budo (Hallucinations)" (Miles Davis, Bud Powell, arranged by John Lewis) – 3:23
  10. "Darn That Dream" (Eddie DeLange, Jimmy Van Heusen, arranged by Gerry Mulligan) – 4:25
  11. "Move" (Denzil Best, arranged by John Lewis) – 4:48
  12. "Moon Dreams" (Chummy MacGregor, Johnny Mercer, arranged by Gil Evans) – 3:46
  13. "Budo (Hallucinations)" (Miles Davis, Bud Powell, arranged by John Lewis) – 4:23
Recording dates
  • Tracks 13-21 on September 4, 1948
  • Tracks 22-25 on September 18, 1948

Recorded live at Royal Roost in New York for WMCA radio broadcast.

Personnel

January 21, 1949 – "Jeru", "Move", "Godchild", "Budo" (matrix numbers: 3395, 3396, 3397, 3398)

April 22, 1949 – "Venus De Milo", "Rouge", "Boplicity", "Israel" (matrix numbers: 3764, 3765, 3766, 3767)

  • Miles Davis – trumpet
  • J. J. Johnson – trombone
  • Sandy Siegelstein – French horn
  • Bill Barber – tuba
  • Lee Konitz – alto saxophone
  • Gerry Mulligan – baritone saxophone
  • John Lewis – piano
  • Nelson Boyd – bass
  • Kenny Clarke – drums

March 9, 1950 – "Deception", "Rocker", "Moon Dreams", "Darn That Dream" (matrix numbers: 4346, 4347, 4348, 4349)

  • Miles Davis – trumpet
  • J. J. Johnson – trombone
  • Gunther Schuller – French horn
  • Bill Barber – tuba
  • Lee Konitz – alto saxophone
  • Gerry Mulligan – baritone saxophone
  • John Lewis – piano
  • Al McKibbon – bass
  • Max Roach – drums
  • Kenny Hagood – vocal (on "Darn That Dream" only)

All tracks recorded at WOR Studios, New York, New York

The Complete Birth of the Cool: The Live Sessions

  • Miles Davis – trumpet
  • Mike Zwerin – trombone
  • Junior Collins – French horn
  • Bill Barber – tuba
  • Lee Konitz – alto saxophone
  • Gerry Mulligan – baritone saxophone
  • John Lewis – piano
  • Al McKibbon – bass
  • Max Roach – drums
  • Kenny Hagood – vocal (on "Why Do I Love You?" and "Darn That Dream" only)

Certifications and sales

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[50]
sales since 2001 		Silver 60,000^
United States — 280,000[51]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Notes

  1. ^ The album's release was announced in a February 9, 1957, trade ad published by Billboard;[1] February 1957 is confirmed as the time of release in Ashley Kahn's Miles Davis: The Complete Illustrated History,[2] Marc Myers' Why Jazz Happened,[3] John S. Davis' Historical Dictionary of Jazz,[4] and Chris Smith's 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Buyboard". The Billboard. February 9, 1957. p. 25.
  2. ISBN 9781610586825
    .
  3. ISBN 9780520305519
    .
  4. ISBN 9781538128152
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-537371-4
    . Retrieved February 22, 2011 – via gobal.oup.com.
  6. ^ "Miles: the Autobiography", Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, 1989, pg.105
  7. ^ Cook, Richard. It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. pg 10
  8. ^ Chambers, Jack. Milestones 1: The Music and Times of Miles Davis to 1960. New York: Beech Tree Books (William Morrow and Company), 1983. p. 98.
  9. ^ Gioia, Ted. The Birth (And Death) of the Cool. Golden, Colo.: Speck Press, 2009. 83.
  10. ^ McLellan, Dennis (October 18, 2011). "Pete Rugolo obituary: Jazz composer, arranger wrote TV themes". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
  11. ^ Cook, Richard. It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 17
  12. ^ Cook, p. 20
  13. ^ a b Cook, p.18
  14. ^ Gioia, "The History of Jazz". p. 282.
  15. ^ a b c Gioia, "The History of Jazz". 281
  16. ^ Cook, p. 19
  17. ^ a b c Hentoff, Nat. "The Birth of the Cool." Down Beat, May 2, 1957: 15–16
  18. ^ a b Chambers, 94
  19. ^ Gioia, Ted. The History of Jazz. 281–282.
  20. ^ Crease, Stephanie. "Gil Evans: Forever Cool." Down Beat, May 2012. p. 33
  21. ^ Hentoff, p. 16
  22. ^ Chambers, p. 98-99
  23. ^ Klinkowitz, p. 27
  24. ^ Davis, Miles. Miles Davis-Birth of the Cool: Scores from the Original Parts. Ed. Jeff B. Sultanof. Milwaukee, WI.: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2002. p. 2
  25. ^ Cook, 16–17
  26. ^ Birth of the Cool, 2000 reissue CD booklet
  27. Allmusic
    . Retrieved on 2011-01-02.
  28. ^ Larkin, Colin, ed. (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. p. 538.
  29. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2004). The Great Rock Discography (7th ed.). Canongate. p. 384.
  30. ^ Holtje, Steve; Lee, Nancy Ann (1998). MusicHound: The Essential Album Guide. Schirmer. p. 309.
  31. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2006). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. Penguin Books. p. 318.
  32. ^ Product Notes – Birth of the Cool. Muze. Retrieved on 2011-01-02.
  33. ^ Swenson, John, ed. (1999). The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide. Random House. p. 194.
  34. ^ Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: Miles Davis". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
  35. ^ Cook, p. 17
  36. ^ Chambers, p. 106
  37. ^ a b c Gioia, The History of Jazz. p. 283
  38. ^ Kernfeld, Barry. "Miles Davis." Grove Music Online. Web. Apr 24, 2012. 2. Music. <http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/07310?q=miles+davis&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit>.
  39. ^ Chambers, p. 105
  40. ^ Henthoff, p.15
  41. ^ Davis, p.4
  42. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5
    .
  43. ISBN 0-7535-0493-6
    .
  44. ^ Klinkowitz, p. 6-12
  45. ^ Gioia, "The Birth and Death of the Cool". p. 86
  46. ^ Crease, p. 35
  47. ^ "Miles: The Autobiography", Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, 1989, pg.140
  48. doi:10.14713/jjs.v7i2.14
    . Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  49. doi:10.14713/jjs.v7i2.14
    .
  50. ^ "British album certifications – Miles Davis – Doo Bop". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  51. ^ Cwik, Greg (September 25, 2015). "Understanding Miles Davis, in 9 Parts". Vulture. Retrieved June 15, 2020.

Sources

Further reading

External links
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