Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
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Free Music Notes for Birth of the Cool
Free Music Review: Should Be In Every Collection
Hit: 5 Stars
Nine musicians. Twelve songs. One of the most influential records in jazz.The year was 1948. Miles Davis had moved away from Charlie Parker's band and struck out on his own. Neither a virtuoso like Parker, nor a genius theoretician like Dizzy Gillespie, nor a showman like Louis Armstrong, Davis sought a way to define his own "voice," to make it substantially different from those who had come before him. He became intrigued by the arranging work of Gil Evans, who had developed a laid-back, low-vibrato "cool" style, using unique instruments like the tuba and the French horn. To Davis, the Evans style seemed an interesting alternative to the standard modes of large- and small-band jazz, and a sensible step away from the manic, frenzied music of bebop, while at the same time incorporating the best elements of that sound.
Davis gathered a revolving collection of nine musicians around him to explore the possibilities of the Evans sound, including drummers Max Roach and Al Haig, pianist John Lewis, trombonist J.J. Johnson, and Evans protege Gerry Mulligan on baritone sax. The series of sides they produced between January of 1949 and March of 1950 touched off the West Coast "cool jazz" movement, inspired dozens if not hundreds of musicians, and are still acclaimed today, over fifty years after their release, as some of the greatest jazz recordings ever made, in a field that has no shortage of great moments. The singles were not collected and released as an album until the late `50's, by which time Davis had moved on to other things-several times, in fact-but the music sounded just as good, and Birth of the Cool is just as acclaimed today as it was then.
It's not hard to see why. The music swings gorgeously, effortlessly. The musicians are a true ensemble; they form a fluidly functioning unit, using elements of big band and bebop but fully embracing neither. Davis, Mulligan, and alto sax player Lee Konitz in particular found excellent ways to use this, especially on "Move," "Rouge," "Jeru," "Israel," "Rocker" and "Boplicity." This new style was especially beneficial for Davis, who had to learn how to work within his technical limitations as a trumpeter. He starts to develop his style here, a slower mode of playing, exploiting the lower registers of the instrument, using just a few notes to suggest the flurry of bebop virtuosity without actually having to play it. This was an important step for Davis, and for jazz in general, for it reminded people that one did not necessarily have to play like Paganini (or, more to the point, Parker) to play well.
Birth of the Cool is a lot of things-a transition between what came before and what came after, a strong musical statement by a group of musicians that had a lot to say, a strong beginning to the solo career of one of the most influential jazz musicians-but above all it is a timeless collection of great tunes, played ably by a collection of great musicians. Davis would go on to explore jazz from a variety of angles-modal, hard bop, orchestral, and fusion (unfairly maligned by purists, who resisted it much as big band aficionados resisted bebop)-but it was this album that started his journey, and it's this album that shows the rough promise of all that is to come. If it was important for no other reason, it's important for that. The fact that it's important for so many other reasons makes it a must have for anyone who loves jazz music. Simply put: if you don't have it, you should. And if you don't like jazz, this may be the one recording to change your mind. How do I know? Because that's what it did for me. It turned me around and made me receptive to a music I didn't understand or even particularly care for, and not only made me like it, but made me want to hear more things like it. I think it's safe to say that if it wasn't for Miles Davis and his nonet, I wouldn't love jazz the way I do today.
Pretty impressive, for just nine musicians, for just twelve songs, for just one record.
Free Music Review: Excellent album; initiated the cool period.
Hit: 5 Stars
This album not only put Miles Davis on the map, it started a whole new style of jazz music. Miles worked with Gil Evans on this 1949 project and the results were pure magic. The supporting cast of musicians are a nice group too. He even had french horn players (Junior Collins on one session, Sandy Goldstein on another and Gunther Schuller). Most of the musicians Miles worked with on this album were white, because those were the only people he could get hired at the time. Of these musicians, Gerry Mulligan (baritone saxophone), Lee Konitz (alto saxophone) and Kai Winding (trombone) all shine the most. Tracks like "Move" showcase the band's chemistry and innovative, playful harmonies. This song was originally recorded as a bebop tune, but Miles and company give it a little bit more of a cool, swinging style. "Jeru" is the ultimate definition of cool jazz. This Gerry Mulligan composition shows off Miles and Gerry's soloing abilities. It also has a nice theme and some good ensemble playing. "Moon Dreams" is kind of like a musical "still life", this ballad is played with a slow seriousness that makes it a classic. The ensemble playing here is beautiful. "Venus De Milo" is another Mulligan composition and has a somewhat laid-back latin feel. I like this tune because it just sounds nice to sit back and listen to. "Budo" is a classic Bud Powell tune, while this track only lasts about two and a half minutes, it's a classic instantly. The ensemble playing is very energetic and Miles, Lee Konitz and Kai Winding all take great solos. This tune was also recorded by Miles around the time of the 'Round About Midnight sessions. "Deception" is a track that Miles is given credit for writing but it's really another track called "Conception", that Miles recorded later on in the Dig session of 1951. It's a nice tune, with a kind of tension-building theme sequence, along with a nice solo from Miles. "Godchild" has a great theme because all the lower instruments play it making it a fun, playful track. Once again, Miles plays a nice solo and Kai Winding takes a good trombone solo as well. "Boplicity" has credit given to Miles Davis's mom, although she didn't actually write the piece, Miles and Gil Evans did. "Boplicity" is a masterful cool composition and has been recorded many times by other musicians. Gerry Mulligan starts it off with a great sax solo and Miles leads in with the group and then playing a good solo. Other tracks like "Rocker" and "Israel" were very influential in structure and composition, along with John Lewis's "Rouge", which has string bass played and is a very fun and amusing piece. The album ends with the Kenny Hagood vocal feature "Darn That Dream", which is a slow piece that wasn't recorded until 1950 (along with a couple other tracks from the "late" sessions). Hagood's vocal is cool, and Miles plays an outstanding solo in the middle of the piece. The band backs the vocal very well ending the album nicely.This is a classic album, as everyone else has previously stated. Not much left to say.
Free Music Review: His first big hit, how could you not like this?
Hit: 5 Stars
Miles changed the music world completely when these recordings came out, for the first time in his life (he would do it many more times afterwards). Unfortunately, he didn't receive credit at the time. The music on this album is much cooler and more laid-back than the rip-roaring bebop music of the 1940's. Miles plays cool here too, taking very few technical risks and using a beautiful rich sound (although it became a much more amazing sound later on). The musicians who join Miles on this effort are the same people who became movers and shakers later on in the 1950's. Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone, Lee Konitz on alto saxophone, Al Haig on piano, Junior Collins on french horn, Bill Barber on tuba, Kai Winding on trombone, Al McKibbon on bass and Max Roach on drums. This was the original Miles group from this era, although on this album the personnel switches fairly frequently. Gil Evans arranged and conducted on this effort, and it was their first of many great collaborations. Gil had worked with a white orchestra called the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and the nonet tried to sound like the Thornhill group on these sessions. "Move" is a stunning cooled out version of Denzil Best's bebop tune that was usually played by the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy or Fats Navarro. Miles sounds great on it and the arrangement is very innovative. Same with Gerry Mulligan's old school "Jeru", which has become a modern classic, and Lee Konitz plays beautifully on it as well. Ballads like the unspeakably beautiful "Moon Dreams" (which has very little "real" soloing, simply brilliant ensemble work) and the Kenny Hagood vocal feature on the standard "Darn That Dream" are also impeccably played. Other great, innovative musicians showed up for the later sessions, including pianist John Lewis, trombonist J.J. Johnson, french hornist and arranger/conducter Gunther Schuller, and others. The experiment with an Americanized Western European sound ("Venus De Milo"), take more bebop tunes and play them cool (the classic "Budo"), inter-mix orchestral music, bebop and cool music with "Boplicity" (one of the Gil Evans/Miles compositions that would become an extremely popular standard today), and then there are some compositions that are just plain and simple unabashed fun like John Lewis's energetic "Rouge" and Gerry Mulligan's entertaining "Godchild". Pretty much every song on this disc is a classic, with the exception of maybe Johnny Carisi's "Israel", which was an extremely innovative track for its time but not especially great today (in my opinion) and "Rocker", another Mulligan composition that gets a bit lost in the shuffle. Other than that, this is a definite jazz classic and a must-have in any music lover's collection. There's no excuse for not having it. No doubt about it.Free Music Review: Miles changes jazz for the first time
Hit: 5 Stars
In his professional life, Miles Davis was an agent of change and a permanent self critic. Also, he would always surround himself of the best possible musicians (he said, "I'm hiring a [musician] to play, not for what color he is") to help in materializing his musical vision. Leaving behind the enviable position of musical director of Charlie Parker's group, Miles assembled a nonet (several of its members coming from the ranks of Claude Thornhill's Orchestra), Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis among them, and with their help gave birth to the new sound in jazz at the time: the Cool, an attempt to sound like a big band with a significantly smaller ensemble (a nonet, in this case), by means of a collective writing approach. The album, recorded throughout three sessions between January of 1949 and March of 1950, marked the beginning of a series of outstanding works of Miles along with musical mentor and genius arranger Gil Evans. Its slower and softer sound resonated throughout the jazz world, taking jazz to a new level and influencing musicians all over the place, mostly in California it would help give shape to a mellow sound that would later be called West Coast Jazz (Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, etc.)
It is hard to pick favorite tracks in such a brilliant production. Four different arrangers and a rich assortment of composers, from Davis and Evans, to Mulligan, Lewis, Bud Powell and several others, along with the assorted lineup of musicians (only Davis in trumpet and lead, Mulligan in baritone, Lee Konitz in alto, and John Barber in Tuba were part of all three recording sessions) allow the careful listener to see tunes from a number of different points of view. For example, how does a pianoless Gerry Muligan tune sounds like ("Rocker"), how does a song arranged by John Lewis sound like when it's also a composition of his ("Rouge") as opposed to when it's someone else's ("Move") or how does Max Roach sound on drums with a bunch of other musicians vs. how does Kenny Clarke sound with the same (well, almost) bunch of guys.
There are so many possibilities to the album that the best favor you can do to yourself is to get it and incorporate it into your musical collection and language from now on. If you are a bit more serious about it, then get a copy of the COMPLETE Birth of the Cool. It's a bit more expensive, but it carries live versions of a number of the tracks, something of a rarity, considering the nonet did a very small number of live dates.
Free Music Review: The best this classic has sounded in decades
Hit: 5 Stars
"Birth of the Cool" was where Miles Davis made his first mark in jazz. Possibly the most influential jazz artist of all-time, Miles was on the forefront of the music for several decades, essentially steering its path during that time, and with the landmark recordings that make up this CD, Miles Davis (as well as Gerry Mulligan and Gil Evans, who deserve just as much credit) gives birth to "cool" jazz. Though it has had a few detractors who've dismissed it as 'boring' and 'bland,' a majority of listeners are really taken by what Davis & Co. have accomplished here. That nonet only recorded 12 pieces in the studio, and the whole dozen have been collected in this remarkable compilation.Davis's lyrical, anti-virtuoso trumpet finds a beautiful soulmate in Gerry Mulligan's baritone sax (who also had a huge hand in writing much of the material as well). The recordings are most famous for the arrangements Evans, Mulligan, and a few others have given the music; elegant and sophisticated, it charts new territory in "big band" music, something that would ultimately lead to the quasi-orchestral music produced by Davis and Evans in the late 50's and early 60's.
A few years ago, it was thought that the definitive version of "Birth of the Cool" was released on a CD titled "The Complete Birth of the Cool," a remastered disc that also contained live radio performances of the music. However, recently, famed recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder discovered the original master tapes that were used for the original 78's (all 12 tracks were initially released as 78's; they weren't compiled on to an album until several years later). As it turned out, every Lp and CD of the album since then were made from Lp masters that were essentially safety copies. Capitol was reluctant to remaster this material after just doing so, but supposedly Van Gelder convinced them to do so due to the quality of the masters. Now remastered and reissued under Blue Note's RVG Series, this latest edition is simply incredible to listen to. Far better than older editions of this CD, it even outstrips the "Complete Birth of Cool" disc.
If you haven't bought this music yet, this new RVG edition is definitely the one to get on the basis of sound. "The Complete" does have those radio performances, but while they are of obvious interest to lifelong jazz enthusiasts, I wouldn't call them essential.