MILES DAVIS — Birth of the Cool (review)

MILES DAVIS — Birth of the Cool album cover

Boxset / Compilation · 1956 · Cool Jazz

5/5 · 2012-06-26
js

In the late 1940s several visionary jazz musicians began to gather at Gil Evans small NYC apartment with the purpose of trying out new ideas in playing and arranging. Charlie Parker’s music was king then and these musicians, which included Evans as well as Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis and others, wanted to take Parker’s rhythmic bop innovations and fuse them with more developed and modern backing arrangements. The end result became the perfect merger of fast-on-your-feet NYC wit with a certain continental sophistication that sounded like Bird jamming with Ravel. Although many of these tunes had been released as singles and EPs throughout the 50s, it wasn’t until 1958 that this album came out, and with the aid of 20/20 hindsight, was called “Birth of the Cool”. I’m sure the title helped move numbers during the height of the “cool jazz” fad, but this album isn’t really cool jazz per se, more of a very unique hybrid that is equal parts bop, 3rd stream, progressive big band and some innovative ideas that helped start the cool trend.

As stated earlier, the musicians in Miles’ Nonet were very much interested in taking bop to new places through the art of arranging. Although at this time Ellington was always taking jazz arranging to new places, what Mulligan and the others tried out on “Birth” was a whole new bag. Ravel and Stravinsky are big influences as the backing horns play curious and odd soft dissonances that the soloists are encouraged to blend with. A blending of solo and arrangement was a big goal of the Nonet, and the resultant music was subtle, almost hallucinatory in its vague shifting colors. This is one of those rare albums that is almost a genre unto itself. Like Dolphy’s “Out to Lunch” and Ornette’s “Free Jazz”, the music on here cannot be repeated as times have moved on leaving this one in crystallized form.

Some album highlights include Evans’ arrangement of “Moon Dream”, a beautiful vague blur of floating chords, and “Rouge”, John Lewis’ bizarre abstract bop tune where phrases seem to kaledioscope on top of each other while constantly finishing each other‘s statement. There is a moment on “Moon Dream” where the horns are holding a high fragile chord and Miles’ horn cracks sending shards of overtones through the section, its this kind of subtlety that is this album’s hallmark. This isn’t easy music to grasp, its like nailing jello to the wall, but that is its charm.

more than 2 years ago
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dreadpirateroberts wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Excellent, thanks John, will revisit MMM as I have had that one for a while but hadn't noticed it before.

js wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Right after I was listening to "Birth", I was listening to "Mingus, Mingus, Mingus" , which has a similar ensemble. some of the more mellow cuts on that one remind me of "Birth".

dreadpirateroberts wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Which Mingus do you feel has that similar feel? I'll have to go back and have a close listen to 'Birth...' now because it's been way too long and I want to revisit 'Moon Dream.'

js wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah, its was all recorded in the late 40s and released on singles over the years.
I do find this album hard to grasp and I listen to it all the time. I wish I could find another record like it, some things by Dolphy or Mingus are similar, also there are a lot of new ensembles that draw on some of this direction, but I can't think of their names.

dreadpirateroberts wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Should be 'bop' but 'not bop'

dreadpirateroberts wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I think this is easily one of Miles' most 'dense' albums - there's probably a better word for it, but this one took me the longest to get into and enjoy (which is fine, I don't mind that at all.) Maybe something about the 'bop' but not 'bop' that you mention, how the arrangements stradle more than a few approaches. And I always thought it sounded 'out of time' in terms of that 1958 release too, which is probably why I had trouble contextualising it on first listen...before I read the liner notes properly!