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Birth of the Cool is an album which collects the twelve sides recorded by the Miles Davis nonet (featuring Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz and others) for Capitol Records in 1949 and 1950. Gil Evans contributed some charts to the sessions, but mainly acted as the éminence grise to a group of musicians who had met in his small New York apartment above a Chinese laundry. Evans had gained a reputation in the jazz world for his orchestration of bebop tunes for the Claude Thornhill orchestra, including Davis's "Donna Lee". Davis was seeking an alternative to the small groups typical of contemporary jazz (he was a member of Charlie Parker's quintet at the time), and in 1947 started to organise the loose circle of musicians into a working group. Rehearsals and experiments took place over the next year. The nonet performed live only briefly - firstly for a two week engagement in late August and early September 1948 at the Royal Roost Club in New York. Billed as the "Miles Davis Band", the group at this time consisted of Davis (trumpet), Mike Zwerin (trombone), Bill Barber (tuba), Junior Collins (French horn), Mulligan (baritone saxophone), Konitz (alto saxophone), John Lewis (piano), Al McKibbon (bass), and Max Roach (drums). Former Dizzy Gillespie vocalist Kenny Hagood was featured on a few songs. Unusually the arrangers (Mulligan, Evans and Lewis) were given credit. They returned to the Royal Roost later in September, and recordings from 4 September and 18 September 1948, were included on the 1998 Complete Birth of the Cool CD, alongside the later studio sides. There was a further short residency the following year at the Clique Club, but the nonet was not a financial success, and disbanded. In 1949 Davis had a contract with Capitol to record twelve sides for 78 r.p.m. singles, and he reformed the nonet to record three sessions in January and April 1949 and March 1950. Davis, Konitz, Mulligan and 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). Originally released as singles, in 1953 eight of the tracks were compiled on a 10" vinyl album in Capitol's "Classics in Jazz" series, and in 1957 a 12" LP named Birth of the Cool added the remaining three unreleased instrumental pieces ("Move", "Budo" and "Boplicity"). The final track, "Darn That Dream" (the only song with vocals by Hagood), was included with the other eleven on a 1971 LP, and on subsequent releases. The music is considered seminal because it launched a reaction to the prominent bebop form in modern jazz. Though the break can be exaggerated (Charlie Parker participated in the discussions Evans led, most of the musicians were drawn from the bebop scene and many continued to play in that style for years afterwards), it inspired a whole school of jazz musicians, particularly in California, usually referred to as the "cool school".
Track listing Arrangements were by the composer unless otherwise noted. Recording dates Recordings exist of radio shows broadcast from the Royal Roost in 1948: "Birth of the Cool Theme" (Gil Evans), "Move", "Why Do I Love You?" (DeSylva, Gershwin and Gershwin, vocals by Hagood), "Godchild", "S'il Vous Plait" (John Lewis), "Moon Dreams" and "Budo", recorded on 4 September; and "Darn That Dream" (vocals by Hagood), "Move", "Moon Dreams" and "Budo" recorded on 18 September. Personnel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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