Rach Reviews Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool (recorded 1949-50, released 1957)

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This is the album I recommend to anyone who wants to “get into” Jazz.  The original American art is a cultural behemoth, a self-contained universe complete with it’s own mythology of origin stories and deities - Satch, Duke, Bird, Miles, Trane, Dizzy.  The breadth of the global jazz catalog - the 9th edition of the Penguin Guide to Jazz lists 400 new artists - can be daunting. The depth of the jazz catalog - John Coltrane’s recording sessions as a leader and side man in 1958 alone filled 32 album releases - is intimidating.  What’s a newbie to do?

Start here.

Why? Birth of the Cool doesn’t capture Jazz in its entirety from the 1910s to the 21st Century; the genre is too broad for one album to do that.  It’s won’t give you a comprehensive understanding of Miles Davis; he was music’s great Phoenix before Madonna was even born and this was still every early in his career.  It’s not even some Jazz zeitgeist, capturing the aural essence of the time - In 1949, Bop reigned supreme and you could still hear Duke Ellington and His Orchestra on a Saturday night.  The Birth of the Cool nonet, in a notably unusual twist, featured French horn and tuba.

So…why?

For starters, It’s accessible.  The album is a compilation of 78 rpm singles, so the songs all clock in under 3:30.  The melodies are clear and crisp, but there’s no shortage of improvisation.  Before I “got into” Jazz I had difficulty following Bop or or Modal recordings unless the song was a familiar standard where I already knew the melody and could sing along with words.  This was the first Jazz album of completely new-to-me material that I could really understand, and a lot of the folk I’ve turned on to Jazz agree. I dare you to listen to ‘Jeru’ or ‘Venus de Milo’ and not hum a bit yourself.

Secondly, Birth of the Cool isn’t necessarily representative of Jazz in 1949-50 but it does provide insight into what has come before and what will eventually follow.  The members of the nonet are steeped in the Bop tradition with Davis coming out of Charlie Parker’s band, as well as J. J. Johnson and Max Roach being pioneers of Bop on the trombone and drums, respectively.  You can even hear a bit of the influence in the delightfully chromatic ‘Budo’ and ‘Israel’.  The nonet also heavily influenced cool jazz on the West Coast, with guys like Chet Baker and Dave Brubeck owing a bit of their style and success to Birth of the Cool.

Enjoy :-)