Note: this reissue pairs the 12 tracks from the 1957 compilation album, the Birth Of The Cool with tracks recorded at The Royal Roost, NYC in September, 1948.
Birth Of The Cool may be the best album title of all-time and the fact that it is a Miles Davis album makes it that much the better. The original 1957 album cover:
For more on the history and development of the album, check out this article: jazz.com. Also, this reissue offers pages and pages of excellent liner notes.
Not my favorite Miles Davis - I'd rather listen to his quintet with Coltrane or In A Silent Way. Still, it's a great example of Miles being Miles and pushing the envelope in many directions at the same time. Here, the innovation is the nonet instrumentation, a more contrapuntal style of writing, and the lighter, relaxed post-bop style that would thereafter be known as cool jazz. Almost 80 years on, the style has been so imitated that it is hard to hear the innovation out of historical context, but that just shows how influential these recordings are. This move away from bebop makes these sessions one of the defining, pivotal moments in jazz (but those words pretty much describe everything Miles did, don't they?).
Tracks: Even thought I rarely listen to this CD, I do like the songs Move and Venus De Milo. The 13 live tracks sound amazingly good considering they were recorded "Symphony Sid" radio broadcasts from a night club in the late '40s.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: When I was in college in the mid-'80s, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, who performed on these tracks, did a clinic on campus with the university's jazz band. I went and heard him play, but had no idea who I was listening to. I was such a knucklehead.
Previously revisited for the blog:
Panthalassa: The Remixes (1999)
This Is Jazz, Vol. 8: Miles Davis Acoustic (1996)
Live Around The World (1996)
Music from Siesta (1987)
In A Silent Way (1969)
Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall (1961)
Sketches of Spain (1960)
Milestones (1958)
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