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Birth of the Cool is an album
LP album

Long play record albums are 33? rpm Polyvinyl chloride Gramophone records , generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for Sound recording and reproduction until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1988, and eventually leaving the mainstr...
 which compiles twelve songs recorded by the Miles Davis
Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
 nonet
Nonet (music)

In music, a nonet is a composition which requires nine musicians for a performance, or a musical group that consists of nine people. Unlike some other musical ensembles such as the string quartet, there is no established or standard set of instruments in a nonet....
  for Capitol Records
Capitol Records

Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label owned by EMI and located in Hollywood, California and New York City as part of Capitol Music Group....
 in 1949 and 1950. Featuring unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music consisted of innovative arrangements strongly inspired by classical music
Classical music

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western art history Religious music and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times....
, and marked a major development in post-bebop
Bebop

Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s....
 jazz. As the title implies, these recordings are considered seminal in the history of cool jazz
Cool jazz

During the Second World War, there was an influx of Californian jazz musicians to New York. Once there, these musicians mixed with the mostly black bebop musicians, but were also strongly influenced by the "smooth" sound of saxophonist Lester Young....
.

lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m2998522",this)' onMouseout='hide("m2998522")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Gil_Evans">Gil Evans
Gil Evans

Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader, active in the United States. He played a seminal role in the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz and jazz-rock, and collaborated extensively with Miles Davis....
 contributed some charts to the sessions, acting as an advisor to a group of musicians who had met in his small New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 apartment
Apartment

An apartment is a self-contained House unit that occupies only part of a Apartment building. Apartments may be owned or rented .A common alternative term for apartment is flat....
 above a Chinese laundry.






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Encyclopedia


Birth of the Cool is an album
LP album

Long play record albums are 33? rpm Polyvinyl chloride Gramophone records , generally either 10 or 12 inches in diameter. They were first introduced in 1948, and served as a primary release format for Sound recording and reproduction until the compact disc began to significantly displace them by 1988, and eventually leaving the mainstr...
 which compiles twelve songs recorded by the Miles Davis
Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
 nonet
Nonet (music)

In music, a nonet is a composition which requires nine musicians for a performance, or a musical group that consists of nine people. Unlike some other musical ensembles such as the string quartet, there is no established or standard set of instruments in a nonet....
  for Capitol Records
Capitol Records

Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label owned by EMI and located in Hollywood, California and New York City as part of Capitol Music Group....
 in 1949 and 1950. Featuring unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music consisted of innovative arrangements strongly inspired by classical music
Classical music

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western art history Religious music and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times....
, and marked a major development in post-bebop
Bebop

Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s....
 jazz. As the title implies, these recordings are considered seminal in the history of cool jazz
Cool jazz

During the Second World War, there was an influx of Californian jazz musicians to New York. Once there, these musicians mixed with the mostly black bebop musicians, but were also strongly influenced by the "smooth" sound of saxophonist Lester Young....
.

Background and recording history

Gil Evans
Gil Evans

Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader, active in the United States. He played a seminal role in the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz and jazz-rock, and collaborated extensively with Miles Davis....
 contributed some charts to the sessions, acting as an advisor to a group of musicians who had met in his small New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 apartment
Apartment

An apartment is a self-contained House unit that occupies only part of a Apartment building. Apartments may be owned or rented .A common alternative term for apartment is flat....
 above a Chinese laundry. Evans had gained a reputation in the jazz world for his orchestration of bebop
Bebop

Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s....
 tunes for the Claude Thornhill
Claude Thornhill

Claude Thornhill was an United States pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. He composed the jazz and pop standard "Snowfall"....
 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
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
's quintet at the time), and in 1947 started to organize the loose circle of musicians into a working group. Rehearsals and experiments took place over the next year.

The nonet performed live only briefly—initially 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
Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
), Mike Zwerin
Mike Zwerin

Mike Zwerin is an United States cool jazz trombone, bass trumpet and author born in New York, probably better known for his work with Miles Davis in 1948 as part of his Birth of the Cool band....
 (trombone
Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
), Bill Barber
Bill Barber (musician)

John William Barber, known as Bill Barber or Billy Barber is considered by many to be the first person to play tuba in modern jazz....
 (tuba
Tuba

The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped Mouthpiece ....
), Junior Collins (French horn), Gerry Mulligan
Gerry Mulligan

Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer and arrangement.Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophone in jazz history - playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz - he was also a notable arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis,...
 (baritone saxophone
Baritone saxophone

The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the larger and lower pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax....
), Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz is an United States jazz composer and alto saxophone born in Chicago, Illinois. Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings....
 (alto saxophone
Alto saxophone

The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by the Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax. The alto, with the Tenor saxophone, is the most common size of saxophone....
), John Lewis
John Lewis (pianist)

John Aaron Lewis was an United States jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet....
 (piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
), Al McKibbon
Al McKibbon

Al McKibbon was an American jazz double bassist, known for his work in bebop, hard bop, and Latin jazz.In 1947, after working with Lucky Millinder, Tab Smith, J....
 (bass
Double bass

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
), and Max Roach
Max Roach

Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history....
 (drums
Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
). Former Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie [/g?'l?spi/] was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children....
 vocalist Kenny Hagood
Kenny Hagood

Kenny "Pancho" Hagood was an American jazz vocalist.Hagood was born in Detroit, Michigan and first sang at age 17 with Benny Carter. He sang with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra from 1946 to 1948 and then with Tadd Dameron later in 1948....
 was featured on a few songs. Unusually, the arrangers (Mulligan, Evans and Lewis) were given credit. The group 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 rpm
Recording medium comparison

This article details a comparison of audio recording media.The typical duration of a vinyl album was about 15 to 25 minutes per side, except classical music and spoken word recordings which could extend to over 30 minutes on a side....
 singles. He thus 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, eight of the tracks were compiled in 1953 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. It is this last arrangement that subsequent releases have been based on.

Musically, the songs on Birth of the Cool stand as an important reaction to the prominent bebop
Bebop

Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s....
 form in contemporary jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
. Though the break can be exaggerated—Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. was an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Parker is widely considered one of the most influential of jazz musicians, along with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington....
 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 afterward—it inspired a whole school of jazz musicians, particularly in California in what is usually referred to as "West Coast jazz
West coast jazz

West Coast jazz is a form of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco at about the same time as hard bop jazz was developing in New York City, in the 1950s and 1960s....
" or the "cool school
Cool jazz

During the Second World War, there was an influx of Californian jazz musicians to New York. Once there, these musicians mixed with the mostly black bebop musicians, but were also strongly influenced by the "smooth" sound of saxophonist Lester Young....
".

Track listing

Arrangements by the composer unless otherwise noted.
  1. "Move" (Denzil Best
    Denzil Best

    Denzil DaCosta Best was an American jazz percussionist and composer born in New York City. He was a prominent bebop drummer in the 1950's and early '60s....
    , arranged by John Lewis) – 2:32
  2. "Jeru" (Gerry Mulligan
    Gerry Mulligan

    Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer and arrangement.Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophone in jazz history - playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz - he was also a notable arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis,...
    ) – 3:10
  3. "Moon Dreams" (Chummy MacGregor
    Chummy MacGregor

    John Chalmers MacGregor , better known as Chummy MacGregor, a pianist and composer, was Glenn Miller?s pianist from 1936-1942. He composed the jazz and pop standards "Moon Dreams" and "Slumber Song"....
    , Johnny Mercer
    Johnny Mercer

    John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American songwriter and singer. As a songwriter, he is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music....
    , arranged by Gil Evans) – 3:17
  4. "Venus de Milo" (Mulligan) – 3:10
  5. "Budo" (Miles Davis
    Miles Davis

    Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
    , Bud Powell
    Bud Powell

    Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz piano. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bebop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk....
    , arranged by Lewis) – 2:32
  6. "Deception" (Davis, arranged by Mulligan) – 2:45
  7. "Godchild" (George Wallington
    George Wallington

    George Wallington was a highly regarded American bebop pianist and composer.From 1943 to 1953 he played with Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Marsala, Charlie Parker, Serge Chaloff, Allan Eager, Kai Winding, Terry Gibbs, Brew Moore, Al Cohn, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, Red Rodney, and Lionel Hampton, and recorded as a leader for Savoy Records and Blue...
    , arranged by Mulligan) – 3:07
  8. "Boplicity" (Cleo Henry
    Cleo Henry

    Cleo Henry was a pen name used by Miles Davis. It was used on the album Birth of the Cool as the composer credit on the track "Boplicity"....
    , i.e. Davis and Gil Evans
    Gil Evans

    Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader, active in the United States. He played a seminal role in the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz and jazz-rock, and collaborated extensively with Miles Davis....
    , arranged by Evans) – 2:59
  9. "Rocker" (Mulligan) – 3:03
  10. "Israel" (Johnny Carisi
    John Carisi

    John E. Carisi was an United States trumpet and composer.Carisi was member of Herbie Fields's Orchestra and Glen Miller's Airforce Band....
    ) – 2:15
  11. "Rouge" (John Lewis
    John Lewis (pianist)

    John Aaron Lewis was an United States jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet....
    ) – 3:13
  12. "Darn That Dream
    Darn That Dream

    "Darn That Dream" is a popular music song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Eddie DeLange, published in 1939 in music.The song was introduced in the Broadway theater musical play Swingin' The Dream....
    " (Eddie DeLange
    Eddie DeLange

    Eddie DeLange was an United States bandleader and lyricist. Famous artists who recorded some of DeLange's songs include Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman....
    , James Van Heusen
    James Van Heusen

    Jimmy Van Heusen , was an United States composer. Writing songs for films and television, he won four Academy Award for Best Original Song, and an Emmy....
    , arranged by Mulligan) – 3:26


Recording dates

  • Tracks 1, 2, 5, 7 – 21 January 1949
  • Tracks 4, 8, 10, 11 – 22 April 1949
  • Tracks 3, 6, 9, 12 – 9 March 1950


Recorded at WOR Studios, New York, New York.

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
George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin....
 and Gershwin
Ira Gershwin

Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
, 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

  • Miles Davis
    Miles Davis

    Miles Dewey Davis III was an United States jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Davis was at the forefront of almost every major development in jazz from World War II to the 1990s: he played on various early bebop records and recorded one of the first cool jaz...
     – trumpet
    Trumpet

    The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
     (all)
  • Kai Winding
    Kai Winding

    Kai Chresten Winding was a popular Denmark trombone and jazz composer. He is well known for a successful collaboration with fellow trombonist J....
     – trombone
    Trombone

    The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
     (January 1949)
  • J. J. Johnson – trombone (April 1949, March 1950)
  • Junior Collins – French horn
    Horn (instrument)

    The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. It is descended from the natural horn and is informally known as the French horn....
     (January 1949)
  • Sandy Siegelstein – French horn (April 1949)
  • Gunther Schuller
    Gunther Schuller

    Gunther Schuller is an American composer, French horn player, and historian and performer of jazz. He is regarded as one of the key figures in contemporary classical music....
     – French horn (March 1950)
  • Bill Barber
    Bill Barber (musician)

    John William Barber, known as Bill Barber or Billy Barber is considered by many to be the first person to play tuba in modern jazz....
     – tuba
    Tuba

    The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped Mouthpiece ....
     (all)
  • Lee Konitz
    Lee Konitz

    Lee Konitz is an United States jazz composer and alto saxophone born in Chicago, Illinois. Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings....
     – alto saxophone
    Alto saxophone

    The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by the Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax. The alto, with the Tenor saxophone, is the most common size of saxophone....
     (all)
  • Gerry Mulligan
    Gerry Mulligan

    Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an United States jazz saxophonist, composer and arrangement.Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophone in jazz history - playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz - he was also a notable arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis,...
     – baritone saxophone
    Baritone saxophone

    The baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the larger and lower pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax....
     (all)
  • Al Haig
    Al Haig

    Alan Warren Haig was an United States jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop.Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey. He started playing with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in 1944, and performed and recorded under Gillespie from 1944 to 1946, as a member of Eddie Davis and His Beboppers in 1946 , and the Eddie Davis Qu...
     – piano
    Piano

    The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
     (January 1949)
  • John Lewis
    John Lewis (pianist)

    John Aaron Lewis was an United States jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet....
     – piano (April 1949, March 1950)
  • Joe Shulman
    Joe Shulman

    Joseph "Joe" Shulman was an American jazz double bass.Shulman's first professional experience was with Scat Davis in 1940, which he followed with a stint alongside Les Brown in 1942....
     – bass
    Double bass

    The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
     (January 1949)
  • Nelson Boyd
    Nelson Boyd

    Nelson Boyd is an American bebop jazz bassist.Born in Camden, New Jersey, Boyd played in local orchestras in Philadelphia around 1945, and moved in 1947 to New York....
     – bass (April 1949)
  • Al McKibbon
    Al McKibbon

    Al McKibbon was an American jazz double bassist, known for his work in bebop, hard bop, and Latin jazz.In 1947, after working with Lucky Millinder, Tab Smith, J....
     – bass (March 1950)
  • Max Roach
    Max Roach

    Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history....
     – drums
    Drum kit

    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbell s, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single drummer....
     (January 1949, March 1950)
  • Kenny Clarke
    Kenny Clarke

    Kenny Clarke was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming. As the house drummer at Minton's Playhouse in the early 1940s, he participated in the after hours jams that led to the birth of Be-Bop, which in turn led to modern jazz....
     – drums (April 1949)
  • Kenny Hagood
    Kenny Hagood

    Kenny "Pancho" Hagood was an American jazz vocalist.Hagood was born in Detroit, Michigan and first sang at age 17 with Benny Carter. He sang with the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra from 1946 to 1948 and then with Tadd Dameron later in 1948....
     – vocal ("Darn That Dream" only)

In popular culture

  • The song "Moon Dreams" was featured in The Simpsons
    The Simpsons

    The Simpsons is an Television in the United States animated cartoon Situation comedy created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company....
     episodes "Mypods and Boomsticks
    Mypods and Boomsticks

    "Mypods and Boomsticks" aka "Mypods and Broomsticks" is the seventh episode of the The Simpsons of The Simpsons and first aired on FOX, November 30, 2008....
    " and "The Dad Who Knew Too Little
    The Dad Who Knew Too Little

    "The Dad Who Knew Too Little" is the eighth episode of The Simpsons fourteenth season....
    ".     Birth of the Cool is also Lisa Simpson
    Lisa Simpson

    Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child, and eldest daughter, of the Simpson family....
    's favorite album.


Sources

  • by Ted Gioia ()
  • by Jeff Sultanof ()