What’s cooler than being cool? Ice cold, right? Wrong. That is what Andre 3000 claims, but the correct answer is Miles Davis. Thanks to Davis and a group of nine talented musicians, cool become more than what a summer breeze feels like more than 60 years ago in New York City.
Birth of the Cool was culled as a compilation album from three different recording sessions held between 1949 and 1950. The music was recorded by a nine-piece—a nonet, consisting of Davis (trumpet), Mike Zwerin (trombone), Bill Barber (tuba), Junior Collins (French horn), Gerry Mulligan (baritone saxophone), Lee Konitz (alto saxophone), John Lewis (piano), Al McKibbon (bass) and Max Roach (drums). This was an odd arrangement of musicians because most jazz during this time was produced by much smaller groups such as quintets and quartets.
While in subsequent work Davis would completely move away from the sound he helped create, Birth of the Cool gained a strong, popular foothold within the world of jazz. It’s easy to see why from the sounds of Birth of the Cool. The music is chill and subdued when compared with the abstract and often aggressive stylings of bebop jazz of the time. It’s easily more danceable and definitively more accessible. This accessibility is also felt in its relatively short tracks of not much longer than three minutes in length. It takes far less patience for listeners to enjoy a track on this album than some of the 20- and 30-minute epics Davis produced in later work throughout his career.
One of the most amazing feats of Birth of the Cool is its remarkable musical cohesion—considering the songs were at first released as singles with no intention of putting out an album. The album flows effortlessly from track to track, and there’s never a let-down moment or point of contention. This cohesion comes from the performers and the comfort they must had playing with together. So much of jazz is created spontaneously, and it’s truly up to each individual musician to shine when called upon to solo and to act as the cement holding a song together when they’re a part of the background sound. While Davis’ trumpet work is often the focus of the songs, he doesn’t hog the spotlight. The piano work of Lewis shines through beautifully in “Rogue,” and Mulligan’s deep baritone saxophone is the peanut butter foundation on which the sweet jelly of Davis’ trumpet sits.
It has become somewhat easy to overlook jazz music. It is often grouped with classical music and can be seen as an old and tired style and quite possibly even boring to many listeners, but if given a listen, it is anything but old and tired.
When the music enters your ears, you start to hear echoes of contemporary music coming through. The smoothness and subtly of R&B. The steady beats of hip-hop. The creativity of a solo just as intricate as the one in your favorite rock song sort of takes you away for a moment. You understand it finally.
Jazz at its best is about musicians working together and improvising off each other to create a sound, a feeling, something tangible, something real. It’s jazz is music in one of its truest senses: pure art form. Remembering that music is art instead of something corporate and commercial is a refreshing breath of air to many jaded, modern listeners.
There’s no other style of artwork out there where artists can work so closely together to create something so beautiful. This deep a level of collaboration just isn’t possible even within other music genres. When the passion and intensity of creation is so palpable and real in every second of sound, what’s not to appreciate and enjoy?
Really, what’s cooler than that? Nothing.
Miles Davis – The Birth of the Cool tracklist:
- “Move”
- “Jeru”
- “Moon Dreams”
- “Venus de Milo”
- “Budo”
- “Deception”
- “Godchild”
- “Boplicity”
- “Rocker”
- “Israel”
- “Rouge”
- “Darn That Dream”
