Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool (1957)

In the recent few years, I've found jazz again. I used to be quite into jazz when I took bass lessons in a jazz school in my native town Espoo in Finland. I even played in a few jazz bands organised by the school. Then again, I never really got into jazz that much back then and until very recently, I only owned a handful of jazz albums. After moving to London, I feel like my interest in jazz has rekindled. I've seen quite a few great jazz gigs in London and I've started buying jazz albums again. If I have to choose my favourite jazz artist of all times, I have to go with Miles Davis. His 50's and 60's albums are quite amazing. Birth of the Cool is a compilation album of some early recordings from 1949 and 1950. The style is quite different from Davis' later work, but that's only natural considering he wasn't really the clear leader of the band during that time.



This album includes very notable musicians, including Gerry Mulligan, Max Roach and John Lewis just to name a few. The sound is classified as post-bebop, but later on this style became known as cool jazz. The music is faster than on Davis' most well-known album Kind of Blue for example. It also has cheerier melodies. I can see that my musical taste has evolved since my jazz school years, because back then, this kind of record would've sounded too old for my taste, but now I actually enjoy this sound immensely.

The album kicks off with a fast tempo bebop song Move where Davis plays probably more notes than on some of his whole albums later on. Davis is famous for keeping long pauses in his playing really emphasising the notes he's actually playing. Moon Dreams changes the tune quite significantly. This slow paced ballad brings out Davis' trademark trumpet sound a lot better. Venus de Milo was the most well-known of these songs to me personally. I remember it probably from my jazz school years. Budo takes another turn in the sounds. It has a very fast tempo and especially the fast paced walking bass in the background is very impressive for a bass-player such as myself. Godchild has quite a funky groove for a turn of the 1950's song. With slightly different sounds, this song would've been just as at home in late 60's jazz recordings. Rouge that ends the album shows some excellent piano and saxophone tunes as well as obviously some amazing trumpet work by Davis.

In a strict sense, this isn't really a Miles Davis album. It includes some amazing other musicians and it's just an amazing recording of some of the greatest songs from as early as 1949 and 1950. This is the kind of music I really like listening when I want to feel more energised at home, because there's amazing pulsing energy in these songs. I can only imagine what it would've been like to see an arrangement such as this in the 50's. It must've been an amazing experience for anyone at that time.

I'm much more of a fan of some later Miles Davis albums, as you will see later on. Anyhow, this is a great introduction to the early years of one of the greatest musicians that ever lived.

Listen to the album on Spotify.