You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Miles’ First Masterpiece: Birth of the Cool

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Before Kind of Blue, a 21-year-old Miles Davis was already reshaping jazz with Birth of the Cool. In this episode, we explore how Miles teamed up with arranger Gil Evans and a chamber-like nonet to craft a sound full of singable melodies, tightly arranged horns, and forward-thinking restraint. With French horn in the mix, Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis’ arranging touch, and Lee Konitz’s lyrical solos, we unpack why this album – recorded in 1949-1950 and released years later – still lives up to its name.ABOUT OPEN STUDIO------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As the premier online jazz education platform, with an ever-expanding course library and 20,000+ members, Open Studio (OS) has everything you need to excel and thrive on your jazz journey.Featuring everything from beginner to advanced lessons, engaging courses from A-list instructors, step-by-step curriculum, real-time classes and a thriving and incredibly supportive community, OS is the perfect platform to level up your jazz playing, whether you’re a total beginner, or an advanced pro-level improvisor.

So Bridget breaks up with him, and he moves from Cape to Springfield. Wait, Cod or Girardo? Gerardo, if you remember correctly. And he starts working in Brants. I'll tell you about later. Today we're talking about an incredible album recorded in 1949 by one of the most influential jazz musicians that ever lived. Oh, it's got to be Charlie Parker.

Great guests, great guests, but think trumpet. Trumpet 49. Oh, Dizzy. Again, I like where you're having. heads at, but think East St. Louis. Oh, East St. Louis. Oh, Miles. It is Miles, but it's cooler than that. Cooler than this. Yeah. In fact, it's the birth of the cool. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast.

Music Explored. Explored, brought to you today by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio.Jas.com for all your jazz lesson needs, Peter. Yes, sir. It's a big one the day. It's one of the classics. I'm going to touch it. Touch it. Put it in your hands. I want to fondle the LP. Well, let's not get. We're talking about Miles Davis's

Birth of the Cool. I know, look at that. I don't think it was originally printed on white vinyl. But we've got it on the reprint here on white vinyl. So this is a really, really interesting album. Maybe a bit controversial.

Yeah. For some. I love this album. I grew up listening to this. I bought the CD at Borders and Sunset Hills in 1997. Nice. And I listened.

to, or maybe 98, when they did a reissue, but I listened the hell out of this album. And I've been learning about, I assumed that it was mostly the great Gil Evans, who has done some arranging on it. But there's a whole story to this album that's very, very interesting. And it starts with Miles Davis,

right across the river here in East St. Louis. So this album was recorded in 1949, late-1949, early 1950. There were three different sessions. Miles Davis was 21 years old. He had moved to New York. He had played with a alto saxophonist by the name of Charlie Parker. I think I'm saying that.

Charles Parker. Charlie Parker. Ever heard of him. So Miles succeeded Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker's band in New York. And they quickly started making some of the greatest bebop ever recorded. This is revolutionary. Revolutionary. This is Miles with Charlie Parker.

And by the way, John Lewis playing piano, who we'll get back to him in a minute. this is perhaps. Here's Miles on the trumpet. So Peter, what do you hear in that in Young Miles? By the way, he joined Charlie Parker's band when he was just 18 years old. Right. So here he's probably like 19 or 20

when they record this track. But it's an interesting story, Miles, with Charlie Parker, because he quickly kind of became a little frustrated. Right. And I mean, the thing is, is like you already hear, I don't know, I hear Miles' sound You know, like, of course, we're projecting in the future because we know what he became.

Yes. But that the kernel of that, or maybe even more than just the kernel of that, is already there. That warm tone, you know, the idea, I mean, it's definitely swinging. And it's also, like, more harmonically adventurous than I think a lot of people realize. Not all this stuff that they recorded then. And, I mean, it was so, there was some haphazard recording going on. And then there was some really clean type sessions that, like, you can hear on this track. So there's, there's, it's definitely variable.

But I mean, I know the stories about mild being frustrated and feeling like he couldn't keep up or feeling like he was trying to go for something else. But to me, man, he was just an awesome bebop trumpet player. And you hear that heritage, I think, at everything that he did all the way up into the end. True. You know, like there was an honesty and an authenticity to his playing. Obviously, stylistically, it changed a lot. But to his core sound. And, you know, when we talk about trumpet players, it's like their sound is everything.

Yeah. I mean, of course, for us, this piano, sound is important. But I mean, for trumpet players, it's like that connection. That's their voice, their sound. It's interesting. When I hear Miles playing with Bird, I hear someone who's already kind of looking forward, like looking past where they are. As Miles has always seemingly two steps ahead of everybody.

Always looking forward, always looking ahead. And we're talking about bebop here, which is the most forward-thinking music maybe ever. like way ahead of its time, just a huge uptick in what it meant to play, to improvise. And I already hear just in that solo, Miles doing some stuff that would like kind of foreshadow

where he's going to go in the future. So, yeah, I hear all that. Miles, he gets a little frustrated playing with Byrd. He quits Charlie Parker's band in 1948. But that was a pretty long run, right? Yeah, he was like three or four years, three and a half years maybe. Yeah.

So he had kind of befriended an arranger named Gilles Evans by this point in 1948. And Gil Evans had an apartment on 55th Street, right up from 52nd Street, where all the jazz clubs were. And Miles and a bunch of other musicians started hanging out at Gil Evans' apartment. Now, Gil Evans was arranging for a pianist and bandleader named Claude Thornhill. Right. And a lot of them... Also known as Roger Thornhill.

No, that's... Karee. By Northwest. Claude Thornhill. His brother. had this impressionistic style big band. And a lot of the players from that Claude Thorne or one of the incarnations of the Claude Thorne Hill band would go on to become the Miles Davis NoNet would be on these birth of the cool sessions that we're about to listen to. So this is sort of early Gil Evans arranging for Claude Thorn Hills Orchestra.

This is Buster's last stand. Check this out. And you're going to hear some, again, more foreshadowing, some forward thinking. So these very crisp, clean voicing, very little vibrato. Claude Thorne Hills Orchestra used French horn, used tuba, in fact, Lee Conant's, Bill Barber, Junior Collins, Joel Schulman, Sandy, Siegelstein, Jerry Mulligan, and Gill Evans all came... Is that a law firm, or is that the... Sorry.

They all came out of Claude Thorne Hills Orchestra and were on these birth of the cool sessions. They're all rehearsing at Gil Evans' apartment, and they're working out all these arrangements Miles is really, really loving this change. He loved the slower tempos. He loved being able to use the mid-range of his horn. And I think he, Miles, always the contrarian, is like, let's do something different. Yeah. Right?

We're four years in. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, he's already excited to change it up, which we're going to see Miles do every step of the way in his career. He goes about four or five years. Yeah. And he's got to switch it up. Yeah.

And this is the first time. Yeah, and I think that there was a relative amount of space that he saw on this. We wouldn't, like these tracks that we're going to explore today, I wouldn't say that they're super sparse or anything, but compared to what Byrd was doing. And I mean, in all these tracks, we need to frame this by everything we're going to hear today, I believe, certainly most of it was originally recorded as 78, so there was like a three or three and a half minute time limit,

depending on some other things. And a lot of the early bebop stuff as well. So there's always that compression that were kind of the technological parameters that they were dealing with. But I mean, in terms of like the tempos, the mid-register, and like the space, like later on, Miles would really come to be a master of that,

both in his playing and the way he would set up his bands, the way the arrangements would be set up, his choice of compositions. Even in the stuff that was more dense for him, was very spacious. And so I think you're feeling the beginnings of him really enjoying city. in that. That's exactly right. And sitting in those like impressionistic tonalities. Yes.

That Jerry Mulligan and Claude Thornhill and Gil Evans were, were arranging in Claude Thornehill's orchestra. So you're absolutely right that these were originally released as singles on 78s. So the album, Birth of the Cool, didn't come out until 1957, a full eight years after these sessions were recorded. They came out, I think there was like six tracks eventually had come out as singles along the way, but there was nothing that was like capturing all 11. So the birth of the cool album comes out in 1957 and it becomes influential. Yes. Eight years later. Yeah. It's really, really incredible. I mean, it is like, because that was like he was all, he had done all his records for prestige. Yeah, yeah. He's about to start with Columbia if he hadn't already. He's past this. He's already gone into a whole other thing.

But it's kind of like, is a seminal, like, West Coast Jazz, even though it was recorded all, you know, from New York musicians. Yeah. It was, it sparks this whole influence that happens, which is really, really cool. So here's the first track on the album. This is move. This is Denzel Best. Denzel Best. This was a John Lewis arranger.

So there's three arrangers. Well, there's four arrangers total, but three main arrangers. John Lewis arranges three things. Gill Evans only arranges two of the tracks. Jerry Mulligan kind of wins this album he ranges I think six seven six or seven of these

but the majority the vast majority so this is move you hear that tuba yeah it's Lee Connitz on the alto saxophone great solos throughout this whole album it's Max Roach on the drums

Kenny Clark I think Max Roach I believe no right I'm sorry Max Roche on the drums French horn and tuba play those lines so you did all So you mentioned Kenny Clark and Max Roach.

So because these were done in three separate sessions, there's a few different options for all of these tracks. And so I thought maybe we could just list out all of the players on the album. And we might highlight some people on the tracks, depending on if they have solos. But throughout the album, you're going to hear J.J. Johnson on trombone, Kai Winding on trombone. Mike Zwerin on trombone.

And again, these are all, from the song. the three different sessions. So they're kind of splitting duties on all this. There's three different French horn players, depending on what session. Junior Collins, Sandy Segalstein, and Gunther Schuller. Yes. The third stream guy.

French horn. Author of early jazz. That's right. Bill Barber is on tuba on everything. Lee Connance is on alto saxophone on everything. Jerry Mulligan is on baritone saxophone on everything. Al Haig and John Lewis split the piano duties depending on what session.

And there are three different bass players, depending on the session. Joe Schulman, Nelson Boyd, and the great Al-McCibbon. Alma-Kibbon is only of those three that I'm familiar with. Yeah. But that was, was that Joel Schumann, what we just heard? That was Joel Schumann who we just heard. And then two drummers, Max Roach is on the majority, but Kenny Clark is on one of the sessions, Venus de Milo, Boblacity, Israel, and Rogue. Rogue.

And where is it, Rouge, it's Rouge. And then there is one vocal track that was actually not really. released in the original album, but came out in 1972 with Kenny Haggud. Hagood? Kenny Haggud. I'm not sure I'm saying that name correctly.

H-A-G-O-O-D. Hajood. And he just crushes on Darn That Dream. Darn That Dream. There's a Why Do I Love You, which I don't have queued up, but darn that dream is incredible.

Yeah. So that was, that move was arranged by John Lewis, as I said, was the arranger for three of these tracks. John Lewis, like, that's the thing, is like, So John Lewis, J.J. Johnson was already established.

Lee Connitz and Jerry Mulligan, still very young. Al Haig, relatively young. John Lewis, relatively young. Kenny Clark established. Max Roach, relatively young, but had been around too. They're all going to have incredible careers after 1949. They just make incredible music. And in fact, John Lewis, who arranged that last track, is one of the founding members of the

The MJ KUKUKU. The Modern Jazz Quartet. And Modern Jazz Quintet. Yeah. This is Concord from their 195 album of the same title. It's John Lewis with the Modern Jazz Quartet. This is cool on this. Jerry Mulligan does the liner notes on the original album.

Oh, cool. And he's talking about all the different people that would come to the 55th Street apartment to Gil Evans' place during this period. He said John Lewis, our resident classicist. Classist. Awesome. So, you know, Gil Evans was kind of the older brother.

He's 35 and all these guys are like in their 20s. Yeah. Most of these guys are in their 20s. Gil Evans is a little older. He's got the apartment. He's helping them, even though he's not arranging everything here, I can definitely hear his voice, even in Jerry Mulligan's arrangements. I'm sure there's a lot of cross-polinization.

I think it was just like a bit of a think tank. You know what I mean? Like they're probably listening to music, talking about music, you know, Miles is, I'm sure, helping to lead all of this as well. Well, he says, Jeremy Ligand says, he goes through everybody on here. And he says, and Miles, the band leader, he took the initiative and put the theories to work. He called the rehearsals, hired the halls, called the players, and generally crack the whip. That's a 21-year-old.

Yeah. That's a 21-year-old musician who is already taking control of his career. Yeah. And this would be a theme in Miles' life, his musical life for the rest of his life. Yeah. So next I want to hear one of Jerry Mulligan's original tunes for these sessions. This is Venus de Milo arrangement by the great baritone saxophonist and kind of West Coast, along with Chet Baker, West Coast jazz, I would say like not founder,

but definitely one of the Mount Rushmore of the cool jazz sound. This is Jerry Mulligan's Venus de Milo. What I love about this album, Peter, is that all these melodies, they show up in the language. Yes. You hear a lot of improvisers influenced by this album and all of these melodies

for these tunes. Shared language. Give a shout out to Bill Barber on the tubo. We talked in the Marvin Gay What's Going On episode last week. We talked about how

adding the bass to your string section, like one stringed bass, even if you have a bass guitar, adds this fullness to your string parts. Same thing here. Obviously there's a bass walking. Yes. But having that tuba as the low voice for all of these harmonies,

I think it just adds some meat to the chords that you just don't get without it. I really, really love it. And Bill Barber is killing on all this stuff, too, swinging. Yeah, and the way they have this, a lot of these arrangements, it's like the tube, it's not even always on the route. It might be on the third. It could be a lot of different places, but having that bottom, you know, the harmony building up from that

to be able to feel that resonance is a cool sound for sure. So we mentioned... Birth of the cool sound. A birth of the cool sound. We mentioned Jerry Mulligan was the composer of the last track, Venus de Milo. So he would go on to really, like, solidify that West Coast jazz sound along with Chet Baker. This is Jerry Mulligan and Chet Baker a couple of years later on a tune called Bernie's tune. You could hear the direct lineage from the birth of the cool sessions.

Smaller group, obviously. Just super relaxed swing. It's from 1952. So again, we're not in the bebop realm with that, right? That's a whole new thing that's being developed. Definitely coming out of these Birth of the Cool sessions. Like you can just hear all of that influence. All right, next up, we've got, this is a tune called Budo by John Lewis.

Or sorry, this is by Miles Davis and Bud Powell. And I want to talk about that. This was arranged by John Lewis. This is Budo. Check this out. And then we're going to listen to. the inspiration behind it. Oh, influential, man.

Wrote the book. Man, you had to keep those souls concise. You got no extra choruses. You got maybe three minutes, total. Al-Hago, you know. Leconis, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Killing. Every solo, Lecona, just destroying. Hey, Wendy. I love these John Lewis arrangements, too, man. Every ranger has just, like, a little bit different style. Yeah. And having that constraint of the time for the arrangement and have the solos, the backgrounds, the shout choruses, the melodies, even coming back with the last A of the melody, the drum solo at the end, bookends, intro, intro, Max's right. So that's Budo, and that is credited to Miles Davis and Bud Pau because Miles wrote this in honor of Bud Pau, the great Bebop pianist.

and it's very reminiscent and in fact borrows from Bud's original composition called Hallucinations. Right there. You can actually hear a little bit of Birth in The Cool, in Bud Powell's solo piano. Can hear some influence. We got to do Bud Powell episode eventually. Absolutely. I mean, for whatever we're going to, you know, whatever can be surmised from Birth of the Cool is a little bit of a Miles Davis reaction or counterbalance to bebop. I would say it's very much

there's so much B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Fing. The feel, and it's not just like, you know, Max, Roach, Al-Hague, you know, JJ, I mean, you look at the names, Kenny Clark. You got B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-W players in here. You got, yeah, but, I mean, the language. It just shows how strong and revolutionary that B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Lam.

And, like, how quickly it came in and just, like, permeated. And then you have these different offshoots, like this cool, the West Coast, you know, the Gil Evans, and Miles Davis, things that they're going to be doing later on, you know, Live of Carnegie,

sketches of Spain, of course, Porgy and Bass, but it's all infused with the bebop language. Miles is playing, even when, and that's what I'm saying, to the authenticity of it. Like, that's his OG language, right?

That's that original language. It's like, Charlie, like, we think, oh, no, but Charlie Parker and Disney, well, Disney was different because, like, he lived so much longer than any of them than Charlie Parker. But I'm like, Charlie Parker, had he lived beyond 34, 35, or whatever he was.

you know, Clifford Brown, you know, didn't make it to 25, I don't think. So it's like they're almost like frozen in time where Miles had this longer career trajectory, as did Dizzy, of course. It's a great point about sort of the speed of the language taking over the music. Because there was nothing like this in 1939, like 10 years earlier. And there had already been this sort of bebop revolution that happened in that mid-40s by Charlie and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. and now these younger musicians, Miles Davis, are taking it into something new. They're already starting to spin it into some offshoots

into these little whirlpools off of the main channel. You know what I mean? It's very, very cool to see. Yeah. How are you feeling? I'm good. Let's be real. This isn't your favorite, Miles Davis.

I'm just, no, I just. There's a dart with an accusation flying my way. But I know this isn't one of your records. You know what you know, we both have albums that influence us, and I know that you weren't around this one. And so it's all kind of new and you're like, yeah, it's good. No, but you know what's important? I mean, I've heard all this stuff.

It's been a while, but you're right. Like, I think that it's a beautiful thing, though. Like when you talked about when you first got the record, like some of these records, I mean, I think there's some in the jazz world that are just so transcendent, that no matter when you encounter them, they're going to have an impact.

But even that, like, even things that we think of, I'll be amazed sometimes I'm talking to somebody about a love Supreme or something. I'm like, how could that record not just hit you here? Yeah. No matter when you're encounter somebody, be like, yeah, it's okay. I didn't really check it. I think it matters when you encounter it. It does.

Yeah. It does. And how you encounter it. Like what you've heard before, that kind of what it is you're working on if you're a musician or if you're a listener, sometimes those first impressions, I mean, they're always important, right? Yeah. But what does that lead to, like, what rabbit hole does that lead you down next, you know? Yeah. I mean, for me, I'm 17 or 18 years old when I first discover this album, and it was just a name that someone had recommended. You should check this out.

Yeah. And I really didn't know much about the history. I mean, I think I might have read the liner notes once, but I just liked the sound. I had no idea. I thought it just came out in 1957. I didn't really think about when it was recorded. Yeah, but what did you know about? It could have been 1857. All of these things were at that time I was just learning about. So they're just all these names and dates and things that are getting thrown at you. But I just fell in love with the sound of it. I think the strongest part about this, we've already talked about it. You know, people talk about the arranging and the Gille Evan's style of voicing

and the impressionistic stuff. That's all cool. But these melodies for all of these songs, like the main melodies. Yeah. And the, you know, all of these melodies are so singable. Yeah.

And they're not quite as intense as a lot of bebop melodies were. Like, they're a little bit chiller. Yeah, is it like a refinement of the bebop language, melodic language? Because it's not like a rejection of it. It's far from that. It's not a rejection of it. It is kind of just like, like I said, it's like a, it's like when a main channel is going.

And bebop is this powerful channel of music. One of the little side swirls I think is this style. Right, but the same animals are like moving. Like the same water. It's the same energy. It's just doing something else. It's kind of like a little bit less intense and spun out into this thing. And by the way, you know, Miles, who is one of the pioneers of spinning this stuff out, he quickly leaves.

It goes and does like hard bop or whatever you want to call that prestige period, that kind of stuff. Right. I like that period. I love that period. But you know what else is interesting? So I think part of my thing is too is that like because we talk about timing, because of the Miles Davis recordings that I first listened to, I'm talking about My Funny Valentine, bags groove. You can't really get much further. Decoy, which I heard in real time

pretty much when it came out. These are records where just because of the time and the recording technology and how they were engineered, to me, Miles, he's got a lot of facets to his music. Some of which have nothing to do

with even playing the trumpet. It's just about band leadership and arranging and stuff. Absolutely. But his trumpet playing is so much based around his sound. And so those records, some of the ones I just

mention and the prestige period for sure. And even some of the blue note stuff he was on, like the Cannonball Adderly. Yeah. But like those records kind of blue, of course, they did such a great job of capturing his, you know, sonically, his sound. And then so when we go back a little bit early, I remember it was jarring to me. I was like, that doesn't sound as good. But then when I listened, I was like, oh, no, no, it's younger Miles.

He's playing, you know, in these earlier styles. But it's very much the same thing he's doing. But they just didn't capture a sound as, like, as you wouldn't. Charlie Parker, when he passed, he was very rarely recorded really well. It's true. For whatever reason, part of it was just the time when he was alive. And so for me, I fell in love with Miles of Sound, so it always felt smaller on these records.

I think that's legitimate. Yeah. That's legitimate. And again, if you didn't sort of have this early on, I could see where it's just like, yeah, it's not quite as good as like, my funny Valentine or the sound is not there. And that's like Miles. I mean, Miles was a little bit of a late bloomer, I think,

in terms of like hitting his, like because on those records, you know, I don't know, there's so many different ways to look at. His plane's great on here. I don't know that he's the best soloist on this record. Like when you hear Lee Connitz, when you hear even the little short Max Roach's soul, like, you know, and like what Max is doing to drive the time.

Miles is, it sounds good. There's a lot of albums that Miles made throughout his career where you're like, is he the best soloist on this? Train kind of steals some stuff from, obviously. That's Johnny Coltrane. Johnny Coltrane. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah.

Like, I think he is, he's this impresario. He's like the true maestro of all of this, putting these people together. I mean, it says it right here in the line notes. Miles was the one who was like getting the rehearsals together, getting the band together. Even at the young age. His real gift, he's got a, he's, Miles has a few incredible gifts. Obviously, the trumpet is one of them. But it might not be as good as, first of all, his taste and his unwavering dedication to not being stuck

or stagnant. Yeah. His incredible restlessness, I think is a gift to us all. Yes. And then his leadership abilities. Yeah. Like he is,

was always, even now, he's 21 years old. He's already a leader. The courage to like say, yeah, I want to push back against Charlie Parker. Yeah. And what he's doing.

I want to do something different than that. Yeah. That takes someone who really knows themselves and is very, very confident about their abilities and what they see as their contribution to art. And he had that, throughout his entire career

was never precious about the thing he was working on was always looking towards like the feeling of what it was. The feeling of new, that feeling... We just talked about the feeling of discovery. Yeah. That is Miles Davis. Yeah.

And he brought this music and this sound and much of this band to the bebop territory on 52nd Street, you know. Yeah. Right around, not when the record came out, but earlier, like when they were recording this stuff, and that was a big deal

because it was kind of like, you're bringing something cooler than Bibop potentially. And there's a great quote that I think it was Count Basie. Like, I don't know if it was like the Royal Roost or one of those clubs there. And, you know, they used, I mean, that was like a big deal on 52nd Street. Like that was a nightclub district. And I think Miles's band was like kind of opening or like the, what do you call it? Not like Count Basie was the headliner or whatever.

But he's presenting a lot of this new kind of sound. And somebody asked Count Basie, what did you think of it? And he's like, yeah, some of the slow stuff was kind of weird, but it's kind of kind of cool. All right. You got the thumbs up. Yeah. Well, let's kick off side two of the original album. This is a tune by George Wallington, arranged by Jerry Mulligan.

This is called Godchild. Great orchestration here. This might be Miles Best solo on a loud match show. Gottside by George Wallington, arranged by Jerry Mulligan. So, Peter, you might have noticed we haven't actually listened to a tune arranged by Gil Evans. yet. Right. They're only two. And one of them is your Desert Island track, so we're saving it. Okay. But this next one is attuned by a composer named Cleo Henry. I love his solo with snarky puppy. He's amazing. Corey Henry. Quingis. Cleo Henry. Oh, Cleo Henry.

Miss Cleo Henry. No, not going to do the voice. This is arranged by Gil Evans, and Cleo Henry is actually a pseudonym for Miles Davis. Sudamin. A pseudonym for Miles Davis. Davis and Gill Evans, they wrote this song, but for whatever reason, credited to a fictitious Cleo Henry. Miss Cleo, Corey Henry. That's right. This is an incredible track called Boplicity. So, open voicings. Cloepin. Clopin voices. And this is the Gill Evans arrangement you said, right? This is our first Gil Evans arrangement. You can hear it. You can hear those voicings. It's incredible. And in fact, we kicked off the show

with Caleb Kirby and Bob DeBoo. Yeah. Playing this, but our little baby arrangement of this is not, it doesn't really do it justice. We didn't want to, we didn't want to outshine. That's right,

we didn't want our shade to be on, on Gil. He's, you know, it was crazy, man. I met Gil Evans. I met Jerry Mulling. I saw him play.

I play on the same, I mean, like, I'm so privileged to have a little bit of connection with this generation of mild danger. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that long ago. It seems like it was, but it really wasn't.

I remember when I first met Jelly Roe Morton, when I first got to New Orleans. That was crazy. That is crazy. Yeah, Big Spiderback used to teach driver's ed in my high school. No, he was on the road. That's John Lewis, I think. Our resident classes.

Man, they pack in the economy of this writing, so many notes, but there's still space. And it's all within three minutes. It's crazy. How long is this track? We're at 252 right in. Oh, man. You know what? Why do we record 11-minute jazz songs now?

And why, I mean, sometimes it's, I know, man. Sometimes it's warranted, but like, this is great stuff, man. It really is great stuff. Like, it's not that you can't go longer than that. And, of course, we have, you know, the artistic license to do that. But what we should be doing at least, well, we do. Three minute. We do.

So this album and this collaboration between Miles and Gil Evans, wouldn't be the last time these two would work together. Famously, they would make some of the great music of the 1950s and early 60s. the biggest jazz records of all the time. The same year they released this compilation of these singles that were recorded in 49 and 50, birth of the cool, 1957. An album

came out featuring what was called Miles Davis plus 19 with Gil Evans called Miles Ahead. Man, it's such a great record. The Duke from Miles Ahead. Oh, thank you. But again, just a bigger version of what we just heard.

This is stereo, too, I think. This will not be the last Gil Evans that we listen to on the you'll hear a podcast. Yeah, absolutely. to be. This is a great, I'm glad you, this is such when the recording technology between 1949 and 957 is

huge. That's the drums, the bass, that ever, man. Okay, I'm shallow. I like good sound. Yeah, sorry. Sue you. Sue you. That's a great tune to, the Duke. This is kind of an overlook of their collaborations. I think this is the least known miles ahead. Yeah, they're famous for sketches

of Spain, poorie and best. Yeah. But miles ahead, don't sleep on miles ahead, man. It's so great. Yeah. Really, really cool. This is around the time, too, that Miles, so super influenced, as you said in your notes here somewhere, Claude Thornhill, as was everybody on here.

Gil Evans, of course, and then collaborated with Amad Jamal. Yeah, absolutely. Who he probably wouldn't have heard... Well, no, he might have. Would he have heard? No, he wouldn't have heard Amad Jamal yet at these recordings. But for sure, for the miles ahead, there's a lot of influence on that, the prestige stuff,

you know, in terms of arrangements, in terms of, like, architecture of the arrangements, and stuff. He spoke about it and taking specific things too, on the miles ahead recording, in fact. Well, that boplicity that we listened to just previous has become a bit of a standard. Yep. As is the next one.

This is called rocker by Jerry Mulligan. It's a Jerry Mulligan. I'm a rocker. Yeah, Jerry Mulligan. Another incredible melody here. Just gentle. Jerry Mulligan's arranging throughout this whole album is really sweet. Really sweet.

He's known as the Marvin Gay of the baritone saxophone, you know. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah? By who? Me? Okay. Tall a drink of water, both of them?

That's two tall drinks of water. I love this, too. Incredible melody there. So I just want to say one thing, this is so cool to have the lighter notes from Jerry Mulligan, what he's saying about the different players here. Max Roach, genius. I can't say enough about his playing with the band. his melodic approach to my charts was a revelation to me.

He was fantastic and for me the perfect drummer for the band. No small statement in view of the fact that Miles brought in Art Blakey and Kenny Clark on the later dates. Yeah, I mean, newsflash. Max Roach was a genius. I totally agree. He is really the backbone of this whole thing on those tracks that he's on. Kenny Clark too. Okay.

The next one is very, very interesting. So the next track is a song written and arranged by John Carisi. It's called Israel, and this is not the most famous version of this. And actually, this is not my favorite version. My apics moment's on here, so we'll listen for that. We call it solo. Some great solos on this track. Minor blues, right?

Yeah. that goes the major there after the four chord yeah yeah that walk up in the fifth flat six six the last one is major also

you shout voice okay here you is your apex moment this whole soul crazy yeah yeah I mean Lee Cohnins

you know had such an interesting influence of Charlie Parker you know every saxophone especially out to player either talks about this or lies about not being or just being heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.

Really every horn player, you know. The instrumentalist, it's hard not. Yeah, I mean, Lou Donaldson talked about like he quit playing. He played like four different read instruments. He quit all of them except for the alto at the first night he heard in Chicago. Charlie Parker play. He was just like, I don't want to do anything. And so you hear other stories about people just quitting music.

You either dedicated yourself to try to be like him if you were young or you give up. And I think Lee Conis had a. very interesting, like you heard in that double time kind of playing, like, it was not as imitative as some of the other players were when they were younger of, specifically of Charlie Parker, especially considering he played the same instrument, but you feel that influence, that energy coming through and like it really, the way he developed him and put his own flavor on it is just great. I think it's one of the best solos on here that I heard. Well, that Israel version, I mean, to me, it's fine. It sounds good. It's a bit scattered, though. Like, it doesn't come

together as much as this version, which I think is the finding version of Israel. Bill Evans Explorations album. Scott LaFaro and Paul Motion. We did a whole episode on these three albums. Levins obviously would go on to work with Miles Davis in the late

50s and was probably very much influenced by this album. But this was after this record came out. Oh yeah, yeah, a couple of years. Yeah, that's well after, yeah. But he would have heard that. A few years later. The last track we're going to listen to was an released until the early 70s, at least with the extended version of this album.

I'm actually not sure if this was ever a single or not, but this is Kenny Haggud on vocals from Darn That Dream, the Eddie DeLang Jimmy Van Hewson tune. This is actually great. That dream, I dream each night. It's not as romantic as got a match from the legend. Ben. It's pretty nice. But when I awake your out of your eyes.

This could have been in that good night, good luck play we saw a couple weeks ago. It would have been nice. Could have been. What's up, George? She sings. Darn your up. They lift me high above the story sky. Get it, Kenny.

Get it. There's a busy arrangement behind them. Arracement by Jericho on this one. On this one track, mind of mine. He's going for it, man. He's in it. It's a win it. Just to change the mood I make.

And bless it too. Without that dream, It's a hard tune to sing. Absolutely gorgeous, though. It haunts me and it blow. Get it, Kannie? Yeah. Yeah, crushing.

It's a great tune. It's been covered many times. Most recently on Cowboy Carter with Beyonce. Excellent. I don't know if you knew that. That's not true, is it? That is not true. Okay.

Okay. Okay, let's get to some categories, Peter. So we've got some Desert Island tracks. So your Desert Island tracks is... Moon Dreams. So this is the up. Yeah, we skipped over this earlier. We did.

I guess I was on purpose. This is a strange, beautiful track, I think. It's absolutely gorgeous. This is the other track that was arranged by Gil Evans. And this was written by... Johnny Mercer. Johnny Mercer. About this track, actually, which is going to sound weird.

First of all, it's weird that you picked it, but it's weird that I'm going to say this. There's no piano. No piano. And this is like the most forward-looking to meet to what Miles and Gil Evans would do together. We don't need a piano. No.

And I love John Lewis. I love Al Haig. So, Duke Gallington's greatest arrangements have no piano on. I played them. They didn't need to be playing. They could have done some arranging. I love the John Lewis arrangements, but when you have this thick of a texture... Yeah, exactly.

Let the horns have it. What do you give you like? We're not being paid by the note. To me, this is cool. This is beautiful. Some of your top Barry play you're ever going to hear. That little four bar solo. This gets weird.

Here that Gil Evans has, the other rangers don't really have. He's got that kind of gear. Great take. The tune. The pair. French horn. That might be gone through Schuler. That's a great pick, Peter.

I love that. Yeah, to me, this is like, for you. I love this. This is the most unique. Yeah, that's got the Shuler on the horn. Coolest track on here, man. I agree. Timeless.

No shade on the rest. I'm just saying, this one really, I'd be happy on the desert island with that. Yeah. I think it's a great desert island track. There's a lot. Especially, our desert islands often quite parching. Partching.

Yeah, but kind of warm. Yeah. So this would be very cool. Very cool. I mean, for three minutes and 20 seconds, there's a lot to sink your teeth in there. What you got for you, Desert Island Drive? Mine is a Jerry Mulligan original called Giroux.

And, you know, again, I... I thought it was Jeru. It could be J-Roo. J-Rue? J-Roo. J-Roo. It's J-Col. It's J-Col.

No, this is Jerry-Mulligan original. J-Rue. That's what I said. No, you said J-Roo. J-Roo. J-Roo. Jerome. Again, just to re-hash,

I consider this album, again, to be all about these melodies. And for me, this is my favorite melody. I love that turn there. That's like a 10-bar A-section, I think. There's lots of little interesting pieces and turns in the entire melody, the bridge, too. We used to play a Jerry Mulligan, big man arrangement of this with Lincoln Center Orchestra

many years ago, I remember. This tune? Yeah, Went loves this. Oh, amazing. Actually, went and kind of wiped the floor with this, too, as I recall now. Really? Yeah. He crushed this?

Yeah. Not spiked. A lot of Charlie Parker and all. Oh, yeah. Language. Bridge is incredible. They never go back to the original melody. That's right.

They never go back. That's a great arrangement. It's a great tune. Yeah. Love the solos on it. The Apex Moments, we already covered your Apex Moment. Lee Conan's solo on Israel. Mine is Boplicity, and this is,

sort of at one minute and 37 seconds, the start of the trumpet solo. It's just like section solo, right? So Miles will blow and the section takes it and miles will blow. And I just think Miles is playing. The language in the space Miles uses through here, plus the arrangement is pretty incredible. And this is Gil Evans arrangement. Don't for that, even as a young lad.

A little foreshadowing, I think. You didn't hear that much space with him playing with Charlie Parker. And I think this is his opportunity to really start messing with that. Yeah, that was a lot of space for this period. this period. I mean, when you're going to track that's, that's like three minutes long to have like 10 seconds of space. I was like 5% of the tune right there. I mean, I think the other interesting thing on that, I love that going back and forth soloing and then that kind of solely stuff. And then Miles was playing, like, you know, as Adam written into that as well, which I love.

Very cool. Yeah. Bespoke Spotify playlists. What do you got? Okay, I'm calling this the cool jazz chronicles because it goes over a couple different sessions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could see what the cover would look like. Mine, I have three. I have say yes to nonets. Yeah, no nets, nonets, not. It's, like the nine piece. I keep forgetting that, like, that was a thing,

like with a specific instrumentation. Oh, yeah, yeah. Nine pieces are a great instrumentation. That's right. Ten, too many. Eight, octet? Not enough. Not enough.

The other two I have, I have... So we're doing three on these. Just let me know. I'll do three next time. I always do a couple because I'm a creative person, and I like to give myself options. Midbop masterpieces. So not post-bop, not hard,

Not a hard bob. Midbop is what we're calling this. You know what I can call this? I like that, but soft bob. Softbop. Like soft rock. Right. Like smoothbop.

Like smooth jazz. This is kind of smoothbop. I think we just invented it a whole genre. That's going to be my bespoke Spotify playlist. My last bespoke Spotify playlist is cool, cool, cool. Oh, well, that is so innovative. He's covering his face out of it. You should.

I'm a little bit more embarrassed by that one. Up next. What other albums pair with this? What do you got? Well, so. I was thinking about the bebop influences on this and is this a smoother or cooler kind of bebop. And then I didn't even check the date,

but I have the feeling that jazz and Massey Hall is like right after this or around the same time. Interesting. Which is, of course, Disigal S.B., Charles Mingus. And it's a complete LP. I think that's a good call, actually. Dizzy Gillespie. I said that. I have the Clifford Brown Max Roach album.

Ooh, great call. Yeah, because I think... That's like 54, 34. 53, maybe. But I, because I think it is also, again, one of those tributaries of Charlie Parker, right? A different one from this. A different from this. But who's the connector?

Max Roach. Oh, Max Roach. Three, two, one. Max Roach. No, but it is off of that bebop main channel. And like, you know, Birth of the Cool spins out this way. And that Clifford sounds spins out. Because Clifford is much more, like, in the vernacular of the bebop.

Different. But it is different. Yeah. It's its own kind of. coolness, but it's pushing more than this. It's, yeah, Max Roach is the connector on this album, on the album.

I mean, Jerry Mulligan said it here. Max Roach comma genius. Yeah, I mean. Quibble bits. Is it too cool? It's the birth of the cool, but is it too like, in terms of like the dynamics, the emotional temperature of the solos?

You know what I mean? Like to me, the bebop stuff that even Miles played, I know he didn't feel as comfortable as it accomplished and then everything that he did after the starting with like prestige like the not the emotional depth because this has a lot of you know what it is the emotional depth and the art you look pissed off right now sir are you too cool i just don't care man you're just too cool but is not necessarily i mean even with those stunning leitconed solos and some others like to me this is not it's just cool but then again look at the name of the record i can't accuse it of being too cool when

It says that's what it's doing, right? What? Yeah, okay, man, where's your sunglasses? You know, is that your version of being cool? Because that's weird. What? You just seem stoned, man.

Okay, uh, quibble bits for me are none. None. I like it a lot. Sound quality? Sound quality could be. I mean, actually, that could be like a minor quibb. Although some of that, the piano sound was excellent.

I think than RVG. Yeah, for the era, I think it's fine. Yeah. Um, thermometer. What do you got? Well, I'm going with my usual five. I mean, on the one hand, this is totally snobby, but on the other hand, it's totally accessible, too. It's a beautiful sound.

I have it at four. I have it close to you, because I do think it's kind of like right in the middle. Is it better than kind of blue? Does the snobometer suck? Let's be honest. Is it of any use at this point? What, man? How dare you?

How dare you talk about our legendary snowometer like that? You know how much research and development went into the sombometer? I always think of like snot and snobometer. Notometer or something. Caleb and Andy were back in the back room on the desk, like soldering things to that. Oh, it's totally an analog like meter. Oh, 100%. It's like a Mr. Potato Head.

It runs on snobbils. Right. We actually have Ethan Iverson running on a treadmill back there, powering the snobometer. He trades off with Aunt Linda. Aunt Linda and Ethan Iverson just takes shifts. Would Ethan Iverson and Aunt Linda have anything, they have nothing in common? I'd like to see them out of dinner. That's not true, actually.

They have nothing to talk about it. They are both from the Midwest. Well, that's true. Yeah. But they would have no musical aspirations. I don't know. I would bet that Ethan Iverson has a, because he seems to have really great taste in everything.

I would bet he would have some good taste in some hymns. And I'll Linda love some hymns. So I would bet they have that in common. But I don't know. I don't want to speak for Ethan Iverson. Is it better than K.O.B. No. No.

Okay. Acutrements. Well, I put eight, but now that I'm looking at it more. So first of all, the title, can we all agree, the title, birth the cool? That's a great title for now. Exactly. That's what pushed it over the edge for me. And I do like, I don't know if these are the original colors or not,

but the topography, typography, the fonts, like the red, the, I mean, Miles again, it's kind of like we talk about Marvin Gaye. Like he never doesn't look good. Well, later on. He wasn't photographed as well later on. What are you talking about? When he was older? Tutu? What are you talking about?

That's good. Tutu's good. Yeah. But I don't know. Like, it's really good. I put it at an eight, but I'm actually thinking more like a seven. just because like this picture on the back I don't know it's good

You got a Jerry Mulligan liner notes From the... That's true I'm gonna stay at 8 I'm stay at 8 I'm gonna stay at 8 Because lineer notes are great I have 9

Thank you so much Peter This was a blast And thank you for watching We do Like to read some comments I might read one of these Is that okay? Yeah so these are from Spotify

Why don't you go ahead And this is from our Stevie Wonder episode from Spotify Okay Wiscoe says I've been devouring these episodes I absolutely love them your love and passion for music really shines through when you guys nerd out. These are the exact type of conversations I love to have with my friends,

and I really, really connect with the way you guys communicate. Thank you, Wiscoe. Nicolai says, I started listening to the pod two years ago when I found it randomly. It has gotten better. I found you, sir. It has gotten better and better with each episode. You guys bring so much knowledge and fun and games to the music,

and I really appreciate it. I'm a guitar player, and I love watching guys play music and talk. it is like hanging out with my buddies and I just love it. This is the best music podcast I really don't know a better one. Honest, keep it up. Nikolai, that's really sweet of you to say again, leave a comment on Spotify,

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