The Complete Birth Of The Cool

In 1949, in a nondescript basement room behind a Chinese laundry in midtown Manhattan, a group of like-minded jazz modernists formed a groundbreaking collective. Among them were jazz headliners soon-to-be: Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, Max Roach, John Lewis, the arranger Gil Evans and significantly, the 22-year-old trumpeter Miles Davis, who became the leader of the project. The music this historic nine-piece group created together that year and in 1950 — in the studio and onstage — came and went with little notice at first. Seven years later, when the music was collected on a full LP for the first time, the world came to understand its impact: a true watershed moment in postwar music, dubbed with the name that remains one of the best known in modern jazz: Birth of the Cool.

The Complete Birth of the Cool chronicles the brief yet monumental importance of the Miles Davis Nonet, presenting together all the music created by this collective — the 12 sides they recorded in 1949/‘50, as well as the ensemble’s only extant live recordings, recorded at the Royal Roost.

A1 Move
A2 Jeru
A3 Moon Dreams
A4 Venus De Milo
A5 Budo
A6 Deception
B1 Godchild
B2 Boplicity
B3 Rocker
B4 Israel
B5 Rouge
B6 Darn That Dream

C1 Birth Of The Cool Theme
C2 Symphony Sid Announces The Band
C3 Move
C4 Why Do I Love You
C5 Godchild
C6 Symphony Sid Introduction
C7 S’il Vous Plait
D1 Moon Dreams
D2 Budo (Hallucination)
D3 Darn That Dream
D4 Move
D5 Moon Dreams
D6 Budo (Hallucinations)