MILES DAVIS - The Complete Birth Of The Cool - 2LP - Gatefold 180g Vinyl

2LP - 180g Black Vinyl housed in a Gatefold Sleeve with 20-page booklet insert with with Essay By Ashley Kahn. Features Miles Davis’ classic Birth of the Cool as well as a second LP of live material from 1948. Remastered from Original Session Tapes.

As Miles Davis came to transcend the influence of Dizzy Gillespie and recognize his own musical voice, he arrived at a terse lyric conception of the trumpet, grounded in Charlie Parker's swinging syncopations. And it was in the course of searching for an appropriate musical corollary that he forged an enduring musical partnership with arranger Gil Evans and a core group of like-minded musicians that yielded three remarkable sessions which have come down to us as Birth of the Cool.

For Davis and Evans, the challenge was to create a supple new vocabulary out of the angularity of bebop, and greater emphasis on texture and form. by reining in the rhythm, Davis and Evans sought to create a more seamless fabric of written and improvised passages. and by employing tuba, french horn, trombone and trumpet, along with alto and baritone saxophones the davis nonet achieved a diaphanous, mellow orchestral texture. However, the notion of cool as emotional detachment or lack of improvisational heat is somewhat overstated by the title.

John Lewis's chart for the opening Move is taken at a brisk gallop over a driving max roach pulse, animated by deep brass counterpoint. Miles Davis treats his own blues, Deception, in an almost choral manner, his lovely melodic line snaking through a web of voices. Gerry Mulligan's Rocker benefits from the rich contrary motion of his writing, and the big band accents which launch Miles' solo. On Boplicity, Gil Evans' harmonizes his coy swinging melody with warm, broken voicings, while his spatial, atmospheric chart for the ballad Moon Dreams is distinguished by the idiomatic serenity of his voice leading. A masterpiece. 

Tracklist:

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)