Birth of the Cool

This isn’t foreground music. 2.0

Man, it’s just not my thing. I’ll give it two stars because I feel guilty, but it sounds like an episode of Charlie Brown.

Stating the obvious, this was fucking cool. 5*

I don't know why a compilation album is on the list but I found it to be pretty nice background music although it is a bit samey

Really surprised how much I enjoyed this. Unbelievable album

You cannot deny how revolutionary Miles Davies actually was but this album was only okay for me. I’ve definitely heard better Jazz albums

The Good: Witnessing a birth is magical!
The Bad: Sometimes birthing comes with complications…
The Ugly: There were no scissors to cut umbilical chord…

Jazz. It’s its own thing. It has its own rhythms. It has its own chords. It has its own crowd.

I am still scratching my head as to what, exactly, cool jazz is all about. To me, it sounds like the jazz that is used when people like to point out how different jazz is. It is quick, it is syncopated, it is jazz…

3* because Miles deserves respect

I prefer a bit more room for exploration in jazz, and additionally, I generally prefer a more stripped back group. The stylings of and arrangements for the nonet lend this to sound like it still has one foot in the big band era of old, which I like fine enough but is rarely something I want to listen to in larger doses. That said, it’s awesome to pick out the aspects of it that are clearly pushing the envelope for the time. I love the unexpected dissonance in the harmonization of “Moon Dreams” in particular, and although Miles doesn’t sound totally like himself as a player yet (still great, of course), “Deception” sounds distinctly like a Miles composition. “Move”, “Godchild”, and “Boplicity” are additional highlights for me. I think Konitz, Mulligan, and Roach shine in particular, and I loved discovering that both J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding were featured in separate sessions years before recording their duet albums. A light 4 stars for me.

4/5

This was a nice enough listen, but different than the other stuff of his I’ve enjoyed more. I know he had different phases of his career and his musicianship evolved.

I didn’t hear anything special in this that would give it above a three, but I didn’t not like it.

Birth Of The Cool really shows that its a really early album on this list. The recording quality isn't really the greatest and the album really does give off the vibes of the 50s. I still somewhat enjoyed this album (it mostly helped that i was doing college homework while listening to this). The album was just generally very relaxing even when it had a faster tempo. The songs are a bit samey but this is probably expected of an album like this. I will admit that the vocals in track 12 were a pretty nice touch and definitely added something. There are better jazz albums that i have listened to but this is still an alright listen.
Best Song: Godchild
Worst Song: Rouge

If someone asked me what jazz music is who had never heard it before I might show them this album. A lot of people say that Kind of Blue is a good album to start with when first listening to jazz. I feel like this one is much more accessible. Maybe Time Out would be another good one, but I think this is a contender. It’s not that it’s like beginner jazz, the musicianship on here is phenomenal. It’s just that it’s all very straight forward songs, they never go anywhere too experimental or weird like other Miles Davis albums.

Cool jazz. Loveyit!

I love Miles Davis, but this album sounds mediocre until you read about it and find out all the planning that must have gone into who would play what when. It was very much a background album for me while driving. Nothing wrong with it except for how standard it sounds. Miles usually wows me, but Birth of The Cool doesn't wow me all that much. It's fine. It's great for background music, but otherwise it sounds pretty standard for jazz.

Pretty damn chill and fun

Probably no surprise that I’m at a 5.

I’m not gonna be verbose about it: this is a really fucking good jazz album. Every composition here is really well done, and I enjoyed the entire runtime. Not a single lull for me, nor a single miss, or even a single problem with the mixing or production, which is a little wild for a 50s album.

I fell into a deep bliss during that, which makes me really terrified for whenever we get Kind of Blue, because this album has already set a high bar for me, and I know the critical acclaim that Kind of Blue has. Regardless, this is just a spectacular album to me, and I’ll easily come back to this often as studying music or reading music. It’s very deserving of a 5.

Great jazz record, not much to say.

This probably was the birth of the cool to be fair.

4.5/5.0: Excellent

It’s Miles Davis! If there were 6 stars, I’d award it.

Probably the least remarkable Miles Davis we have listened to on this list so far. 2/5

Absolute classic. Miles is more revered for his later work within modal and jazz fusion, but this is a good showcase of why he was already the best tooter in the early 50's.