Within double-quick time of deleting these precious Davis items Capitol have attractively repackaged them and supplied liner notes which give us more background information about the three classic sessions than appeared in the commentary to the original ‘Birth Of The Cool’ LP (Capitol T 762). What a pity compiler Bill Miller (Sinatra’s pianist?) didn’t take the opportunity of including the twelfth and final performance by the Davis Nonet, Kenny Hagood’s vocal of Darn That Dream which we are wrongly informed has never been issued on a long player. If Capitol knew their own catalogue they would he aware that this missing track came out on Alun Morgan’s excellent ‘Bebop Into Cool’ makeup (Capitol T 20578) a year or two back. Not many people realise that when this revolutionary Davis group played its two-week engagement at the Royal Roost Club in September 1948, a number of performances were broadcast over a local network. I possess an acetate by the band comprising Davis, trombonist Mike Zwerin, Junior Collins, Bill Barber, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, Al McKibbon and Max Roach, playing Move, Why Do I Love You, Godchild, S’il Vous Plait, Moon Dreams and Hallucinations. I hope clearance can be obtained for these and other priceless fragments from the bop era one day.
The Birth Of The Cool recordings are important from many aspects; they were the first collaborations between Davis and Evans, a partnership that flowered into maturity a decade later, and the discs, 78s in those days, introduced the tuba and French horn to modern listeners. But most important of all the band’s arrangers – Evans, John Lewis, Gerry Mulligan and trumpeter Johnny Carisi – broke away from the conception of skeletal bop themes played in unison. While still realising the importance of the soloist, they felt compositions could be dressed up and treated adventurously. The outcome was the best of both worlds – ingenious scoring to make maximum use of the six horns in the ensemble passages (and behind the soloists) without any loss or restriction of improvisatory freedom. Davis and Mulligan were the main solo voices, Konitz, Lewis and the trombonists being called into play as subsidiary, though vital, instrumentalists. If anything Mulligan takes too much of the spotlight but one must remember that he more than anyone organised the unit. From Davis’s point of view these selections contained his best work on disc up to that time. On none of the Parker quintet records does he play with the confidence and clarity exhibited here. For me the pick of the set has always been Budo, jointly composed by Bud Powell and Davis, who also arranged it. Budo has a wonderful Miles solo which synthesises bop and cool styles. Rocker was unarguably Mulligan’s best arrangement. The sole Jonny Carisi effort Israel makes me wish this gifted composer would take up his pen again. His tunes – Springsville on Miles Ahead is another – are few but they show an original, inventive mind.
Having worn out my first copy of this timeless music I welcome its reappearance. No collection is complete without it. Like the man said ‘incontestable masterpieces’…
Discography
(a) Move; (a) Jeru; (c) Moon Dreams; (b) Venus De Milo; (a) Budo; (c) Deception (18¼ min) – (a) Godchild; (b) Boplicity; (c) Rocker; (b) Israel; (b) Rouge (15¼ min)
(a) Miles Davis (tpt); Kai Winding (tbn); Junior Collins (fr-h); John ‘Bill’ Barber (tuba); Lee Konitz (alt); Gerry Mulligan (bar); Al Haig (p); Joe Schulman (bs); Max Roach (d). NYC, 21/1/49.
(b) Davis (tpt); J. J. Johnson (tbn); Sandy Siegelstein (fr-h); Barber (tuba); Konitz (alt); Mulligan (bar); John Lewis (p); Nelson Boyd (bs); Kenny Clarke (d). NYC. 22/4/49.
(c) Davis (tpt); Johnson (tbn); Gunther Schuller (fr-h); Barber (tuba): Konitz (alt): Mulligan (bar): Lewis (p); Al McKibbon (bs): Roach (d). NYC, 9/3/50.
(Capitol T 1974 32s.)
