Miles Davis - The Complete Birth Of The Cool

In honor of the 70th anniversary of its original singles in 1949, "The Complete Birth of the Cool" features Miles Davis' classic "Birth of the Cool" album as well as a second LP of live material from 1948, previously unreleased on vinyl.

Famous sessions, in a nondescript basement room behind a Chinese laundry in midtown Manhattan, saw a group of kindred spirits and jazz modernists come together to form a groundbreaking collective. They included the jazz-headliners-to-be Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, Max Roach, John Lewis, arranger Gil Evans and, of course trumpeter Miles Davis, then 22, who became the bandleader, helming a creative project for the first time.

The nine-piece group worked together in the studio and on stage in 1949 and 1950 to little public reaction at first. It was only seven years later, when their music came together on a full LP for the first time, that its impact was fully realized. The moment was Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool.

The Complete Birth of the Cool gathers all of the collective’s music. It features the 12 sides they recorded in 1949-50 and the ensemble’s only extant live recordings, captured at the Royal Roost. This is the first time since 1957 that the recordings have been remastered for vinyl and the release also marks the first time that all the Birth of the Cool performances, both studio and live, have been available together on LP.

70th Anniversary Edition. Heavyweight double vinyl produced by Capitol Records in 2019. Gatefold sleeve. Includes booklet with archival photographs and an extensive new essay by the Grammy-winning American music historian Ashley Kahn.