Monday, December 16, 2013

THE BIRTH OF THE COOL ON CAPITOL RECORDS PART SEVEN

THE BIRTH OF THE COOL ON CAPITOL RECORDS 
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
CONTEMPORARY CONCERTS
APPRAISALS
PART SEVEN

© James A. Harrod, Copyright Protected, All Rights Reserved


I am in the process of moving my work on this platform to a new home that unites all of my jazz research under one roof. Thank you for looking at my work here at google blogger. I think you will find the new home more user friendly with links and tags to all of my research. This link will take you to this research at the new site.

George Hoefer’s closing comment in his Down Beat review from 1965 noted:

Jazz record buyers may have missed the boat back in 1949, but today there are many who listen to the Birth of the Cool with the same affection the old-timers have for the Louis Armstrong-King Oliver duets on Gennett.”

Hoefer, George. “The Hot Box - The Birth of the Cool.” Down Beat,  7 October 1965, 13, 40.

(© Down Beat, 1965, Maher Publications)

The same might be said today, forty-eight years later, for those jazz fans who embraced the Birth of the Cool sessions in the 1950s and now hold the same nostalgic regard for this music created over a half century ago.

The digital age has witnessed several reissues of these sessions on compact disc where the music continues to live and be available to new devotees discovering this music. 

The Birth of the Cool sessions have also seen numerous live performances of the music in concert halls. The Brad Curran Nonet presented the music in a live performance on December 13, 2003, in Princeton, Wisconsin. The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra gave several performances of the Birth of the Cool in April of 2010The Birth of the Cool was a major feature of the Miles Davis Festival in Chicago, Illinois, during a series of concerts in March of 2011. The Jeff Presslauf Nonet presented the music in a concert in Winnipeg, Canada, in May of 2012.

The Los Angeles Jazz Institute presented a series of concerts during their May 2013 four day festival that included a performance of the Birth of the Cool.


A google search for the Birth of the Cool will retrieve numerous references and reviews of the music.   Arthur Carvajal’s blog examines the concept of cool and be-bop. Jeff Sultanoff offers an appraisal of each of the charts that make up the Birth of the Cool. 

Fans can rest assured that the music will continue to be talked about, performed and available in the 21st century.

No comments:

Post a Comment