Description
The Phil Shotton ‘Kind of Cool’ Nonet play live the entire iconic ‘Birth of the Cool’ album!
Friday 22nd March 2024 – Doors and bar open at 7pm and the show starts at 7.30pm
A rare and exciting opportunity to hear one of the most important and influential albums in jazz
performed live, with the original instrumentation and arrangements, by some of the finest jazz
musicians in the North of England.
Phil Shotton – Baritone Saxophone & Bandleader
John Padfield – Alto Saxophone
Owen Bryce – Trumpet
Mike Monument – French Horn
Matthew Horner – Trombone
Adam Dutch – Tuba
Tom Sykes – Piano
Matt Lawton – Double Bass
Andrew Bold – Drums
Birth of the Cool was the most important stylistic step to follow after bebop – generating an
entirely new wave of playing that influenced a new generation in the early 1950s. This compilation
album by American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis, released in February 1957 by
Capitol Records compiled eleven tracks recorded by Davis’s nonet for the label over the course of
three sessions during 1949 and 1950.
Featuring unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music consisted of
innovative arrangements influenced by classical orchestral music techniques such as polyphony,
and marked a major development in post-bebop jazz. As the title suggests, these recordings are
considered seminal in the history of cool jazz.
One of the features of the Davis Nonet was the use of paired instrumentation. An example of this can be
heard in “Move”, the melody is given to the pairing of trumpet and alto saxophone, baritone saxophone
and tuba supply counterpoint, and trombone and French horn provide harmonies. “Jeru” demonstrates
another Nonet hallmark: the use of a unison sound and rich harmony throughout the horns. Davis said, “I
wanted the instruments to sound like human voices singing … and they did.” Though the album is seen as
a departure from traditional bop, the recordings do feature tunes that are considered close to the bop
style, such as “Budo” which has the band bookending solos by Davis, Mulligan, Konitz, and Winding,
similar to a bebop head arrangement.
In 1957, after the release of Birth of the Cool, Down Beat magazine wrote that the album “[influenced]
deeply one important direction of modern chamber jazz.” Several tunes from the album, have gone on to
become Jazz Standards played by all sizes of ensembles.
The nonet recorded twelve tracks for Capitol during three sessions over the course of nearly a year and a
half. Davis, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan and John Barber were the only musicians who played on all three
sessions, though the instrumental line-up was constant (excepting the omission of piano on a few
songs)The second recording date came three months later on April 22, 1949. The band did not return to
the studio again until March 9, 1950. Davis did not call the band for any rehearsals or live performances
between the second and third recording dates.
Many members of the Miles Davis Nonet went on to have successful careers in cool jazz, notably,
Mulligan moved to California and joined forces with trumpeter Chet Baker in a piano-less quartet, before
creating his Concert Jazz Band. Capitol Records were at the time disappointed with the sales of the nonet
recordings, and did not offer Davis a contract extension. Instead, Davis signed with the new jazz specialty
record label, Prestige, for whom he would record his first album in 1951.
