by Frank Tirro

$45.00.  CMS Member Price: $36.00.
ISBN-10: 1576471284
ISBN-13: 978-1576471289

In the wake of World War II jazz musicians found themselves confronting transition as well as opportunity. Big band swing and "sweet" commercial music, once so popular, had peaked as social diversions and were, in a sense, victims of the War. A handful of young African-American musicians challenged the function of jazz as entertainment and dance music with a hot, uncompromising new idiom: bebop. Their revolutionary efforts were soon followed by explorations in harmony, orchestration, counterpoint, and meter that were perceived as cool. In this volume Professor Tirro considers systematically the cele-brated recordings made between 1949 and 1951 by the Miles Davis Nonet, performances that, after the fact, became known as the Birth of the Cool. In addition to identifying styl-istic precedents and to stressing the connection of various participants to the Claude Thornhill Band, he convincingly summarizes the attributes of cool jazz, describes the professional context that generated these landmark recordings, and directs the readers' attention to the contributions of arrangers and performers alike. Discussions of the music are organized by arranger: Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, and John Carisi. Evans, Mulligan, Lewis, and Davis must be considered unqualified titans of modern jazz; their collaboration in this endeavor is but one fascinating, artistically rewarding episode in long, distinguished careers. A compact disc with relevant selections accompanies the text.