Birth of the Cool

Miles Davis has been one of my favorite musicians since college. My first semester at the University of Virginia, I took an amazing American History survey course from Ed Ayers, a professor who used southern music to teach students about life in the early 20th century. 

The history is often tragic, as journalist Isabel Wilkerson's 2010 book The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration documents. The harrowing life of black Americans trying to escape the institutionalized racism in the southern states is filled with injustice and cruelty. But there are glimmers of light, and music is surely one. 

NPR's free music app offers listeners access to radio stations across the country. My favorites are the jazz stations, which still give a glimpse into this purely American art form. Most often I listen to KCSM, the Bay Area's jazz station, but lately I've added WWNO, New Orleans' jazz radio, and want to spend more time on WVAS, the station from Montgomery, Alabama.

Listening to the radio has encouraged me to spend more time in my own musical library. While Miles Davis' 1957 album Kind of Blue is probably his most famous, Birth of the Cool, recorded in 1950 and released in 1957, and Sketches of Spain from 1960 have a different energy and show his musical range. Enjoy!