everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

So dubbed because these three sessions — two from early 1949, one from March 1950 — are where the sound known as cool jazz essentially formed, Birth of the Cool remains one of the defining, pivotal moments in jazz. This is where the elasticity of bop was married with skillful, big-band arrangements and a relaxed, subdued mood that made it all seem easy, even at its most intricate. After all, there’s a reason why this music was called cool; it has a hip, detached elegance, never getting too hot, even as the rhythms skip and jump. Indeed, the most remarkable thing about these sessions — arranged by Gil Evans and featuring such heavy-hitters as Kai Winding, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, and Max Roach — is that they sound intimate, as the nonet never pushes too hard, never sounds like the work of nine musicians. Furthermore, the group keeps things short and concise (probably the result of the running time of singles, but the results are the same), which keeps the focus on the tones and tunes. The virtuosity led to relaxing, stylish mood music as the end result — the very thing that came to define West Coast or “cool” jazz — but this music is so inventive, it remains alluring even after its influence has been thoroughly absorbed into the mainstream. (allmusic)

everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

This 1963 session was Henderson’s debut as a leader, and it introduced a strikingly individualistic tenor saxophonist, with a distinctively muscular sound and approach, as well as a talent for finding a personal route through the dominant tenor styles of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. At the time of the session, Henderson worked regularly in a quintet with the veteran trumpeter Kenny Dorham, and the two enjoyed a special chemistry apparent on several Blue Note recordings under their individual names. One unusual facet is the hard-bop take on the then emerging bossa nova, apparent in the first recording of Dorham’s now standard “Blue Bossa,” on which Henderson’s thoughtful construction is apparent, and the saxophonist’s own coiling Latin tune, “Recorda Me.” Pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Butch Warren, and drummer Pete LaRoca provide more than solid support for a date that’s as often reflective as it is forceful. –Stuart Broomer

Personnel: Joe Henderson (tenor saxophone); Kenny Dorham (trumpet); McCoy Tyner (piano); Butch Warren (bass); Pete La Roca (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track: