'Birth of the Cool,' a title with marketing and creative genius behind it, gets welcome revival here

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One of the landmark small groups in jazz was the nonet that also gave birth to a new branch on the living jazz tree. The growth of a way of playing and writing that owed nothing to bebop and very little to the fading swing era came about in three recording sessions in 1949 and 1950, later to be packaged as a Capitol LP titled "The Birth of the Cool."

Kent Hickey put together ensemble for centennial tribute. 
Miles Davis was the leader, and his style in these settings raised his profile in the jazz community. This is his centennial year, and so Kent Hickey, a trumpeter from a much younger generation and one of local renown, took up the birthday banner to lead nine musicians re-creating "The Birth of the Cool." 

The band sounded great Tuesday night at the Jazz Kitchen. The driving sound of something new still adheres to "Move," a Denzil Best composition that led off the performance, as it did the original LP issue. That's not counting the short appetizer simply known as "The Theme," after which Hickey welcomed the audience, which was sizable for a weeknight because of the monumental repertoire. 

As the set went on, with its unique blend of instruments almost always balanced and intact, it was clear the new band had jelled. Arrangements borrowed from Brent Wallarab and Mark Buselli displayed the ensemble style well. The solos were short and to the point, reflecting the conciseness of the original issue on 78 rpm discs, with their outer limit of three-and-a-half minutes.

The band swung from the foundation up, thanks to Cassius Goens III, drums, and Jesse Wittman, bass.  Completing the rhythm section with a keen sense of harmony and pulse in the 75-year-old idiom was pianist Christopher Pitts. The half-dozen wind players included soloists of distinction in Richard Dole, trombone; Kenvae Tarver, alto sax; and Evan Drybread, baritone sax. 

Hickey himself, taking the Miles Davis role, was particularly eloquent in "Boplicity," a Davis original he later said was his favorite of the project because of the arrangement by Gil Evans. The trumpeter and the arranger would go on in the late 1950s to crowning achievements together in "Miles Ahead," "Sketches of Spain," and "Porgy and Bess." 

All important in the distinctive tone colors of the nonet were parts for French horn and tuba. On Tuesday night here, they were creditably taken by Peggy Moran and Olander Porter, respectively. 

A piece not on the original LP release but heard in a Mulligan arrangement in one of the  few instances of the band recorded live was "Juiced at the Roost,"  which made for a lively closer with its crisp solos by Drybread, Dole, and Tarver. 


[Photo by Mark Sheldon]





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