Members of the IUP Department of Music perform the music from the critically acclaimed compilation album of American jazz great Miles Davis.

Released in 1957, Birth of the Cool compiles 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 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. Most of them were originally released in the 10-inch 78-rpm format and are all approximately three minutes long.