[Dixielandjazz] Political Correctness - Part 2 - Birth of The Cool

[Steve Barbone]

While not OKOM, the music described is of interest to many. The below snip
is from an August 3, San Francisco Chronicle interview of Alto Sax player
Lee Konitz. It concerns the Birth of The Cool nonet that Miles Davis formed.
Back then it was "common knowledge" among fans that Miles hated white
people. Yeah right!!!!! Note the heat Konitz took from some brothers who
complained that Miles favored whites. Note how Miles defended Konitz. <grin>

Miles hated whites per se? Pure nonsense that is still passed on today as
fact by the uninformed because it's a politically correct viewpoint.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone



"Then a young Miles Davis, looking to escape the high-wire rigors of bebop,
for which he wasn't much suited in the first place, decided to put together
a nine-piece unit, and looked to Thornhill's band as a model, adopting the
brass approach and hiring Konitz and Evans. With baritone saxophonist Gerry
Mulligan, pianist John Lewis and drummer Max Roach also aboard, the nonet
recorded sessions that led to the "Birth of the Cool" album, which gave rise
to the cool jazz movement that later became associated with the West Coast.

Musically groundbreaking, the nonet was also controversial because it
contained black and white musicians together. Konitz says he took a lot of
heat over it.   Davis "defended me when guys criticized him hiring me for
the nonet. The black guys thought he should have a black alto player, like
Sonny Stitt or Jackie McLean. But he wanted my sound for the ensemble."
Here's how Davis recalls the time in his 1989 autobiography, "Miles": "See,
this whole idea started out just as an experiment, a collaborative
experiment. Then a lot of black musicians came down on my case about their
not having work, and here I was hiring white guys in my band. So I just told
them that if a guy could play as good as Lee Konitz played - that's who they
were mad about most, because there were a lot of black alto players around -
I would hire him every time, and I wouldn't give a damn if he was green with
red breath. I'm hiring a motherf- to play, not for what color he is."