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Birth of the Cool Musical Quotes in Marty Paich Arrangements on Mel Tormé Swings Shubert Alley

2024; Volume: 11; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.30958/ajha.11-3-1

2241-7702

David A. Ferguson,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

In 1957, Miles Davis released Birth of the Cool (Davis, 1957) which featured Davis with a unique instrumental ensemble called a nonette. This ground-breaking collaboration between Davis and arranger Gil Evans featured works that had been released either in radio broadcast or as singles several years prior to the album’s release. In 1960, arranger Marty Paich collaborated with singer Mel Tormé and produced the album Mel Tormé Swings Shubert Alley (Tormé, 1960). This album, the fifth collaboration with Paich, featured Tormé with a 10-person ensemble. This group was inspired by the Miles Davis Nonette, and shared a common mellow vibe. Two songs that Paich arranged on Mel Tormé Swings Shubert Alley (Tormé, 1960) reference musical snippets, or quotes, from Miles Davis’ recording of “Godchild” on Birth of the Cool (Davis, 1957). This paper serves to illuminate and analyze the musical quotations from Birth of the Cool (Davis, 1957) used by Marty Paich on these two arrangements. This paper also places these works within the broader context of the evolution of American popular music and culture.