Birth Of The Cool
by Miles Davis
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Miles Davis bestography
Birth Of The Cool is ranked 5th best out of 127 albums by Miles Davis on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Miles Davis is Kind Of Blue which is ranked number 36 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 20,871.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Birth Of The Cool on YouTube
Birth Of The Cool track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Birth Of The Cool rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Top 27 Music Albums of the 1950s | 23/27 | 4 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Greatest albums of all time (301 - 400) by Acclaimed Music | 65/100 | - |
| 2026 | blueandthemoon | Top 9 Music Albums of 1957 | 8/9 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Robert Anton Wilson | Favorite Album by Year | 69/76 | - |
| 2026 |  junodog4 | Top 20 Music Albums of 1957 | 4/20 | 4 |
| 2026 |  MadhattanJack | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1950s | 43/100 | 12 |
| 2026 |  deadhouse | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 59/100 | 41 |
| 2026 |  Norman Bates | Top 31 Music Albums of 1957 | 21/31 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Helios | Top 20 Music Albums of 1957 | 14/20 | 2 |
| 2026 | MrOlan | Top 60 Music Albums of the 1950s | 26/60 | 12 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 367 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 2,514 | |||
Birth Of The Cool collection
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Birth Of The Cool ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
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Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 478 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/22/2026 18:55 | Chorongo | 49 | 90/100 |
| ! | 08/26/2026 02:17 | Rfiga1 | 2 | 95/100 |
| ! | 07/18/2026 00:02 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 80.4/100, a mean average of 79.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 80.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.9.
Birth Of The Cool favourites
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Birth Of The Cool forum mentions
Rhyner 07/20/2026 17:39 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
BestEverAlbums 07/02/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5361): By deadhouse BestEverAlbums 06/26/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5355): By SantiagoBirth Of The Cool comments
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souplipton 06/15/2016 04:27 | #168753 | TOP COMMENT
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Miles changed the face of music many times, the first of which was Birth of the Cool. This album is cool as can be, featuring unusual arrangements for jazz music at the time. The album didn't come out for many years after it was recorded, but the music from these recordings had already spread through jazz. (Edited)
A solid compilation of cool jazz, love the short briefness of each track and is very easy to listen to. However, at its time it already kinda sounded outdated compared to the hard bop and modal jazz he was working on and definitely doesn't have that edge that his later work does. (Edited)
A relaxing listen that flows beautifully and is led by the trumpet of the great Miles Davis. His playing is phenomenal and the way he exchanges with other members of the ensemble is genius. One of the best examples of this is on Jeru which is my favourite cut on the record. There are more great songs as well such as Move, Moon Dreams and Boplicity. However, it is lacking a little bit of flare we get on later releases and some of the instrumentals aren't fantastic. This is a great starting point for Davis and for people who are just starting to listen to him but he will go on to do far better things. Overall, this is such a chill album and really lives up to the brand of being cool. (Edited)
When I was a budding Sax player in High School, I was handed sheet music to Boplicity and it opened my world musically to so many things I wasn't ready for at the time. Not Miles' best work, by a mile, but still a necessary listen when following the history of Jazz. (Edited)
I think this is the earliest released album in my record collection. As stated by many others, cool and smooth. Not surprisingly, it does sound a little outdated, even in relation to his 60's work. (Edited)
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