Birth Of The Cool
by Miles Davis

Birth Of The Cool by Miles Davis
(Compilation album)
Year: 1957
Overall rank: 684th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 477 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 5 albums of 1957 (5th)
Award Top 20 albums of of the 1950s (19th)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (684th)

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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 20,950.

Miles Davis album bestography « Higher ranked (429th)
Sketches Of Spain
This album (684th)
Birth Of The Cool
Lower ranked (936th) »
'Round About Midnight

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Birth Of The Cool track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Birth Of The Cool rankings

Birth Of The Cool rankings summary
Overall rank: 684th | 1950s rank: 19th | 1957 rank: 5th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)

Birth Of The Cool collection

Birth Of The Cool ratings

Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 477 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
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).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 3 ratings for this album.  | Show all 477 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
100/100
 !
08/26/2026 02:17 Rfiga1  Ratings distribution  295/100
 
70/100
 !
07/18/2026 00:02 xhitmanx  Ratings distribution  1,60475/100
 
85/100
 !
07/12/2026 18:45 liquidbottle  Ratings distribution  77582/100

Rating metrics: Help 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.


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Birth Of The Cool favourites

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Forum mentions

This album has been referenced 36 times on the forums, Explore the wider forum discussion to see what members have said about it.
From Rhyner 07/20/2026 17:39 in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
What album are you listening to? (cont.)
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From BestEverAlbums 07/02/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5361): By deadhouse
Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by ) 1. by (1970) 2. by by (1965) 4. (1980) 5. by by (1967) 7. by (1959) 8. by by (1985) 10. by (1967) 12. by (1971) 13. by (1959) 14. by (1970) 15. by (1968) 16. by by (1979) 19. by (1966) 20. by (1969) 21. by (1960) 22. by (1959) 23. by…
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From BestEverAlbums 06/26/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5355): By Santiago
Today's chart of the day Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by ) 1. by (1968) 2. by (1984) 3. by (1971) 4. by (1970) 5. by (1969) 6. by by by (1974) 9. by by (1959) 11. by by (1959) 13. (1977) 14. by (1959) 15. by (1965) 16. by (1973) 17. by by (1979) 19. by (1972) 20. by (2010) 21. by (1965) 22. by…
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Birth Of The Cool comments

Showing latest 5 comments | Show all 17 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
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Rating:  
65/100
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)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 06/29/2022 18:49 | #286827
Fascinating, unique arrangements both in instrumentation and composition. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
65/100
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)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
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)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 02/03/2021 00:59 | #265638
yeah well I'm the second coming
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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