Birth of Uncool

You are at your most uncool now age spotted, raggedy, not giving a shit, saucy, insouciant, real, crackly and juicy at once. —from "Crackly and juicy" Birth of the Cool, a compilation album by jazz great Miles Davis, was released in 1957, the year before I was born. That album defined "cool jazz": elegant, distant, hip, and stylish. Davis and his eight comusicians made it all look so easy. From the time I was very young, I was trying to be as cool as Davis's jazz: aloof, intellectual, desired, m