Birth of the Cool is an LP released in 1957 by Capitol Records in the USA, collecting eleven of the sides recorded by the nonet featuring Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan and others in 1949 and 1950. Gil Evans, although he contributed one chart to the sessions acted as eminence grise to a group of musicians who had met in his small New York apartment above a Chinese laundry. The group performed live only briefly at the Royal Roost Club in New York.

The LP is considered seminal because it launched a reaction to the prominent bebop form in modern jazz. Though the break can be exaggerated (Charlie Parker participated in the discussions Evans led) it inspired a whole school of jazz musicians, particularly in California, usually referred to as the cool school.