Cool jazz

Characteristics#

Cool jazz emerged as a reaction to bop, and is characterized by more moderate tempos and “a more reflective attitude”. Ted Gioia and Lee Konitz have each identified cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer as early progenitors of the cool aesthetic in jazz. Gioia cites Beiderbecke’s softening of jazz’s strong rhythmic impact in favor of maintaining melodic flow, while also employing complex techniques such as unusual harmonies and whole tone scales. Trumbauer, through “his smooth and seemingly effortless saxophone work,” greatly affected tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who prefigured – and influenced – cool jazz more than any other musician. Young’s saxophone playing employed a light sound, in contrast to the “full-bodied” approach of players such as Coleman Hawkins. Young also had a tendency to play behind the beat, instead of driving it. He more strongly emphasized melodic development in his improvisation, rather than “hot” phrases or chord changes. While Young’s style initially alienated some observers, the cool school embraced it. (Young would also influence bebop through Charlie Parker’s emulation of Young’s playing style.) Tanner, Gerow, and Megill point out that “cool developed gradually, as did previous styles.” In addition to Lester Young’s approach, cool had other antecedents:

History#

Cool jazz emerged in the 1940s. Its stylistic origins can be traced to Claude Thornhill’s big band, which utilized clarinets, French horns, and tubas. In 1947, Woody Herman formed a band that included tenor saxophonists Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Herbie Steward, and baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff. The Miles Davis Nonet’s existence was brief, consisting only of a two-week September 1948 engagement at the Manhattan’s Royal Roost and the three recording dates that make up Birth of the Cool. These recordings were not widely appreciated until some years later. However, they prefigured the work of nonet members John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan. John Lewis went on to co-found the Modern Jazz Quartet, who incorporated classical forms, such as the fugue, in their music. Tanner, Gerow, and Megill note that the Quartet “played classical forms quite precisely. For example, the fugues they played were truly baroque in form except that the exposition parts were improvised.” While third stream music would combine classical elements with jazz, the Modern Jazz Quartet used these forms “just to play good, swinging, subtle jazz” and in pursuit of “the joy of collective improvisation and counterpoint.” Gerry Mulligan, with Chet Baker, formed a pianoless quartet that was both innovative and successful. Later, Mulligan formed a “Tentette” that further developed the ideas he had brought to the Birth of the Cool nonet. George Shearing’s quintet, which used a more subtle bebop style, also influenced cool’s development. Both Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie praised Shearing’s approach. While Davis, Lewis, Mulligan, and Shearing’s efforts were rooted in bebop, other musicians were less indebted to that style. In New York, pianist Lennie Tristano and saxophonist Lee Konitz developed a “somewhat atonal cerebral alternative to bop which concentrated on linear improvisation and interweaving rhythmic complexities”. In California, Dave Brubeck hired alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, forming a quartet. Both Konitz and Desmond used an approach that ran counter to bebop, in the sense that neither player employed a sound or style heavily indebted to Charlie Parker (or Parker’s blues elements). In a 2013 interview, Konitz noted that “the blues never connected with me,” and further explained “I knew and loved Charlie Parker and copied his bebop solos like everyone else. But I didn’t want to sound like him. So I used almost no vibrato and played mostly in the higher register. That’s the heart of my sound.”

West Coast jazz#

In 1951, Stan Kenton disbanded his Innovations Orchestra in Los Angeles. Many of the musicians, some of whom had also played in Woody Herman’s band, chose to remain in California. Trumpeter Shorty Rogers and drummer Shelly Manne were central figures among this group of musicians. Much of this activity centered on the Hermosa Beach Lighthouse Café, where bassist Howard Rumsey led a house band, the Lighthouse All-Stars. Drummer Chico Hamilton led an ensemble that – unusually for a jazz group – included a cellist, Fred Katz. Tanner, Gerow, and Megill liken Hamilton’s music to chamber music, and have noted that Hamilton’s “subtle rhythmic control and use of different drum pitches and timbres” was well-suited for this style of music. Tanner, Gerow, and Megill are largely dismissive of the term “West Coast jazz.” As it often refers to Gerry Mulligan and his associates in California, “west coast” merely becomes synonymous with “cool,” although Lester Young, Claude Thornhill, and Miles Davis were based in New York. At the same time, many musicians associated with West Coast jazz “were much more involved in a hotter approach to jazz. Communication being what it is, it is hardly likely that any style of jazz was fostered exclusively in one area.”

Legacy#

In 1959, The Dave Brubeck Quartet recorded Time Out, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard “Pop Albums” chart. The cool influence stretches into such later developments as bossa nova, modal jazz (especially in the form of Davis’s Kind of Blue (1959)), and even free jazz (in the form of Jimmy Giuffre’s 1961–1962 trio). Following their work on Birth of the Cool, Miles Davis and Gil Evans would again collaborate on albums such as Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain. Some observers saw the subsequent hard bop style as a response to cool and West Coast jazz. Conversely, David H. Rosenthal sees the development of hard bop as a response to both a perceived decline in bebop and the rise of rhythm and blues. Shelly Manne suggested that cool jazz and hard bop simply reflected their respective geographic environments: the relaxed cool jazz style reflected a more relaxed lifestyle in California, while driving bop typified the New York scene. Ted Gioia has noted that some of the artists associated with the ECM label during the 1970s are direct stylistic heirs of cool jazz. While these musicians may not sound similar to earlier cool artists, they share the same values: clarity of expression; subtlety of meaning; a willingness to depart from the standard rhythms of hot jazz and learn from other genres of music; a preference for emotion rather than mere emoting; progressive ambitions and a tendency to experiment; above all, a dislike for bombast. Gioia also identifies cool’s influence upon other idioms, such as new-age, minimalism, pop, folk, and world music. Cool also inspired avant-garde jazz and, later, free jazz.

See also#

• Chamber jazz
• List of cool jazz and West Coast jazz musicians
• List of jazz genres

Further reading#

• MacAdams, Lewis, Birth of the Cool: Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant-Garde, Simon and Schuster, 2001.

External links#

• A History of Cool Jazz in 100 Tracks , edited by Ted Gioia (Jazz.com)
• Forever Cool: Cool and West Coast Jazz on the Internet
• The Birth of the Cool 1927, by Len Weinstock.
• Origins of Cool Jazz (Pacific Jazz) - Mosaic Records