West Coast jazz

West Coast jazz refers to styles of jazz that developed in the American West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a subgenre of cool jazz,

Background#

Before World War II, the west coast of the U.S. hosted a bustling music scene, though its activity remained largely localized. In 1917, Jelly Roll Morton moved to California and remained in Los Angeles until 1922, when he left for Chicago. Kid Ory formed a band in Los Angeles after moving to California in 1919. In 1944, Norman Granz began staging Jazz at the Philharmonic shows at Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, a thriving jazz scene had appeared along Los Angeles’s Central Avenue, featuring Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Teddy Edwards, Charles Mingus, and Buddy Collette. Central Avenue’s activity rivaled that of the earlier Kansas City jazz scene, but at the time it was little-known outside Los Angeles.

Development#

In 1949–1950 baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan participated in the Miles Davis band, contributing arrangements to the recordings that became Birth of the Cool (1957). In 1952 Mulligan, who had moved to California, formed an innovative and successful piano-less quartet with trumpeter Chet Baker, drummer Chico Hamilton, and bassist Bob Whitlock. Bob Rusch concurs: The West coast sound perhaps didn’t have the gravitas that the East coast had, but, after all, these were Californians enjoying the sun and the surf and the extent that celebrity offered itself through the studio work that the entertainment industry was offering. So I think, you know, you think of California as sun and surf, you think of New York City as cement and grit, and the music somewhat reflected that. One better than the other? Depends what you want. During the 1950s, Chico Hamilton led an ensemble that (unusual 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” were well-suited for this style of music. Pianist Marl Young recalled that in 1950, as far as I knew, there were no blacks working regularly in the industry, especially on the networks – ABC, CBS and NBC. Estelle Edson asked me if the fact that the Musicians Unions were segregated contributed to the scarcity of blacks in the industry. It certainly could have been a contributing factor in that all the contracts for employment of musicians in the broadcast and motion picture studios were negotiated by the then all-white union, Local 47. The black union, Local 767, merely adopted the scales negotiated by Local 47, if and when a black musician got a studio call. Young, who also held a law degree, worked with Local 767 musicians (including Buddy Collette, Red Callender, and Benny Carter) along with Local 47 members (including Roger Segure) to integrate the union. Josephine Baker supported the local integration effort.

California Hard#

Although West Coast jazz is often compared to the cool style, Los Angeles musicians locally known as “hard swingers” “blew bop as tough as anything emerging out of Detroit and New York….” In later years, their music was known as “California Hard.” Roy Carr notes that this is not surprising. By the late 1940s, the Central Avenue scene had the most bebop musicians outside New York. In the 1950s, Max Roach and Clifford Brown, Shelly Manne, and Curtis Counce established harder-sounding bands in Los Angeles.

Sound#

West Coast jazz sometimes featured a rhythm section that omitted the use of a piano, guitar, or any chordal instrument, tending to a more open and freer sound, as exemplified by the Gerry Mulligan collection The Original Quartet with Chet Baker (Blue Note, 1998). Another characteristic is the inclusion of non-standard jazz instruments such as the French horn and tuba. Gil Evans’s arrangement on the Birth of the Cool album featured these instruments at a time when the West Coast style was emerging.

Reception#

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 jazz”, 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.” However, African American musicians played in the style, including Curtis Counce, John Lewis, Chico Hamilton, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Buddy Collette, Red Callender, Harold Land, Eugene Wright and Hampton Hawes.

Sources#

Gioia, Ted. West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California 1945-1960 (Oxford University Press, 1992)
Gordon, Robert. Jazz West Coast: The Los Angeles Jazz Scene of the 1950s (Quartet Books, 1986)

Films#

*2005: Jazz on the West Coast: The Lighthouse (RoseKing Productions, Kenneth Koenig)

Genre family: Jazz genres
Region: California