Jazz Notes VIII

We had discussed the "Bebop" jazz style in the last post and we had traveled back to mid 1940s. Until that period it was a bit easier to differentiate the jazz styles along the timeline. However as it was the case in our rapidly changing planet after the World War II, things started to become more intertwined and so did the jazz styles. From this post and on, it might be a good idea to forget about the chronological order of things and concentrate more on the 5W1H, as the great English writer Rudyard Kipling has put it in his famous "Just So Stories", a childrens' book.

I keep six honest serving-men

They taught me all I knew;

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

Cool Jazz & West Coast & Hard Bop:

It is not too easy to classify and characterize "cool jazz" as a sui generis jazz form. It is rather a feeling or an approach and a combination of various forms. We can argue that it arose as a reaction to Bebop which was too fast, complex and not too easy to listen to by the average music lover.
Was it on a mission to re-popularize jazz? I am not sure, but it is a fact that with the fine examples of cool jazz, people who had fled during the Bebop period, started to come back to jazz. "Cool jazz" was the new cool especially in the "West Coast" of USA, that also became a sub-genre later.

We said it was a reaction to Bebop but in what ways? 

• Bebop was hot, whereas cool jazz is cool (the term "cool" as musical term was first used by Capitol Records with their 1953 compilation album called "Classics in Jazz:Cool and Quiet")
• Cool jazz was mostly performed via written arrangements and solo improvisation whereas Bebop was nearly all improvisation
• Instrumentation is wider in cool jazz, in bebop it is relatively limited
• Bebop was a more intense and loud form and harmonically had a complex structure compared to a more melodic, relaxed and softer cool jazz
• Cool can be considered as a turning back to mainstream whereas Bebop was completely the opposite
• Bebop reflected the complexity and the hectic style of the East Coast (basically New York), where cool jazz represented the laid back style of sunny California
• It can be a bit flashy, but bebop was African-American whereas cool jazz was white

As you can notice from the above main differences, it is difficult to differentiate both forms in a purely musical perspective like we had done with the earlier jazz styles. But now, the distinctions have to be analyzed based on mood, feelings and perceptions. American society was changing after the War and cool jazz was quite parallel with this. People were less eager to express their feelings and emotions but rather bring their intellects more and more into the equation. The values and the attitudes of the society led a similar change in the entertainment business. A shift from night clubs,jazz clubs and dancing parlors to TV had also big impacts. 

As it is challenging to name one recording or one band as the originator of cool jazz, we can maybe argue that Woody Herman Band with Stan Getz and Zoot Zims in 1947 and Miles Davis Nonet with Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz and arranger Gil Evans, gave the first examples of this style (without knowing the name of the style)...

Miles Davis Nonet recorded some pieces and published on 78 rpm records in 1949 and 1950. These pieces were much later (i.e. 1957) compiled to an album: "Birth of the Cool". At that time Miles had said that he wanted to play softer in order to be more expressive.

Following these bands and recordings came the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lennie Tristano, Chet Baker, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Jimmy Giuffre and Shelly Manne.

"Jeru" from the Birth of the Cool (composed by Gerry Mulligan)

"Moonlight in Vermont" Johnny Smith with Stan Getz

Gerry Mulligan, once a part of Miles Davis' Nonet during the recordings of the "Birth of the Cool", moved to California in 1952 and formed a new band with Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton and Bob Whitlock. This piano-less band can be treated as the innovator of the West Coast style. After that in 1959 came the huge success of Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond with "Take Five". It is is probably the best selling jazz single ever. By that time jazz was again under the spotlight of the American people.

"Take Five" Dave Brubeck & Paul Desmond (composition)

On the other side of the continent, East Coast musicians, especially the African Americans who were still suffering from racism, poor civil rights, social and economic conditions, could never embrace the style. Their answer to "cool jazz" was "hardbop"...They believed that jazz was starting to mix with European classical music, meaning moving farther away from the blues. They insisted that the jazz they wanted to perform should be nourishing from bebop, blues, gospel and R&B.

Jazz historians agree that hard bop is originated by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' "Hard Bop" album in 1957.

"Cranky Spanky" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

Following that, many great artists such as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Clifford Jordan, Cannonball Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis(yes you can see find him in all jazz styles), Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson, Wes Montgomery and many many more made incredibly well hard bop recordings.

"Blue Train" by John Coltrane

As I mentioned in the first paragraphs, starting from the late 1940s and with the beginning of the 1950s, jazz styles started to mingle with each other leaving behind the clear cut differentiating characteristics. 

Maybe that was the main reason why the next generation had already started to sow the seeds of "Free Jazz"...