HISTORY OF JAZZ
Part 5: Cool Jazz
Ted Gioia, one of the writers who has given
significant attention to cool jazz, writes "The cool
aesthetic has always found a few lonely champions in the
jazz arena--fascinating individuals who have provided an
alternative to the dominant hot stylists. As such, the stand
as double outsiders in the already counterculture world
of jazz." The very term "cool jazz" conjures
up images of martinis, bachelor pads outfitted with the
latest stereo equipment, and sophisticated, detached chicks
dressed in the latest fashions. The word cool denotes a
detachment, a less emotional approach to the music. In short,
cool jazz is something of a college-educated form of jazz,
often influenced by other musical forms such as classical
music. Cool jazz features arrangements that are generally
more complex than those found in bop, where the head is
played, followed by solos, then played again. Often complex
harmonies were played behind the solos in cool jazz--it
was much more a style that emphasized the composer and arranger.
The first 'cool' jazz recordings were by a
nonet (or nine piece) group led by Miles Davis and recorded
on a group of sides that came to be known as The Birth
of the Cool (a title that was applied after
the fact, by the way). The Davis group was more collaborative
and marked some of the first influences of composer/arranger
Gil Evans, who later worked with Davis on a groundbreaking
group of albums that sought to combine delicate, complex
arrangements with improvisation. In addition, baritone saxophonist
Gerry Mulligan, who later became a major player in cool
jazz on the West Coast, also played on the Birth of the
Cool sessions, as did John Lewis, a pianist whose approach
was certainly cerebral in nature. The instrumental voices
in the Davis nonet were fused in such a way as to make them
all equals rather than competing sections like those of
a big band. More tonal colors worked their way into the
palette as well, with French Horns and tuba being added.
These were musicians who were well grounded in bebop, having
come up playing this style, so it is not a question of their
possessing virtuosity. Rather, they chose to express themselves
in a way that left the technical virtuosity that was obvious
in bebop behind. The Birth of the Cool nonet was
not commercially successful and their recorded sides were
few. Recent CD releases have combined the total studio output
of the group with a live radio broadcast from the Royal
Roost to collect virtually all of the group's recorded music
under the "Birth of the Cool" title, but at the
time there was no real sense that the group had recorded
a large or even unified body of work. Nonetheless, their
music became highly influential as the various members who
had contributed to the nonet spread out and began to lead
their own ensembles.
Gerry Mulligan's piano-less quartet, featuring
trumpet player Chet Baker, certainly did much to increase
the profile and popularity of cool jazz. Mulligan and Baker
played counterpoint around and against each other's lines,
sounding more like a relaxed version of a Bach fugue than
contrapuntal New Orleans jazz. The space opened up by the
lack of piano or guitar not only helped further define the
cool sound as a basically minimalist style, it also left
considerable room for Mulligan and Baker to solo in a relaxed,
unhurried style. The group recorded many well-regarded sides.
When Baker left the group, Mulligan brought in trumpeter
Art Farmer, a supremely lyrical improvisor who also played
off well against Mulligan's baritone sax. Baker continued
to play the cool style right up until his death in 1988,
sometimes offering world-weary vocals that seemed like extensions
of his trumpet sound.
The Lighthouse, a club located in Hermosa
Beach, CA, became the focus of the cool school in California,
with musicians such as Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne, Bud
Shank, and Jimmy Giuffre holding forth almost nightly. The
music they created still sounds relatively new and innovational,
which is quite an accomplishment considering most of it
was created in the mid-50s.
Very little cool jazz produced through the
end of the '50s and into the 1960s is strictly cool, but
it all has recognizable elements that link the different
practioners of the sound together. For example, Dave Brubeck's
work, while retaining many elements of the cool movement,
is often very agitated, searching, and experimental. His
quartet's work with "odd" time signatures opened
the door for late-'60s experimenters like Don Ellis and
Brubeck's piano work has sometimes been described as "bombastic"
by jazz critics.But the quartet also featured alto saxophonist
Paul Desmond, who played every bit as lyrically as Chet
Baker or Lee Konitz and had a gorgeous, thin sound that
went against what any alto player has done before or since.
An intellectual and talented wordsmith, Desmond became,
in many ways, the perfect example of a cool jazz artist--cerebral,
clever, humorous, and with a penchant for good scotch and
dating models. Brubeck, too, came across as an intellectual
and something of an avant-gardist because of the fact that
he had studied with composer Darius Milhaud. The group's
music is anything but an exercise in intellectualism, though--with
drummer Joe Morello and bassist Eugene Wright, the group
could swing fiercely in any time signature.
Pianist John Lewis, who had also played on
the Birth of the Cool sessions, formed The Modern
Jazz Quartet (or MJQ) with vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist
Percy Heath, and drummer Connie Kay (who replaced original
drummer Kenny Clarke). Lewis was clearly interested in exploring
new forms with the group, frustrated by the bop format of
theme (head), followed by improvisation (solos), and a final
repeat of the head. He was interested in composing music
that utilized more elaborate (and frequently classical)
structures--the sonata, for example--within which bop-style
improvisation would remain an important ingredient. This
led many purists to complain that he had fallen under the
sway of European (read: white) influences and that what
the group was playing was not, essentially, jazz. Nonetheless,
many of Lewis' compositions, such as 'Django' have become
part of the standard jazz repertoire, performed by a variety
of artists. In 1953, Lewis earned a Master's degree in Music
Theory from the Manhattan School of Music, and led the MJQ
as pianist and musical director until they disbanded in
1974.
Lee Konitz, another Birth of the Cool
graduate, is the other major player in the cool school
of jazz, along with his cohorts pianist Lenny Tristano and
tenor man Warne Marsh. While their music was highly complex
and often beautiful, it never really caught on with the
public at large the way that the Mulligan and Brubeck Quartets
and the MJQ did. They recorded some very interesting and
significant albums for Atlantic Records in the '50s, but
their music has generally been judged as too cold and distant,
too abstract and lacking in emotion even for most cool jazz
fans.
Though some would class the Brazilian-influenced
recordings of Stan Getz as cool jazz, they really belong
to a completely different class of music, although they
do share some of the characteristics associated with the
cool school. Nonetheless, by the time these recordings were
being made, cool jazz was, in effect, already dead. It certainly
didn't disappear as an inspiration, and the recordings of
the Davis nonet, the Brubeck Quartet, the Mulligan groups,
and the Modern Jazz Quartet have remained among the best
selling jazz works of all time. The meditative sound of
cool jazz certainly inspired many later musicians, both
inside and outside of jazz, including many artists who record
for ECM Records and Miles Davis' own In A Silent Way.
>>HARD
BOP | <<BACK
