1950-ish - the fragmentation of jazz styles.
BAM! All of a sudden, out of bebop we have an almost instant splintering of jazz. I will delve into each emergent style in turn: cool, hard bop, modal, bossa/latin, free....
So...here you go:
Cool.
The cool school emerged from bebop in the late 1940s - predominantly white musicians from California emigrated to New York (thus the alternative 'west coast jazz' moniker). Drawing on the harmonic and melodic developments of bebop, but shunning the virtuosic ferocity, cool jazz was just that: cool.
Miles Davis' early years were founded during the bebop era - Charlie Parker took the young Miles under his wing, but Davis would soon come into his own. beginning his career as a pioneer of virtually every stylistic development from 1950 onwards. With the
Birth of the Cool recording sessions (1949-50) Miles solidified the emerging tack that would be 'cool jazz'. The Birth of the Cool style nonet was unconventional in it's instrumentation - incorporating tuba and french horn for their subtle timbral nuances. Composers Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and John Lewis discovering a 'cool' new sound within.
Instrumentally, musicians tended towards a more 'pure' sound, avoiding harsh attacks, or jarring use of extreme range or dynamics - preferring a more fluid approach; exemplified by the technique of Lee Konitz or Warne Marsh. [watch the video below].
Influential instrumentalists:- Chet Baker - one of the coolest cats of all, known early on for his good looks and super-cool tone, both on trumpet and as a vocalist. Also, a poster child for the ravages of substance abuse, looks like hell from the 1960s on, and he died by 'falling' out of a Paris hotel window.
- Bob Brookmeyer - valve trombonist and composer, went on to write exceptional stuff for the Thad Jones band.
- Dave Brubeck - led the band that produced the hit 'Take 5' (penned by saxophonist Paul Desmond). The ensemble exemplified the 'cool' image.
- Gil Evans - composer whose work with Miles are amongst the best ever recordings. Sketches of Spain, Miles Ahead, and their adaptation of Porgy & Bess denote Evans as a composer with great skill for merging orchestral techniques with jazz vocabulary.
- Chico Hamilton - a drummer who worked with Ellington and Basie as well as Mulligan was a leader of the third-stream/'chamber jazz' movement.
- John Lewis (& The Modern Jazz Quartet) - another composer who helped refine the 'cool' sound; participated in the BOTC sessions, and as a member of the MJQ.
- Lee Konitz - a Tristano disciple whose smooth, liquid alto technique was worlds removed from the biting sounds of Bird and bebop.
- Warne Marsh - another Tristano student who, along with Konitz was heavily influenced by Lester Young.
- Gerry Mulligan - baritone saxophonist, one of the great writers of cooler music - penned many charts for the Miles nonet, as well as many of his own projects.
It is in cool jazz that we start to see the emergence of 'third stream' (fusion of classical and jazz influences) - see
Jimmy Giuffre and
Gunther Schuller.
So, listen and watch....
[Youtubey goodness]
[Listening excerpts] *available for a limited time only*
- Miles Davis - Jeru (from Birth of the Cool)
- Miles Davis - It's Only A Paper Moon (from Dig)
- Chet Baker - Everything Happens To Me (from Live in Paris)
I expect many of you are thinking - this doesn't sound any different than that bebop nonsense. Well, maybe - but try
listening, there's a lot that's changed in the approach, sound, delivery, vocabulary....
