Cool jazz is a type of modern jazz music that began in the United States after World War II. It was influenced by bebop and big band styles. Cool jazz has slower and calmer beats compared to the fast and complicated bebop style. It often uses structured compositions and includes parts of classical music. This type of jazz includes several styles from after World War II that are more calm and less intense than other jazz styles at the time. Paul Tanner, Maurice Gerow, and David Megill said that the sounds of cool jazz musicians are like soft colors, while the solos of Dizzy Gillespie and his group are like bright red colors.
The word "cool" was used to describe this music around 1953, when Capitol Records released the album Classics in Jazz: Cool and Quiet. Mark C. Gridley, who wrote in the All Music Guide to Jazz, identified four overlapping types of cool jazz.
Characteristics
Cool jazz developed as a response to bop, featuring slower and calmer tempos and a more thoughtful style. Ted Gioia and Lee Konitz both named cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer as early examples of the cool jazz style. Gioia notes that Beiderbecke softened the strong rhythmic energy of jazz, focusing instead on smooth melodies and using advanced techniques like unusual harmonies and whole tone scales. Trumbauer's smooth and effortless saxophone playing greatly influenced tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who more than any other musician helped shape the cool jazz style.
Young's saxophone playing used a light and delicate sound, unlike the rich and full sound of players like Coleman Hawkins. He often played slightly behind the beat rather than leading it. His improvisations focused more on developing melodies than on fast, energetic phrases or complex chord progressions. Although some people found Young's style unusual at first, the cool jazz movement accepted and valued it. (Young also influenced bebop through Charlie Parker's imitation of his playing.) Tanner, Gerow, and Megill explain that "cool jazz developed slowly, just like earlier styles." In addition to Lester Young's approach, cool jazz had other earlier influences.
History
Cool jazz began in the 1940s. It started with the music of Claude Thornhill's big band, which used clarinets, French horns, and tubas.
In 1947, Woody Herman created a band that included saxophonists Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Herbie Steward, and Serge Chaloff. This group became known for the "Four Brothers" sound, where four musicians could both play together as a group and also perform individually. Jimmy Giuffre wrote the song "Four Brothers," which showed how well the group worked together. The Herman band's recording of "Early Autumn" helped start Stan Getz's career. At the same time, between 1946 and 1949, Gerry Mulligan, Gil Evans, and Lee Konitz worked for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. This orchestra had French horns and tubas in its music.
In 1948, Miles Davis formed a group of nine musicians, including Mulligan, Konitz, and Evans. Capitol Records recorded this group in 1949 and 1950, after being suggested by Pete Rugolo. These recordings, first released as 78 rpm records, were later collected into an album called Birth of the Cool in 1957. Gerry Mulligan said the goal of Miles Davis's group was not to move away from bebop but to create a small band that could rehearse and write music together. Miles Davis wanted the group to play with a softer, more expressive sound. His choice of notes showed careful thought rather than loud energy.
The Miles Davis Nonet existed for a short time, including a two-week performance in September 1948 at the Royal Roost in Manhattan and the recordings that make up Birth of the Cool. These recordings were not widely noticed until later. However, they influenced the work of group members John Lewis and Gerry Mulligan.
John Lewis later helped start the Modern Jazz Quartet, which used classical music forms like fugues in their songs. The Quartet played classical forms very carefully, with improvised parts in their fugues. While third stream music mixed classical and jazz elements, the Quartet used classical forms to play jazz that was "good, swinging, and subtle," focusing on shared improvisation and counterpoint.
Gerry Mulligan formed a pianoless quartet with Chet Baker, which was both creative and successful. Later, Mulligan created a "Tentette" that expanded on the ideas from the Birth of the Cool recordings.
George Shearing's quintet, which used a more subtle bebop style, also helped shape cool jazz. Both Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie praised Shearing's music.
While Davis, Lewis, Mulligan, and Shearing's work was based on bebop, other musicians had different influences. In New York, pianist Lennie Tristano and saxophonist Lee Konitz developed a style that was not based on bebop. This style focused on linear improvisation and complex rhythms. In California, Dave Brubeck hired saxophonist Paul Desmond to form a quartet. Both Konitz and Desmond played in a way that was not heavily influenced by Charlie Parker or bebop's blues elements. In a 2013 interview, Konitz said, "The blues never connected with me. I loved Charlie Parker and copied his bebop solos, but I didn’t want to sound like him. I used little vibrato and played mostly in the higher register. That's the heart of my sound."
West Coast jazz
In 1951, Stan Kenton ended his Innovations Orchestra in Los Angeles. Many of the musicians, some of whom had also played in Woody Herman's band, decided to stay in California. Trumpeter Shorty Rogers and drummer Shelly Manne were important members of this group. Much of their musical activity happened at the Hermosa Beach Lighthouse Café, where bassist Howard Rumsey led a house band called the Lighthouse All-Stars.
Drummer Chico Hamilton led a group that was unusual for a jazz ensemble because it included a cellist named Fred Katz. Tanner, Gerow, and Megill compared Hamilton's music to chamber music, noting that his careful control of rhythm and use of different drum sounds were well-suited for this style.
Tanner, Gerow, and Megill do not agree with the term "West Coast jazz." This term is often linked to Gerry Mulligan and his California colleagues, making "West Coast" mean the same as "cool." However, musicians like Lester Young, Claude Thornhill, and Miles Davis were based in New York. At the same time, many musicians connected to West Coast jazz were more involved in a style of jazz that was more energetic. Communication being what it is, it is unlikely that any style of jazz developed only in one place.
Legacy
In 1959, The Dave Brubeck Quartet recorded an album called Time Out, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard "Pop Albums" chart. The cool style influenced later types of music, such as bossa nova, modal jazz (especially in the album Kind of Blue by Miles Davis in 1959), and even free jazz (as seen in the work of Jimmy Giuffre’s trio from 1961 to 1962).
After their work on Birth of the Cool, Miles Davis and Gil Evans worked together again on albums like Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain.
Some people believed the hard bop style that followed was a reaction to cool and West Coast jazz. However, David H. Rosenthal argued that hard bop developed because of a decline in bebop and the growing popularity of rhythm and blues. Shelly Manne suggested that cool jazz and hard bop reflected the different lifestyles of their regions: cool jazz’s calm style matched the relaxed lifestyle in California, while hard bop’s energetic style reflected the fast-paced New York scene.
Ted Gioia noted that some musicians on the ECM label in the 1970s were direct followers of cool jazz. Though these artists may not sound like earlier cool musicians, they shared the same musical values.
Gioia also pointed out that cool jazz influenced other types of music, such as new-age, minimalism, pop, folk, and world music. Cool jazz also inspired avant-garde jazz and, later, free jazz.