COOL JAZZ
• Just as BeBop contrasted from Swing, Cool Jazz
will contrasted similarly from BeBop
• Cool Jazz steps away from the fiery and
aggressive playing style of Bop to that of
understatement.
• Individual voices in the band yielded somewhat
back to compositional design
• Cool bands were typically larger groups than
Bop groups but not a larger as Big Bands
• Some usually instruments for Jazz such as the
cello found their way into Cool ensembles.
COOL JAZZ
• Cool players were not limited to the arrangment
styles of BeBop and Big Band.
• Cool players would often solo a few measures
into the next chorus before someone else took
over…..creating a continuous flow
• Long-play or (LP) records were accepted by
1950 enabling longer solos to take shape as well.
• Cool players used less attack than preceding eras
• They also played in the middle registers rather
than the extreme registers of the respective
instruments
COOL JAZZ
THE SOUNDS OF COOL
• Many instruments were used that were not
common in Jazz.
• Two main new instruments were…
• The Flute & The Flugelhorn
• The Flute: was popularized by players such as Paul
Horn, Buddy Collette & Herbie Mann
• *YOUTUBE – Herbie Mann
• The Flugelhorn: worked its way into Jazz by way of
Miles Davis, Clark Terry, and Art Farmer
• *YOUTUBE – Art Farmer
COOL JAZZ
THE SOUNDS OF COOL
• Cool Players also established that Jazz need not
be confined to 4/4 & 2/4 meters.
• Interest arose for the use of Poly-Rhythms.
• Pianist Dave Brubeck was exceptional good at
laying one rhythm or more over another.
•
• *YOUTUBE – Dave Brubeck –Take Five
COOL JAZZ
THE SOUNDS OF COOL
• Cool music also moved closer to classical by….
• By playing classical music in a jazz setting
• *YOUTUBE – Swinging Bach
•
•
•
•
adopting some classical forms such as…
THE RONDO – ABACADABA
SONATA FORM
THE FUGUE, ect…..
COOL JAZZ
THE SOUNDS OF COOL
• THE FUGUE - Mostly found on organ and
harpsichord in the Baroque era 1600-1750
• polyphonic piece
• top line soprano
• bottom line bass other voices vary in between
• based around main theme called SUBJECT
• *YOUTUBE – How to write a fugue
• *YOUTUBE – Little David’s Fugue
COOL JAZZ
COOL BANDS
• Cool Jazz developed slowly like most other styles
• There were hints of it in early swing and BeBop
solo’s by Benny Goodman, the young Miles Davis
with Charlie Parker’s band, John Lewis on Dizzy
Gillespie’s record of “Round Midnight” ect…
• Lester Young was the first established player to
play in the Cool style and prove that it could still
swing.
• Two large bands at the end of the 1940’s seem to
have a different direction that would be influential
to the beginnings of Cool.
COOL JAZZ
COOL BANDS
• WOODY HERMAN
• Bandleader who always seemed to make personnel
changes to keep his band up-to-date
• Out of a new incarnation in 1947 came the “Four
Brothers” sax section consisting of 3 Tenors & a Bari
• Blended section proved that good individual
improvisers could coordinate well.
• Stan Getz launched his Cool Jazz career from this band
• *YOUTUBE – FOUR BROTHERS
• *YOUTUBE – STAN GETZ
COOL JAZZ
COOL BANDS
• CLAUDE THORNHILL
• This group employed a tuba and French Horn players,
quite unusual for the time
• Also, this band contained a nucleus of players that
would see the first records made by trumpeter Miles
Davis and pianist Gil Evans.
• While in Thornhill’s band they put together a smaller
rehearsal band with no more intention than just playing
more expression music.
• A series of recordings would come out of this which
would eventually become the ground breaking record
THE BIRTH OF THE COOL
COOL JAZZ
PERFORMERS
• MILES DAVIS & GIL EVANS
• Inspiration for much of Cool Jazz came out of the
experimentation of a NYC group centered around Gil
Evan’s compositions
• Gerry Mulligan was featured on Bari Sax
• More focus was gained when Miles Davis joined the
group and got them into the recording studio
• The result Birth of the Cool
• Much like Bop these musicians were consciously
moving in a new direction
• The arrangements were underspoken with harmonic
color over complexity
COOL JAZZ
PERFORMERS
• MILES DAVIS & GIL EVANS
• Cool music was as much associated with the arranger as
it was the soloist (combination of Big Band and Bop)
• The success of Birth of the Cool allowed for other
Evans/Davis arrangement-based recordings including
Sketches of Spain
• The Evans/Davis relationship was beneficial to both in
moving themselves and the experimental format to
greater recognition.
•
*YOUTUBE – Miles and Gil – Blues for Pablo (not on birth but same era)
• LISTENING JOURNAL:
• MILES DAVIS W/ GIL EVANS ORCHESTRA-SUMMERTIME
•
*YOUTUBE – COOL JAZZ pt1 (DVD Risk 55:50-1:06:50)
COOL JAZZ
WEST COAST JAZZ
• During the late 1940’s Cool had migrated and was
also being developed on the West Coast by….
• Saxophonist - Jimmy Giuffre
• Trumpeter – Shorty Rodgers
• Drummer – Shelly Manne
• Bassist – Howard Rumsey
• All former members of Stan Kenton’s Band
• These former members organized Sunday concerts
at The Lighthouse at Hermosa Beach in 1948
• The club by 1950 had become part of the
definition of West Coast Jazz.
COOL JAZZ
WEST COAST JAZZ
• The two geographic regions of Cool Jazz…….
• East Coast and West Coast were often more
publicized by the media than by the players..
• Mainly because the West Coast Players tended to
be white and East Coast players tended to be black
• The Players themselves were more concerned with
the music and often played music outside of the
“COOL” label
COOL JAZZ
WEST COAST JAZZ
• West Coast Cool Jazz artist often worked in the
traditions of Duke Ellington of composition and
improv
• Pianist Dave Brubeck who played a major role in
the West Coast movement in-bodied this.
• Dave Brubeck’s album TIME OUT with the
classic tune called TAKE FIVE was the first Jazz
Lp album to sell over a million copies
COOL JAZZ
WEST COAST JAZZ
• Also joining the West Coasters was Saxophonist
Gerry Mulligan who had played on The Birth of
the Cool.
• He along with trumpeter Chet Baker formed a
group that also illustrated Cool Jazz’s balance
between composition and improv.
COOL JAZZ
WEST COAST JAZZ
• Most of the West Coaster Jazz musicians also
made income by working in Hollywood studios
recording movie soundtracks.
• Playing these carefully arranged pieces regularly
most likely had an influence on these players as
well
• **YOUTUBE – COOL JAZZ (DVD Risk
1:32:58- 1:40:19
COOL JAZZ
THIRD STREAM
• Music in often metaphorically referred to as
following streams that split from each other to
follow different paths.
• However music streams are often influenced by
other streams around them and do not exist in
individual vacuums.
• The terms CROSSOVER and FUSION are not
new to music but became prevalent in Jazz in the
late 1950’s to 1970’s as other forms such as Rock
& Roll open new doors for Jazz to travel through.
COOL JAZZ
THIRD STREAM
• The degree of crossover from other music styles &
the direction it moves influence any new style.
• Crossover can be one sided in that one stream takes
on much on the other but does not export back.
• More equal fusion can occur as well.
• Third Stream Jazz continues to borrow from the
classical but classical does not often make use of
Jazz influences.
COOL JAZZ
THIRD STREAM
• Third Stream Jazz can be considered an extension
of the Cool compositional style.
• The link between Cool and Third Stream is often
associated with Gunter Schuller, who
participated with Miles Davis on The Birth of the
Cool record.
• In fact Gunter Schuller and one other writer
John S. Wilson are usually credited with
inventing the phrase to describe this new
movement.
COOL JAZZ
THIRD STREAM
•
•
•
•
Gunter Schuller
French Horn player with NYC Metropolitan Opera
Composed both Classical & Third Stream
Directory of New England Conservatory 19671977
• Employed much of his classical training into
writing Third Stream music
COOL JAZZ
THIRD STREAM
• Third Stream shares both instrumental sound and
instrumental variety of Cool Jazz
• The Instruments are played with stricter technique
resembling classical symphonic players rather than looser
Jazz technique…less vibrato, more precise tone, etc..
• Uses more classical forms such as the fugue, canon, theme
& variation, etc.. Instead of typical head/solo/head Jazz
form.
• Third Stream returns to Polyphonic music
• Use of polytonal and polymodal Techniques
COOL JAZZ
THIRD STREAM
• During the late 1950’s, The Modern Jazz Quartet proved
to be a pivotal group between Cool & Third Stream
• Pianist John Lewis’s classical training can be heard
through out their music.
• He uses certain mixtures of such things as Renaissance
sounding Brass and his own improvisational techniques to
create his own Third Stream blend.
• LISTENING JOURNAL:
• MODERN JAZZ QUARTET
• DJANGO
• DVD RISK 1:10:15 -1:12:25
• *****On CD and YOUTUBE
• Miles Davis DVD #10 46:20-