America in the 1950’s
Economic Stability and Prosperity
z Cold war tensions
z Baby Boomers
z Racial awareness and Tension
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Jazz Appreciation
Week 10 - “Cool Jazz”
White Flight
After WWII, many whites began to move
away from inner core cities to newer
suburban communities
z The three main reasons for white flight:
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1. Overcrowding in big cities as a result of
industrialization
2. Escape escalating racial tensions
3. Threat of nuclear warfare
Cool Jazz
The 50’
50’s witnessed the development of
many Jazz subsub-styles
z Associated with the West Coast because
many of its practitioners were based out of
Los Angeles
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Characteristics of Cool Jazz
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More emphasis placed on arrangements
More contrapuntal writing with lush dense textures
More musical restraint
More space
More lyricism
Use of odd meters
Use of subtle dynamics
Slightly larger ensembles
Odd combinations of instruments
Experimentation with regards to extended form –
borrowed elements of classical music
Third Stream
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Merging of Jazz with elements of
European Classical music to form a
unique new language
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“Birth of the Cool”
Cool”
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Important Figures in Cool Jazz
Series of recordings made by Miles Davis’
Davis’s Nonet for Capitol records
between the years 1949 – 1950
Featured 3 rhythm players (piano, bass and drums) and a very unusual
unusual
combination of 6 horns (Tuba
(Tuba,, French horn,
horn, Baritone Sax, Alto Sax,
Trombone and Trumpet) No Tenor Sax
Initially released as individually on 78’
78’s and released later (1957) as a
compilation titled, “The Birth of Cool”
Cool”
The music was primarily arranged by Gil Evans and featured unusual
unusual
rhythmic meters in addition to lush orchestration and limited improvisation
improvisation
(“Moon Dreams”
Dreams” was entirely composed – no improvisation)
Jazz Critic Nat Hentoff had this to say about the influence of the Birth of
Cool recordings: “These records were comparable in their impact on a new
generation of jazz musicians to the Louis Armstrong Hot Five and Hot
Seven records of the 1920’
1920’s, some of the Duke Ellington and Basie records
of the Thirties, and the records make by Parker and his associates
associates in the
early and middle Forties.”
Forties.” (Martins pg. 207)
Chet Baker
(1929 – 1988)
Trumpet
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Chet Baker was tall and photogenic and was
considered for several leading movie roles
He played with soft, delicate touch that was
similar to Miles Davis sound and dramatically
different from the big brassy sound of Dizzy
Gillespie
Like Charlie Parker he had a lifelong heroine
addiction and was arrested on drug charges
many times throughout his life
Gerry Mulligan – Baritone Sax / Composer / Arranger
(b. New York 1927 – 1996)
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Saxophone
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Integral part of the “Birth of the Cool”
Cool” recording
sessions
Mulligan’
Mulligan’s playing was less more complicated
than the Bop style
He played with a soft, light tone quality, which is
notable because his instrument (the bari sax)
has the ability to create very deep dark sounds
He preferred smoother rhythms that were more
predictable than any of the bop artists
Avoided double timing
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Alto Sax
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Paul Desmond
Piano
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Lee Konitz
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Art Pepper
Odd Meter Examples:
Dave Brubeck (b. 1920) –
One of the commercially most successful
jazz musicians of the 50’
50’s and 60’
60’s
z Played his most important role a composer
and band leader
z Brubeck was especially interested in
Classical forms and unusual meters
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1. Take Five –
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2. Blue Rondo Ala Turk – combines elements of three cultures
as the name suggests:
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Blue – refers to the strain which incorporates the 12 bar blues
in addition to blues notes and phrasing
Rondo – refers to the strains which incorporate the classical
form of a “Rondo”
Rondo” – ABACAD etc.
Turk – refers to the use of a Turkish sounding melody in a
Turkish meter (9/8)
Middle Eastern and Eastern European musicians think about meter
quite commonly in groups of 2’
2’s and 3’
3’s
By combining these groups of 2’
2’s and 3’
3’s in various configurations
composers can get by Western standards very unusual feeling
meters
Ex. – 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 = 11
Lennie Tristano –
Influential mostly as a pedagogue
z Made all of his students learn many of
Young’
Young’s solos note for note and taught
them to improvise in the style of J.S.
Bach
z Very complex composer
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