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 1967-1977

• 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-