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Jazz 101 : Cool Jazz
by Buzz Lamb
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Trumpeter Miles Davis is credited with the birth of "Cool Jazz". In the decade of the 1950s modern jazz quartets and quintets incorporated elements of classical music called "the third stream". This jazz used simpler harmonies, an emphasis on rhythm, easily recognizable tunes and anything else that would increase the audience's involvement and pleasure. "Cool Jazz" avoided roughness and brassiness. The nine-piece band that Davis recorded in 1949 and 1950 became known as the "Birth of Cool" band. The group consisted of three hornsmen; trumpet, alto-sax and baritone sax. All employed lightweight tonal qualities and subdued effects. Davis also used the standard rhythm section of piano, drums and bass but he added something unusual...french horn, tuba and trombone. The absence of a tenor sax and a guitar in the group created an overall effect that was much more subdued that the sounds of the Big Bands of the 1930s and the 1940s. For this reason the sound was eventually referred to as "cool jazz".
Miles Davis actually had four important groups during the decade of the 1950's. The first featured John Coltrane and, according to Mark Gridley (author of Concise Guide to Jazz), is arguably the single greatest jazz group ever. The Miles Davis Quintet played muted ballads and employed the hardest-swinging rhythm section in the business. "Workin'...Steamin'...Relaxin'...and Cookin'" was the signature style of this group.
The second important Davis group is the one that recorded the album Kind of Blue. The primary style of this group was called modal, as it relied on songs written around simple scales or modes that often last for many measures each, as opposed to the quickly changing complex harmonies of the "Bebop" derived styles heard in the 1940s.
The third Davis group was actually called the Gil Evans Orchestra with whom he recorded several classic albums including Sketches of Spain. The fourth important Davis group of this period included Wayne Shorter on sax, Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums. Early recordings of this group included Live at the Plugged Nickel and My Funny Valentine.
"Bebop" tenor saxophonist John Coltrane evolved to become another giant of this period. In addition to playing with Davis, he recorded the album Giant Steps under his own name which, according to jazz historian Murray Pfeiffer, showed him to be one of the most technically gifted and harmonically balanced players around. Coltrane had a unique talent for replacing chord changes in standard pop tunes and for using the modal style mentioned earlier.
Pianist Dave Brubeck led probably the best know of all "Cool Jazz" groups. The rhythmic feeling in a lot of Brubeck's playing has similarities to classical music yet he was not a classical pianist. Instead he just stayed away from sounding like the "Bebop" bands of the 1940's. His popularity in the 1950's was probably due to his "classical" sound and the fact that his compositions were simple and tuneful.
Brubeck's album Time Out included a funky and engaging tune called Take Five whose accompaniment included a simple, repeated rhythm in the meter of five. Almost 50 years after it was recorded people are still asking jazz groups to play it. The Dave Brubeck Quartet was among the first groups in jazz popular enough that they could tour regularly as concert artists. They appeared on college campuses and in recital halls that prior had only presented classical music. Brubeck, who turned 88 years old in December, 2008 was interviewed live (by telephone) on Stu Grant's Sunday Jazz Brunch program on Nov. 2, 2008.
The end of World War II relaxed people again and the musical groups evolved constantly during the decade of the 50's. Cool Jazz groups tended to be smaller and less structured than the Bebop groups prevalent during the war years thus giving more freedom to the individual players. John Coltrane's strong influence on Cool Jazz near the end of the decade morphed into the next style of jazz known as Hard Bop.
The next installment of Jazz 101 will take a look at a second wave of Bebop players who made their mark in the 1960's
