can of worms time re: cool / west coast jazz

the west coast cool vibe thing was it's own thing and it could be very cool indeed. i like a lot of that stuff. not so much the desmondbrubecktjader stuff though. i have very little time for dave brubeck. blah.

― scott seward, Wednesday, January 14, 2009 3:21 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

I don't think they deserve to be lumped together. I think Desmond is a way more legit and enjoyable musician than Brubeck. I mean Time Out is an undeniable record, but it's largely because of Desmond and Morello, and also it just SOUNDS so fucking good. I get frothy at the mouth when people swoon over Brubeck as though he's god's gift to jazz, but I'm more mad at people's tin ears and (I think) latent racism than I am at Brubeck. But he's just such a terrible, stiff pianist -- painful to listen to at times.

Cal Tjader is just fun. I have no complaints about him.

i just got smack up by art pepper on vinyl

a superb album

not all that "cool" though

i wasn't really slamming tjader and desmond as musicians. it's just that that end of things is so ubiquitous in my thrift shop world, so i blame them for their ubiquitousness. i blame it on the bossa nova.

i don't think i've ever heard anyone swoon over brubeck before! thank god. i'd hit them over the head and give them a bill evans record or something if i did.

i do hold onto a copy of brubeck's gates of justice for novelty value.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510l3VCqfTL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Time for a new screen name.

SOOOO into Shorty Rogers right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_SvhoMokI8

just got this book in the mail

http://www.ocma.net/img/413_Birth-of-the-Cool-Cover.JPG

it has a big chapter on the aesthetic of cool / west coast jazz album covers, maybe i'll post a couple of tidbits if it's any good

why the fuck can't I find any substantial big band cool from 1952?!

let's see, mulligan left the miles cool sessions to work on the chubby jackson big band later in 1950, then created the new stars in 1951.

shorty rogers did his superb "modern sounds" sides in 1951.

1953 had shorty's giants, wild one sdtk, stan kenton's "New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm", Gene Norman's commision of the Gerry Mulligan Tentet, and multiple projects by The Dave Pell Octet. Hell, even Clifford Brown had a nonet that year, and Tadd Dameron was still doing his "big ten" thing that ran alongside Miles' initial project.

Ceratinly SOMETHING was recorded in this vein in 1952.

is Gerry Mulligan worth investigating

He arranged most of Birth of the Cool, so I'd say yes. Try a couple albums out!

that '59 album he did with Ben Webster is definitely worth investigating, not heard much else.

i don't have a ton of his stuff, but I really enjoy this one
https://img.discogs.com/-ulMF9pOhQkW1DwrTjseFjle-JQ=/fit-in/600x598/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-639802-1141987385.jpeg.jpg

yeah primarily curious about the Baker stuff

he doesn't seem to get much respect these days

https://londonjazzcollector.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/mg_3476.jpg
this one is an absolute gem imo

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mRM0IG68ycc/hqdefault.jpg

lousy album cover but a top quality work of the genre. And it is led by John Lewis (not the civil rights activist who passed yesterday obv) of modern jazz quartet who is criminally underrated imo.

Very nice, thanks!

This is a useful thread ... I wish some of the album recommendations were not obscured by broken image links

In 1961, while at a federal prison hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, Hawes was watching President Kennedy's inaugural speech on television, and became convinced that Kennedy would pardon him.[5] With help from inside and outside the prison, Hawes submitted an official request for a presidential pardon.[5] In an almost miraculous turn, in August 1963, Kennedy granted Hawes Executive Clemency, the 42nd of only 43 such pardons given in the final year of Kennedy's presidency.[5]

"cool" revive

what was he in for??

10 years just for using heroin. Arrested on his 30th birthday. They hoped he would flip on his suppliers. Even though he was eventually (miraculously) pardoned he still spent 5 years in prison. Just for using! He died 13 years later.

It was mentioned upthread but seriously, if you haven't read Hawes' autobiography, Raise Up Off Me, it's one of the greatest books on jazz (and junk) ever — half Miles's autobiography, half The Basketball Diaries.

I wrote about Hawes last year. All the albums mentioned in that piece are amazing.

ahh thank you for the link

Curtis Fuller/Hampton Hawes w/ French Horns is another good one. It seems a miracle that any black jazz musicians with heroin habits managed to survive the 50's/60's. If the habit wasn't going to kill them, the cops would be more than happy to lend a hand (or a club) to the grim reaper.

was going to post "wow the 50s were fucked" but it occurred to me there are probably ppl in california currently serving longer sentences for simple possession of crack cocaine