Jazz Jargon Cool Jazz

What is "cool jazz"? Nathaniel Banks (jazz trumpeter/Jazz Threads Co-chair/Director of the UIUC African American Cultural Program): "Cool jazz" was initially a response by Miles Davis to the bebop style of playing that featured virtuosity and flawless musical technique over substance. Miles decided that just as much, if not more, could be done with fewer well-placed notes. This resulted in a sound that was much more introspective and mellow than some of the flashier and congested pieces being played at that time. Jeff Helgesen (jazz trumpeter): The term "cool" has really lost its meaning over the years. "Cool" used to mean understated, stoic, refined, in control—cool like ice! So "cool jazz" was more cerebral and in control (not as jarring) as the wild big band and bebop music that was going on in the '40s. Now, when people use the word "cool," it really doesn't mean the same thing. Cool, isn't it? Chip McNeill (jazz saxophonist/UIUC Director of Jazz Studies): Cool jazz refers to a specific period and sound of jazz during that period. It was the mid to late 1950s and the sound/style was characterized by fewer notes, less harmonic structure, and more modal playing. Paul Wienke (local jazz promoter/WILL producer/co-founder of the CU Jazz & Blues Association): "Cool jazz" was an out-growth of bebop. After bebop got going, it broke into two schools of playing in the small band or combo format. The style that prevailed on the East Coast was called hard bop—more rhythmic and driving—much in the style of Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, and Horace Silver. The "cool school" was more West Coast-oriented and much more melodically based, in the style of players such as Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, and Miles Davis. These coasts and schools were not always hard and fast; there has certainly been intermingling and the crossover led to more experimental music such as that of John Lewis and even Ornette Coleman. Cecil Bridgewater (jazz trumpeter, educator, composer, arranger, producer): "Cool jazz" is something of a mix of West Coast meets East Coast styles of music, primarily presented by Miles Davis, Gil Evans, and a band that they put together on the album called Birth of the Cool that was recorded in the late 40s-early 50s. They included musicians from both coasts in the project. Down Beat's Jazz 101 by Ed Enright (www.downbeat.com, Jazz 101): The heat and urgency of bebop began to relax with the development of "cool jazz." Starting in the late 1940s and early '50s, musicians began to develop a less frantic, smoother approach toward improvising…. The result was a laid-back and even-keeled sound bearing a façade of emotionally detached "coolness." Trumpeter Miles Davis, one of the first bebop players to "cool it," emerged as the greatest innovator of the genre. His Birth of the Cool nonet recordings of 1949-50 are the epitome of "cool jazz" lyricism and understatement.