West-Coast-Jazz

When West Coast jazz is considered a form of jazz music that developed in California during the 1950s. It is generally not taken as a style of its own, but as a special, first regionally characterized variant of the cool jazz.

As in written around 1950 in New York City Cool Jazz from the 1952 produced on the West Coast music was more arranged and based on stand-alone compositions. Some of the West Coast jazz was associated with white jazz musicians from the Hollywood film studios and was considered authentic than other forms of jazz with some critics, such as Hugues Panassie than less. However, the West Coast jazz was based not on a racial segregation. Already in one of his earliest groups, the Gerry Mulligan Quartet from 1952, also African-American musicians were involved. Besides Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Bud Shank, Bill Perkins, Bob Cooper, Jimmy Giuffre, Shelly Manne, Bill Holman, Manny Albam and André Previn have African-American musicians such as Curtis Counce, Chico Hamilton, Hampton Hawes, Red Callender or Buddy Collette essential done. Sometimes, although this is to be geographically limited voices, Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond expected due to the catchiness of their game to the West Coast.

Most musicians of the West Coast jazz had university and conservatory studies behind. They saw their music primarily as an art, ie as listening music and pushed the aspect of a danceable music even further back than in bebop. Terms such as " understatement ", " relaxed", poetry and restraint characterize the game ideal of his representatives. Although composition as improvisation belonged to an intellectual understanding of art, but clearly based on catchiness and singability as for example, the abstract lines of the Tristano school. However, it rejected a part of jazz criticism from, to look at the West Coast jazz as a distinct style, since no real stylistic innovation were associated with him, the musicians also partially on bop -oriented and the term priority of marketing ( as a counterweight to served on the East Coast hard bop incurred ).

In particular, the activity of record label as Pacific Jazz Records, Contemporary Records, this had developed outside the jazz metropolis of New York playing position was known. Already on the covers of records associations were awakened to beach, vacation, fresh air here. Jazz was provided here in the trend with the image casual recreational music.