Part 7, cool jazz
That of ‘cool jazz’ is a label that the protagonists themselves have often rejected. It is difficult to draw the boundaries, but we can recognise certain characteristics of this current: cool jazz is less frenzied than bebop, it seeks a classicism and essentiality that early bebop did not have.
We have placed in this area musicians who actually contributed to this new sound, such as Gerry Mulligan and Gil Evans, but also musicians who share with cool jazz a sophisticated, searching, or at least more modern attitude than 1940s jazz. Here, then, is the list of tracks we have placed in the Cool Jazz section.
- John Lewis, Django (1953)
- Chet Baker, Easy To Love (1953)
- Lennie Tristano, Line Up (1955)
- Jay Jay Johnson, Solar (1956)
- Miles Davis, Boplicity (1957)
- Art Pepper, Straight Life (1957)
- Dave Brubeck, Take Five (1961)
- Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby (1961)
- Stan Getz, A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square (1961)
- Gerry Mulligan, Line For Lions (1964)
- Paul Desmond, A Taste Of Honey (1965)