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Part II: Jazz Greats and Great Jazz: An Evolutionary Riff
Shelly Manne
The best of the California cool drummers during the 1950s and 1960s was
Manne (1920–1984) who used his influence as a bandleader and owned the
famous Shelly’s Manne-Hole jazz club. Manne had enough technique and
showmanship to become the centerpiece of a band, but he also used his sensitivity
to create empathetic background rhythms for great soloists. He was
equally important as a drummer who could propel a small or large band and
perform flamboyant solos.
The Modern Jazz Quartet
Although not based on the West Coast, the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ)
played brainy, cool jazz with heavy classical leanings. In essence, the Quartet
was a traveling jazz chamber ensemble, in which classically trained pianist
John Lewis used intricate compositions and arrangements to take jazz in
directions as formal as classical music. Their prime years were the 1950s and
early 1960s, but they regrouped in the 1980s (See Chapter 8 for more about
this band).
Gerry Mulligan
Probably no one in jazz has done more with a baritone saxophone. Born in
New York, Mulligan (1927–1996) became a founding father of cool jazz,
through his participation in Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool (Capitol): he
played and contributed several arrangements (although Gil Evans is mistakenly
thought to have arranged the whole album).
By playing minimal melodic lines on baritone, Mulligan added a deep, dreamy
mood to cool jazz, as well as to sessions with swing-era stars including saxophonist
Ben Webster, and bebop pianist Thelonious Monk.
Art Pepper
Dark currents in Pepper’s cool, sometimes fragmented bop mirrored the ups
and downs of a tough life that included drug addition. Art Pepper (1925–1982)
was a California native and part of L.A.’s vital 1940s and 1950s scene. He
played in orchestras led by Benny Carter (I cover him in Chapter 6) and Stan
Kenton.
Shorty Rogers
Rogers (1924–1994) played a vital part in the Los Angeles cool jazz scene.
Shorty Rogers and His Giants (their CD has the same name) had a changing
lineup that sometimes expanded to nine players and showcased Rogers’
trumpet as well as his skill as an arranger. Roger composed cool-jazz scores
for the films The Wild One (with Marlon Brando) and The Man with the Golden
Arm (with Frank Sinatra).