West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960 by Ted Gioia


West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960
Title : West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0520217292
ISBN-10 : 9780520217294
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 428
Publication : First published May 14, 1992

From the Preface by Ted Gioia:All of these musicians fought their way back over the next decade, and their success in re-establishing themselves as important artists was perhaps the first signal, initially unrecognized as such, that a re-evaluation of the earlier West Coast scene was under way. Less fortunate than these few were West Coasters such as Sonny Criss, Harold Land, Curtis Counce, Carl Perkins, Lennie Niehaus, Roy Porter, Teddy Edwards, Gerald Wilson, and those others whose careers languished without achieving either a later revival or even an early brief taste of fame. Certainly some West Coast jazz players have been awarded a central place in jazz history, but invariably they have been those who, like Charles Mingus or Eric Dolphy, left California for Manhattan. Those who stayed behind were, for the most part, left behind. The time has come for a critical re-evaluation of this body of work. With more than forty years of perspective--since modern jazz came to California-we can perhaps now begin to make sense of the rich array of music presented there during those glory years. But to do so, we need to start almost from scratch. We need to throw away the stereotypes of West Coast jazz, reject the simplifications, catchphrases, and pigeonholings that have only confused the issue. So many discussions of the music have begun by asking, "What was West Coast jazz?"--as if some simple definition would answer all our questions. And when no simple answer emerged--how could it when the same critics asking the question could hardly agree on a definition of jazz itself?--this failure was brandished as grounds for dismissing the whole subject. My approach is different. I start with the music itself, the musicians themselves, the geography and social situation, the clubs and the culture. I tried to learn what they have to tell us, rather than regurgitate the dubious critical consensus of the last generation. Was West Coast jazz the last regional style or merely a marketing fad? Was there really ever any such thing as West Coast jazz? If so, was it better or worse than East Coast jazz? Such questions are not without merit, but they provide a poor start for a serious historical inquiry. I ask readers hoping for quick and easy answers to approach this work with an open mind and a modicum of patience. Generalizations will emerge; broader considerations will become increasingly clear; but only as we approach the close of this complex story, after we have let the music emerge in all its richness and diversity. By starting with some theory of West Coast jazz, we run the risk of seeing only what fits into our theory. Too many accounts of the music have fallen into just this trap. Instead, we need to see things with fresh eyes, hear the music again with fresh ears.

West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960 Reviews

  • Gary

    Great read, great resource for finding little heard of (lately) giants of jazz. I personally love this time period for jazz 1945-1960's.
    Pick this up and read while listening to Conte Condoli, Russ Freeman, Art Pepper and so many more.

    If you have Spotify or another similar path to music, you can just pop on the albums as they're covered.
    a very pleasurable exercise.

  • Tosh

    Superb documentation on Central Avenue life in the 1940s, as well as the personalities and sounds that came out of West Coast Jazz. Often regarded as "cool jazz," this was a remarkable period of California culture - as it produced brilliant music by such people as Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Charles Mingus, Shelley Manne and many others. Also the greats Miles Davis and Charlie Parker also made a dent in the Californian landscape as well.

    Ted Gioia's nerdy and obsessive research is an entertaining read. One is consistently, while reading the book, made to check out the music on a daily reading basis. A win-win situation. Clearly a jazz literature classic, with great bios on the musicians and nice analytical insight in specific albums made at that time. Great reference, and "West Coast Jazz" captures a beautiful series of moments in the sunshine land.

  • Sarah Paolantonio

    I started 2020 off with Ted Gioia’s The History of Jazz, Second Edition and here I am finishing the year with his volume West Coast Jazz. The History Of Jazz was originally published in 1997 but West Coast Jazz came out in 1992.

    West Coast Jazz is more focused and keeps to the 1940s and 1950s. While other artists and their influences are discussed in West Coast Jazz, Gioia found his structure that would shape The History Of Jazz. Focusing on one sound and the major players of it, each chapter delivers tidy biographies of the players: where they were born, their inspirations, how they got their chops, who they played with, etc. Both volumes rely on geography to explain and explore each player’s sound, methods, and recordings. It’s always location location location.

    If you’re looking to start out reading about jazz, The History of Jazz is more inclusive and covers all the subgenres within jazz. I’m glad I started there to get a detailed primer on the genre and it’s players big and small. West Coast Jazz called to me because I wanted to know what the difference was, or if there really was one, between “jazz” and “west coast jazz.” And there is. West Coast Jazz is defined by composition and arrangement, instead of the running free atmosphere of the most popular and well known genre of bebop (think Charlie Parker). But this book is so much more than that.

    Who I thought would be large players, the west coast jazz musicians I was most familiar with (Guaraldi, Tjader, and Mingus), only popped up briefly. The list of major west coast jazz players is long and delivered me a lot of music to explore: Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Dexter Gordon, Shorty Rogers, Hampton Hawes, Sonny Criss, Gerry Mulligan, Shelly Mann, and so many others.

    The chapter on Dave Brubeck, who I knew before I knew him because of "Take Five," illustrates the west coast jazz sound and style in one player. Brubeck was a trained pianist and used his composing and arrangements to popularize weird time signatures in jazz. Brubeck's Quartet made the infamous 1959 record Time Out (featuring "Take Five") that combined cool jazz and west coast jazz. But before the quartet, there was the Brubeck octet that toured colleges around the country. Brubeck's popularity grew because of these tours until "Take Five" cemented him as a big name in jazz to those unfamiliar with the genre. (Perhaps the biggest jazz crossover?) In addition to composition and arrangement, west coast jazz was famous for large bands (unrelated to swing and big band) playing bop, hard bop, and cool jazz. Many a nonet, octet, and so on define the sound of west coast jazz.

    I started a playlist to chronicle all the players mentioned in West Coast Jazz. It’s an ongoing project:
    https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Va.... But I’ve found myself focusing on a few records and a few artists. My favorite so far is Shorty Rogers and His Giants' 1956 LP, Martians, Come Back! So much of jazz is who played with who, when. The genre is a never ending Pandora's box of changing personnel and guest appearances. In addition to composition and arrangement being key to west coast jazz, the sound itself is more diverse with different instruments being accepted into play, like the clarinet and oboe, way past their heyday of big band and swing. Martians, Come Back! really exemplifies this featuring a large variety--french horn, tuba, flugelhorn, clarinet, valve trombone--among the regular suspects of trumpet, bass, guitar, piano, and alto sax.

    The jazz that happened out on the west coast was alienated from the nucleus of the jazz world in New York City. Bird and Miles went out west and inspired a lot of players (if not all of them). The big west coast players who “made it” (like Mingus and Chet Baker) went east specifically to get noticed. Even though the distance kept west coast jazz musicians hidden in a number of ways, it also allowed it to exist in its own sort of vacuum. Like being away at an artist’s retreat, the physical separation of the west coast in the 1940s and ‘50s let these players all find their own path as musicians. They even had their own labels (Fantasy and Contemporary among others). It made the west coast jazz players and their records more coveted and (almost) more secretive (not that they wanted it that way). You have to go looking for these records, within the jazz crate digging or you might not find them.

    I’ve been studying and reading about music for more than half my life. First as a fan, then as a radio DJ and music programmer, then as a student and writer, and now just for obsessive fun. I thought I had found everything there was about music. I knew jazz, or at least I thought I did. Ted Gioia’s books opened me up to musical discovery I didn’t know was still possible. Exploring a new genre in such depth brought me a lot of joy in this foul year of our lord, 2020. I almost exclusively listen to jazz and find myself in a never ending period of discovery. I’m nowhere near being able to recognize an artist by ear (except for the ones I started with: Parker, Miles, Mingus, Monk) but I have a whole lifetime ahead of me to figure out how to even do that.

    Reading West Coast Jazz taught me just how large the world of jazz is. I’m not sure rock has as many subgenres as jazz does. This gives me something new to contemplate. There are so many eras and decades of jazz that are all so different from each other. The same is true for rock and roll but now I will have to go on arguing this with myself. I read Gioia’s The History of Jazz around the same time I watched Ken Burns’ Country Music documentary series and it got me thinking--what came first? Jazz or Country? Both influenced each other greatly. Both started around the same time, in the same part of the country, by immigrants and by slaves. But now I have a second, larger question to contemplate whenever my mind isn’t buzzing about 'jazz or country?': could rock and roll possibly be as big as jazz?

  • Jon Patten

    I read this book as part of my research on a biography on guitarist Joe Pass, who was part of the Pacific Jazz heyday in the early 1960s. I was disappointed in the brief mention of Richard Bock and his Pacific Jazz label. Pacific Jazz contributed some excellent additions to the "West Coast jazz" oeuvre but the book seems more focused on providing biographical overviews of selected players and mentions of others.
    Past this quibble, however, West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in the history of jazz music. Gioia is a knowledgeable and skillful writer and the book is as full and complete as a Mingus composition.

  • Eric Hines

    A very good and much needed look at the West Coast scene of the 50s and early 60s. My one big objection is the way Gioia consistently avoids talking about the distinctiveness and commonalities between of some of the West Coast sounds in favor of an artist by artist concentration. Perhaps a needed corrective to years of common neglect, but there does seem to be something we ought to talk about as a "West Coast" approach to jazz.

  • Robert Stewart

    Important FYI: Only the Univ Calif edition has the photographs:
    West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960

    ...but a great book even without them.

  • Patricia Roberts-Miller

    It's almost too detailed to read like a normal book--it's essentially a series of enyclopedia entries. So, I enjoyed reading it, and I'll keep it as a reference, but it is not a book you read quickly.

    Gioia is skilled at explaining things in ways that even people with little musical knowledge can understand.

  • Paul Morris

    I've always loved the cooler jazz sounds that came out of California. Here's a solid overview of the major players and movements: Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker et al.

  • Tamsen

    Pretty dry and long list of what what recorded when by whom.