West Coast

The West Coast (or The Coast) was an established jazz center by the 1920s and the first black New Orleans-style band to make records, Kid Ory's did so in Los Angeles in 1922. But what is usually meant by West Coast jazz is a particular type of mutant modernism which became popular in the early 1940s.

Its most typical sounds were associated with former sidemen of the Stan Kenton and Woody Herman bands such as Shorty Rogers and Shelly Manne, who specialized in a brand of easily palatable filleted bebop. The melodies were especially rhythmic, predictability as much of their material was by superior soloists, people like Bud Shank and Art Pepper. The occasional use of European-style counterpoint and of instruments such as flute and oboe was greeted with more enthusiasm than seems justified in retrospect. Other, more distinctive, sounds from the groups of Gerry Mulligan and Dave Brubeck were classified for geographical reasons as West Coast jazz, but the movement as a whole is associated with a watering--down of 1940s bebop, just as European tradition of the 1950s diluted the 1940s New Orleans revival.

Probably more significant in terms of historical impact was the West Coast Blues movement of the late l940s and early 1950s. Groups such as those of Roy Milton and Joe Liggins provided a considerable input into the newly defined field of rhythm and-blues, while leaders such as T-Bone Walker incorporated the style of amplified guitar work that was to become so crucial in the development of rock and roll. During the 1960s, West Coast Jazz fit into the mold of the Cool style. Oleh:meltingpot.fortunecity