What Got You Into West Coast Jazz?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Staccato was Elmer Bernstein. There was a Capitol LP that was briefly on CD.

77SS was by Warren Barker. Conte may have been involved; all those cats were.

Oh, I had a 45 - it may have been 'Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb' or another 77SS cut, with a band led by Conte Candoli on the B side.

MG

[Big Beat Steve]

"Fake West Coast Jazz - ha, a funny categorization ... though not that far off the mark.

OTOH, seems to speaks a lot for WCJ if this immediately brings up an image and atmosphere that matches the West Coast settings in general ...

Speaking of which ...

@TTK:

No doubt you know the "Wild One" soundtrack recorded by Short Rogers for RCA inside out.

But what about the same tunes (plus a few in the same vein but not really part of the original soundtrack) recorded by the "Leith Stevens All Stars" for Decca? (Featuring Rogers, Bernhart, Shank, Cooper, Giuffre, Freeman, Smith and Manne as well as other WCJ stars)?

Or the soundtrack of "Hot Rod Rumble" recorded for Liberty by a band including Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Dave Pell, Pete Candoli, Ray Linn, Frank Rosolino, Herb Geller, Barney Kessel, Claude Williamson, Shelly Manne et al?

[T.D.]

I got into WCJ via the Counce group (probably the biggest eye-opener), Hampton Hawes and Barney Kessel. Subsequently expanded to many others, notably Manne. +1 on Ted Gioia's book (I checked it out on intra-library loan) I also really dig Art Pepper's Straight Life and Hawes's Raise Up Off Me, though those books are not specifically "WCJ". Kudos as well to the great recording engineer Roy DuNann (Contemporary)!

[Larry Kart]

Bud Shank with a water pistol (I thought it was the real thing). Also, Bob Enevoldson was standing nearby with an angry Alaskan Husky.

[paul secor]

Bought a Gerry Mulligan Pacific Jazz compilation in late 1962 - included tracks with Chet Baker, Bob Brookmeyer, Annie Ross, among others. At the time, I was just getting started listening to jazz and it was all one thing to me - didn't know it was "West Coast Jazz". Eventually, I found my way to Art Pepper, Jimmy Giuffre, more Chet Baker, Carl Perkins, Harold Land, and many others. Mr. Mulligan more or less fell by the wayside of my listening.

And, I guess, for a time Ornette was "West Coast Jazz".

[Teasing the Korean]

"Fake West Coast Jazz - ha, a funny categorization ... though not that far off the mark.

OTOH, seems to speaks a lot for WCJ if this immediately brings up an image and atmosphere that matches the West Coast settings in general ...

Speaking of which ...

@TTK:

No doubt you know the "Wild One" soundtrack recorded by Short Rogers for RCA inside out.

But what about the same tunes (plus a few in the same vein but not really part of the original soundtrack) recorded by the "Leith Stevens All Stars" for Decca? (Featuring Rogers, Bernhart, Shank, Cooper, Giuffre, Freeman, Smith and Manne as well as other WCJ stars)?

Or the soundtrack of "Hot Rod Rumble" recorded for Liberty by a band including Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Dave Pell, Pete Candoli, Ray Linn, Frank Rosolino, Herb Geller, Barney Kessel, Claude Williamson, Shelly Manne et al?

Yes, I have both the Shorty Rogers "Wild One" EP (reissued on the "Short Stops" collection) and the Leith Stevens Decca album. I love both of these. Brilliant.

I have heard tracks from "Hot Rod Rumble" on internet radio shows. I had a reissue LP in my hands sometime in the late 1990s. It was only $9.99, but I was feeling broke and I passed. Still kicking myself.

"Hot Rod Rumble" is by Sandy Courage, later known as Alexander Courage, composer of the "Star Trek" theme, which nicely reflects Les Baxter's exotica. Nowhere near as brilliant, but in a similar bag. Courage also scored some of the early episodes, such as "The Cage" (The Menagerie) and "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

[Quasimado]

Art Pepper with Hampton Hawes on Discovery - the early days with a tinge of Lester

Q

[JSngry]

What you want is the Aaron Bell 77 Sunset Strip album. That's Fake Fake West Coast Jazz!

As for how I got into it, hell, my band director was a guy who did lounge gigs and stuff in L.A. in the late 40s-mid-50s, and this guy had records that he didn't listen to any more, so he brought them to school for us to listen to as/when/if we wanted to. Mulligan, Baker, Previn, etc., He had a John Towner record on Kapp that really bit, but apparently he knew Towner before he became John Williams (and this was before John Williams became JOHN WILLIAMS) I think the Pacific Jazz 10" referred to earlier was one of them - PJ LP2, with the Mulligan Baker quartet on one side, and Lee added on the other. Still a great record. Plus, the "stage band" thing of the time, we heard Kenton, and all the names therein. So, I didn't "get into it" nearly as much as it was handed to me.

But - the guy also had Ellington Indigos & Kind Of Blue. So, hey. One thing led to another.

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS RECORD IT SUCKS

THIS RECORD IS THE ANTI-SUCK RECORD

[Guy Berger]

Time Out was one of the first straight-ahead albums I ever got. But assuming we're excluding that, as well as stuff like Birth of the Cool, Way Out West, Mingus, Getz's West Coast Jazz, JImmy Giuffre's Free Fall and the MJQ, my first full-on encounter with this music was the Chico Hamilton Mosaic. After that I picked up the Mulligan/Baker 2CD set and a few Shelly Manne OJCs from the early 50s.

I like everything, or almost everything, I've heard from this scene, though I'll also admit few if any of these fall recordings fall into my "top top top favorites" list.

[sidewinder]

One of the first West Coast albums I heard was Shorty Rogers 'Clicking With Clax'. Released over here (first time I think) on Atlantic in the mid-70s and a suprising hit in terms of sales.

[BillF]

One of the first West Coast albums I heard was Shorty Rogers 'Clicking With Clax'. Released over here (first time I think) on Atlantic in the mid-70s and a suprising hit in terms of sales.

I bought it at the time together with others riding high on the Rogers boom - also saw Shorty with NYJO. More the 80s tho' IIRC.

[sidewinder]

One of the first West Coast albums I heard was Shorty Rogers 'Clicking With Clax'. Released over here (first time I think) on Atlantic in the mid-70s and a suprising hit in terms of sales.

I bought it at the time together with others riding high on the Rogers boom - also saw Shorty with NYJO. More the 80s tho' IIRC.

Yes, I remember that UK tour he did with them and various features in Jazz Journal (seem to remember that Steve Voce was a friend of his). Only sorry that I never got to see him play.

[Teasing the Korean]

Doe the John (Towner) Williams album really suck that bad? His contributions to the Peter Gunn album are very nice.

[JSngry]

As I remember it, yes. It was like kapp was looking for a slightly "jazzier" Roger Williams. But I've not heard it since 1971 or so,but all I remember is SUCK..

Again, what you really want to hear is the Aaron Bell 77 Sunset Strip album. Fake Fake Wext Coast Jazz!

[Big Beat Steve]

Yes, that Aaron Bell stuff is excellent for those "strip"-ish sounds and the atmosphere it brings to life.

But how West Coast-ish (fake or not) is that lineup of Seldon Powell, Ray Bryant, Keny Burrell, Eddie Costa and Oliver Jackson? Unless you equate movie scores with West Coast-ish sounds.

As for that Kapp LP 'John Towner Williams, I bought it (the Fresh Sound reissue LP) some time agao at a record shop clearance sale for a nominal sum and it is worth THAT, but not more. No desert island fare ... The uptempo tracks are OK and swing nicely but what sucks big time IMO are the strings (particularly in the slow tunes) as they turn the entire arrangements into tear-laden,syrupy molasses. Strings (if payed with bows and if they come in hordes) just have no place in jazz IMO.

Edited October 20, 2013 by Big Beat Steve

[Teasing the Korean]

I love strings in jazz and just about any genre. They are the most expressive instrument in the orchestra.

And, of course, I the Aaron Bell 77SS and Peter Gunn, what am I, an amateur?

Edited October 20, 2013 by Teasing the Korean

[Morganized]

I played around with Chet and Mulligan but my real entry, interest, and love for the West Coast sound started with that West Coast Classics series that Blue Note put out about 20 years ago. Wish they would reissue some of those. Great series.

Anyway, I picked up some of those and began noticing the players and got hooked.

Great stuff.

[shaft]

I love strings in jazz and just about any genre. They are the most expressive instrument in the orchestra.

And, of course, I the Aaron Bell 77SS and Peter Gunn, what am I, an amateur?

Aaron Bell 77 is really a trip - quite swingy!

[Teasing the Korean]

The crime/private eye knockoff albums will often contain at least one amazing track, sometimes a track from the original with a novel arrangement, or an "inspired by" track.

[ArtSalt]

One thing I've learned from this thread is that I need to get both the Gordon and Gioia books.

Ted Gioia's book is terrific Tom. It's the best jazz book I've come across.

Gordon's book is much more in-depth IMO, Gioia's book needs to be expanded in the next edition.

For me it was the 1993 CD boxset: Chet Baker, The Pacific Jazz Years.

That really turned me onto the West Coast sound, although back then, it was more difficult to research musicians.

[Big Beat Steve]

One thing I've learned from this thread is that I need to get both the Gordon and Gioia books.

Ted Gioia's book is terrific Tom. It's the best jazz book I've come across.

Gordon's book is much more in-depth IMO, Gioia's book needs to be expanded in the next edition.

For me it was the 1993 CD boxset: Chet Baker, The Pacific Jazz Years.

That really turned me onto the West Coast sound, although back then, it was more difficult to research musicians.

Disagreed to some extent.

I've read both, and while Gordon's book has a more detailed analysis of specific LPs/recordings and a more comprehensive guide to "suggested listening", Gioia's book IMHO manages better to transmit the background, context and feeling of that time and place in the context of the music so Gioia "fleshes out" the musical setting a bit more beyond the way it is experienced strictly through recordings and discographical listings.

So both have their strengths and complement each other, but when I want to read up on the context of WCJ as a sort of background to listening to the music, I find I reach for Gioia's book far more often. Particularly since if I am after comments on specific recordings I check Alain Tercinet's book which covers even MORE WCJ recordings (not always quite as detailed but it does cover more ground).

[DIS]

Wow! Cool jazz, hot topic indeed! My story's a little different.

I'm an easterner. It was Shorty Rogers who first transported me out west. This was in the day before his Big Band Express. I was midway through high school, suffering from an overdose of Glenn Miller and looking for some fresh music to play with a small group, and I happened to see an advertisement for a couple Shorty Rogers arrangements in Down Beat, "Morpo" and "Pirouette." I bought them and then bought the recording, a 45RPM album titled Shorty Rogers and His Giants. Yep. still have the charts, still have the recording.

In an effort to learn more about Shorty's arranging techniques, I reversed-engineered the parts and made a concert-pitch score. So that started me on a track of arranging.

The album itself sent me looking for more recordings by Shorty and his sidemen on this recording, among them Jimmy Giuffre, Milt Bernhart, Johnny Graas, Hampton Hawes, and Shelley Manne. Actually, I was greatly disappointed at first because I was unable to find anything by the exquisite alto player listed as Art Salt. It took me a few weeks to figure out that the performer whose recordings I should be looking for was actually Art Pepper. So all this was my introduction to jazz. I wouldn't know about Miles Davis or Charlie Parker or any of the cats performing closer to home for months, maybe years to come.

[Stefan Wood]

Two artists: Cal Tjader and Chico Hamilton.

[ElginThompson]

Not sure I qualify as into west coast jazz, but Mingus and Dolphy would be prime catalysts.

[BruceH]

I played around with Chet and Mulligan but my real entry, interest, and love for the West Coast sound started with that West Coast Classics series that Blue Note put out about 20 years ago. Wish they would reissue some of those. Great series.

Anyway, I picked up some of those and began noticing the players and got hooked.

Great stuff.

Similar story with me, though I was already an Art Pepper fan from way back.