10/14/2018 Outline • What is cool jazz? • Biography of Paul Desmond Jazz as Cool Module 16 of Music: Under the Hood • Take Five John Hooker Carnegie Mellon University Osher Course October 2018 1 2 Cool Jazz Cool Jazz • Contrast with bebop • Contrast with bebop – Arose in 1940s – Fast and complex • Followed swing style, which was popular for dancing • Heavily improvised with complex chord changes • Jazz “for musicians” • Melody referenced only at beginning and end. • Continued through 1950s Thelonious Monk Charlie Dizzy Gillespie Parker 3 Bud Powell 4 Cool Jazz Cool Jazz • A postwar development • A postwar development – Lighter tone – “West Coast” jazz • More carefully arranged • More subtle • Elements of classical music • Accepts nonstandard rhythms • Built on swing-era jazz, • Learns from other forms such as Count Basie’s music of music Count Basie Dave Brubeck Chet Baker Miles Davis 5 6 1 10/14/2018 Biography Biography • Paul Desmond, 1924-1977 • Early career – Born Paul Emil Breitenfeld – Hired Dave Brubeck after WWII • In San Francisco • Cut his pay in half and later fired him. • Father was pianist & composer • Brubeck held a grudge and wouldn’t let Desmond • Mother was emotionally unstable in his house. • Sent to New York City to live with relatives • Due to problems at home • Learned to play violin, clarinet, sax. Paul Desmond 7 8 Biography Biography • Early career • Dave Brubeck Quartet – Hired Dave Brubeck after WWII – Desmond played sax in the quartet • Cut his pay in half and later fired him. – Became most successful jazz combo of the day • Brubeck held a grudge and wouldn’t let Desmond • Played worldwide in his house. • Brubeck & Desmond – Later sought a job with Brubeck became close friends • Arrived while Brubeck was • Opposite personalities, out back hanging baby but musically attuned. clothes on line. • Dave’s wife Iola let him in. • Brubeck finally relented after Desmond agreed to babysit his kids. 9 10 Biography Take Five • Personal life • Famous for 5/4 meter – Well-read, witty, sophisticated – Brubeck asked members of his quartet to write – Many girlfriends, no stable pieces in various meters relationships • Desmond was assigned 5/4. – Heavy cigarette & alcohol • Jazz standard addiction – Best-selling jazz single • Succumbed to lung cancer, of all time age 53. – Quartet’s most famous song. 11 12 2 10/14/2018 Take Five • Some characteristics – Melody in blues scale Audio file (resume 6:26) • C - E♭ - F - G♭ - G - B♭ - C – Two-chord piano vamp – Unusual drum part – It is definitely cool . 13 3.