West Coast jazz

noun

1. cool jazz.

West Coast jazz

noun

1. a type of cool jazz displaying a soft intimate sound, regular rhythms, and a tendency to incorporate academic classical devices into jazz, such as fugue

Word History and Origins

Origin of West Coast jazz¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

Inspired by the West Coast jazz of Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and others, Mr. Lyra brought a relaxed sophistication to his work, as well as an exacting standard for musical precision.

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Few places hold as much importance in Los Angeles’ black history as Central Avenue, the birthplace of the West Coast jazz scene and a magnet for those leaving the South seeking a better life.

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“He created the visual reality of West coast jazz, a whole new way to picture the art.”

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Before he fell into the nascent Southern California punk-rock scene in the late 1970s, Mr. Lockett had been performing, recording and writing about jazz for a local newspaper in Hermosa Beach, home of the Lighthouse, a nightclub long considered a mecca of West Coast jazz.

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Not famous-famous, but not exactly B-listers either: She wrote a memorable 2014 Harper’s essay on troubled West Coast jazz saxophonist Art Pepper and a 2019 quasi-biography of ‘70s scenester-author Eve Babitz, “Hollywood’s Eve.”

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