The eMusic Dozen: West Coast Jazz

In many ways, Wardell Gray (1929-1954) was the archetypical West Coast jazz musician. He was among the first musicians to exhibit a distinctive style that screamed California, and his tenor saxophone style combined the laconic grace of Lester Young with the acrobatic daring of Charlie Parker. A veteran of the Earl Hines, Benny Goodman and Count Basie big bands, the Oklahoma-born Gray also provided a transitional link between the swing era, the bop era, and the cool, as well as between the styles of the Midwest and the far west. The two-volume Memorial Album on Prestige contains some of Gray's choicest playing, although there are more alternate takes than a casual listener would probably wish to hear. There are no less than three alternates to Gray's most celebrated number, "Twisted," all of which are very different from the master take (also included, of course) that Annie Ross used as the basis for her famous lyrics.

Ironically, neither of the two musicians who established Los Angeles as a cutting-edge jazz scene at the start of the '50s &mdash Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker &mdash were either from California or stayed there for very long. But it was their remarkable "pianoless" quartet that caused a sensation in 1952, and, for the first time Los Angeles was recognized as a jazz scene unto itself &mdash something more than just another stop on the tour. In 1953, the enterprising deejay Gene Norman produced two classic sessions with Mulligan and Baker, one spotlighting the famous foursome playing mostly pop and modern jazz standards. Mulligan was clearly saving his compositional energies for the other date, which signified his first full-scale foray at leading his own big band, the Mulligan Tentette, which featured definitive arrangements of such classics as "Walkin' Shoes" and "Rocker," with Mulligan playing piano in addition to his usual baritone sax.

The Brooklyn-born trumpeter Shorty Rogers (1924-1994) arrived in Los Angeles after an apprenticeship with the big bands (Red Norvo, Woody Herman, Stan Kenton), but unlike Mulligan and Baker, Shorty stayed there for the rest of his career, making a lucrative living composing for film and TV. In the '50s and '60s, Rogers turned out dozens of albums showcasing his flugelhorn and imaginative ensembles (usually billed as "Shorty Rogers and his Giants"), and though his writing and playing were rarely heavy, his music was swinging, passionate and drenched with blues. This 1983 session reunites Rogers with longtime coadjutant Bud Shank, and is highlighted by imaginative settings of Billy Strayhorn's soulful ballad "Lush Life" and a witty take on Billy Hill's early country classic "Wagon Wheels" &mdash the latter climaxing in a marvelous contrapuntal and conjoined solo by the two principals.

Howard Rumsey (who will celebrate his 92nd birthday in November 2009) didn't call his band the All-Stars for nothing. The bassist came off the road with Stan Kenton and promptly reinvented himself as entrepreneur and bandleader, presenting modern jazz right on the sand at Laguna Beach (nearly all his album covers have surf and seagulls) with a group of mostly former Herman and Kentonites, nearly all of whom were leaders in their own right: their first album, an early release on Lester Koenig's Contemporary label, featured trumpeters Maynard Ferguson and Shorty Rogers, trombonist Milt Bernhart, saxists Bob Cooper, Jimmy Giuffre and a rhythm section built around Shelly Manne and Rumsey himself. For a dozen years, the Lighthouse club was literally ground zero for the whole Los Angeles jazz scene &mdash the Birdland of the West &mdash and Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars were the flagship band of the entire California Cool movement.

Alto saxophone colossus Art Pepper (1925-1982) was probably the single greatest soloist to be associated with the West Coast Jazz movement; an irrepressibly brilliant musician who lived the entire bebop experience to its fullest. A ceaselessly inventive improviser, Pepper played at the highest level imaginable but, like his hero, Charlie Parker, his career was frequently stunted by extra-musical circumstances of his own making. Marty Paich (1925-1995) was an ingenious arranger-composer who perfected the trick of writing for medium sized ensembles (ten pieces was his lucky number), giving his "dektette" the power of a big band combined with the flexibility of a small group. Pepper and Paich worked together in many contexts, but their classic collaboration was this brilliant re-working of 14 modern jazz standards, such as Monk's "Round Midnight" and Gillespie's "Groovin' High," "Shaw 'Nuff," and "Anthropology" (which he plays on clarinet).

Like Howard Rumsey, drummer Shelly Manne (1920-1984) left the Stan Kenton rhythm section to launch a second career as bandleader and club owner. Yet even more than Rumsey's All-Stars, Shelly Manne and his Men were the essential, regular working and touring band of their epoch, what Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers were to New York. Manne was a tasty drummer, among the greatest in all of jazz, and a marvelously creative music-maker overall. He had a commercial side, which led to his creation of the jazz-show album (starting with My Fair Lady), as well as an experimental side that manifested itself in a wide variety of formats. These two 1954 sessions find Manne expressing his ideas in two very unusual instrumental settings: a trio with trumpeter Shorty Rogers and multi-reedist Jimmy Giuffre, and a duo with pianist Russ Freeman. The results are more playful than avant-garde, resulting in two thoroughly enjoyable dates that spotlight Manne's own drumming.

Chet Baker (1929-1988) was just getting his feet wet as a bandleader (after bursting on the scene with Gerry Mulligan's quartet) when he made a pivotal European tour in 1955-'56, which, in turn, co-starred the brilliant young pianist Richard Twardzik, who was even more self-destructive than Baker. Baker-Twardzik group made many live recordings at this time, as well as an extensive series of studio dates for the Barclay label in Paris. Baker's playing is full of youthful freshness and optimism and he achieves an extraordinary simpatico with the pianist, which comes to the fore in this program of familiar tunes. These tracks would be even better if only someone had thought to ask Baker to sing on one or two songs (although he sings beautifully through his horn); if it's Baker's singing you're after, go for his 1958 album, It Could Happen to You, but these 1955 French sessions represent a pinnacle for Baker as an instrumentalist.

The Mississippi-born Teddy Edwards (1924-2003) was an underrated giant of the tenor who extended the legacy of Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon in Los Angeles after the former died young and the latter left his hometown to roam the world. This classic 1960 album is notable for its lack of ambition: Edwards blowing one brilliant chorus after another over the changes of standards ("Take the A Train"), ballads ("What's New"), barn-burners ("Scrapple From the Apple"), and blues ("Blues in G"), with a stellar rhythm section including the fine pianist Joe Castro, west coast bass mainstay Leroy Vinnegar, and the nascent drum star Billy Higgins. Edwards, who, like Art Pepper, was the subject of a documentary near the end of his life (The Legend of Teddy Edwards) kept playing brilliantly even into his '70s (frequently with singer-songwriter Tom Waits), and won every cutting contest he ever entered.

Even before pianist and orchestrator Andre Previn (born 1929) reinvented himself as a classical conductor he had a keen, classically-inspired sense of "repertory." That's possibly why the bulk of his jazz albums, mostly made for Contemporary Records in the 1950s, are primarily song-driven &mdash whether it's the string of songbook albums that he did under his own name or the ingenious series of jazz "cover" albums of Broadway show scores that the pianist made in collaboration with drummer Shelly Manne. In this context, two other trio albums also stand out: King Size, which is an unthemed blowing session on standards and originals, and Like Previn which is a rare whole album of jazz originals by the pianist, who had a successful sideline as a pop songwriter (the title of Like Previn refers to his hit "Like Young"). On both albums, Previn's writing and playing chops are very much in evidence &mdash you can be sure that he was no slumming dilettante.

Bud Shank, who died in April at 82, was one of the quintessential west coast reed players: a formidable soloist with a beautiful tone on alto (tripling on flute and tenor), Shank was an inventive improviser who never failed to deliver the goods. Shank played in zillions of sessions over 60 years, from commercial projects to jazz dates. This 1956 date comes early in his bandleading career, and isn't a groundbreakingly innovative work or a composer's master-stroke, but a thrilling, straight-ahead jam session in which Shank and pianist Claude Williamson just blow for all their worth. Shank also had a knack for finding cool, out-of-the-way tunes, and for me the highpoint here is a swinging treatment of the obscure WW2 ballad "I Heard You Cried Last Night." There's also a long jam on Miles Davis's "The Theme," on which shows that Shank was more than keeping up with the Joneses on the East Coast.

Even when he's not singing or clowning around, trumpeter Jack Sheldon (born 1931) is an extremely entertaining musician. Best known to one generation as a gonzo sidekick to Merv Griffin &mdash and to their children as the singing voice of "Bill on Capitol Hill" (on Schoolhouse Rock) &mdash Sheldon is also a consistently brilliant brassman. These dates from 1957 back Sheldon with a nonet and a tentet, respectively, the second of which is arranged by the equally-astute Lennie Niehaus, who went on to an outstanding career as Clint Eastwood's musical partner. Both the arrangements and the playing here are thoroughly delightful jazz &mdash something you would rarely say about New York Hard bop of the period. The second date features a particularly strong line-up pairing two formidable trumpeters, Mr. Sheldon and Chet Baker, and two equally pugnacious alto saxists, Art Pepper and Herb Geller, climaxing on the eponymous blues "J. S."

Hampton Hawes (1928-1977) was one of the archetypical pianists of the California modern jazz experience: one of the few players on the scene who was a native Angeleno, Hawes grew up on the Central Avenue scene during the big band era. He was one of the first pianists in the area to fully master the new bebop idiom, and was in demand for dates by Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Sonny Rollins, and other boppers both in residence and passing through. Remarkably, Hawes (like Art Pepper) managed to create a brilliant career despite long drug-related prison sentences. His output was highlighted by a terrific series of albums for Contemporary, mostly trio sessions, but this 1958 quartet date, co-starring the fine local tenor champ Harold Land (as well as future bass legend Scott LaFaro) was a standout, and builds to a cooking treatment of Cole Porter's "I Love You."