Cool Jazz Explained

Hot vs Cool

There are two ways to play Jazz – you could either play Hot or play Cool. These two approaches to playing Jazz have been around since the beginning of Jazz, but it was only in the 1950’s that playing ‘cool’ became its very own genre in itself.

If you ask any scientist they’ll tell you that hot things have a lot of energy, while cool things do not. And it’s the same with Jazz – Hot Jazz is high energy Jazz, while Cool Jazz is (relatively) low(er) energy Jazz.

The characteristics of each ‘approach’ are as follows

Hot Jazz (Expressionism)	Cool Jazz (Rationalism)
High Energy	Low energy
Emotive, Extroverted, & Raw	Restrained, Relaxed, & Introverted
Fast Tempo	Slow to Medium tempo (Ballads)
Driving and Heavy Rhythm	Light rhythm & quiet rhythm section
Played on or ahead of the beat	Play behind the beat
Use of wide dynamics	Little dynamics
Use extreme high registers	Use low and middle register
Wide vibrato	Limited or no vibrato
Staccato	Legato
Accenting of notes	Understated, unaccented tone
Angular melodies	Smooth, melodic and lyrical melodies
Fill beat with notes	Wide use of silence
Homophonic	Polyphonic (counterpoint)
Hard touch	Soft touch
4/4 time	Odd time signatures
Blues influenced	Classical influenced
Lots of improvisation	More composition

The best way to think about it is that:

• Hot Jazz – is Emotive and Extroverted; while
• Cool Jazz – is Restrained and Introverted.

Numerous bands that played Hot Jazz labelled themselves as such, for example:

• Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five
• Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven
• Django Reinhardt’s Quintette du Hot Club de France

There was also two ‘styles’ of Swing:

• Hot Swing – played by people like Duke Ellington, was primal and bluesy with a heavy rhythmic drive
• Sweet Swing – played by people like Benny Goodman, was polite, sophisticated and restrained

Bebop was also considered Hot.

Inspiration of the Cool

Cool Jazz arose in the 1950’s as a reaction to (Hot) Bebop. Bebop was fast, loud, heavy, angular, high pitched, high energy and dense. Cool Jazz tried to do the exact opposite – it was slow, soft, light, lyrical, low pitched, low energy and sparse.

There were a number of early Jazz musicians who inspired the ‘Cool’ way of playing, including:

• Bix Beiderbecke
• Frankie Trumbauer
• And especially, Lester Young – who was really the forefather of Cool Jazz

Young played in Count Basie’s Big Band. And while a lot of soloists at the time played forcefully and emotively (like Coleman Hawkins, for example), Young’s playing was soft, vibrato-less, smooth, restrained, relaxed, breathy, and behind the beat.

And Young didn’t just play cool. He epitomised cool. Young was always smartly dressed, laid-back, played with his sax at a slight angle, and used a lot of slang – in fact, he’s said to have even coined the term ‘cool’ as a term of approval. So whenever you describe something as ‘cool’, you’re partially indebted to Lester Young.

Birth of the Cool

So Cool Jazz was inspired by Lester Young, but it was created  by Miles Davis. Davis, like all other Jazz musicians at the time, started playing Bebop but he was always less intense, less aggressive, less quick, less loud, less high up, and less busy than other Bebop players (like Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie). He always played a bit more relaxed, used the middle register of his trumpet, and was more inclined to silence. So he wasn’t really suited to playing Bebop. So in 1949 and 1950 he got a group of musicians together and created the Birth of the Cool recordings. These recording were innovative because:

• It was recorded by a nonet – so a larger ensemble than was usual in Bebop;
• It was influenced by classical music in its forms and arrangement – it didn’t just rely on AABA or Blues forms;
• It was influenced by chamber music in its sound
• It used polyphony – rather than playing the Head in unison as in Bebop
• It introduced new instruments to Jazz such as the French horn, tuba, flute & oboe
• It used more composition and less improvisation compared to Bebop
• It was more emotionally detached and intellectual
• In a word, it was ‘Cool’

Cool Jazz

Cool Jazz was criticised at the time as being a kind of ‘white man’s’ Jazz – because it was often played by white, university educated musicians; it was classical influenced rather than Blues and Swing influenced; and it was more popular with white audiences than Bebop (which was seen as African-American and radical). This criticism is probably less relevant these days, and besides the boundaries between musical genres are flexible and porous.

• There are plenty of Jazz influenced Classical compositions (for example Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue)
• There are plenty of Jazz musicians who were influenced by Classical music (for example: Charles Mingus, Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett)
• A synthesis of Jazz and Classical music was later attempted with the Third Stream genre of music.

You still play all the same Jazz Standards, just in a more relaxed and restrained way. This makes the Cool Jazz genre a little bit odd. Jazz musicians playing very different styles of Jazz were classified under the genre of ‘Cool Jazz’.

• Lennie Tristano: played atonal, Free Jazz-esque Jazz – but is considered ‘Cool Jazz’ because of HOW he played
• Stan Getz: played Afro-Brazilian Latin Jazz (Bossa-novas) – but is considered ‘Cool Jazz’ because of HOW he played
• Modern Jazz Quartet: played Baroque inspired Jazz – but are considered ‘Cool Jazz’ because of HOW they played

Musicians played ‘cool’ before Cool Jazz (see Lester Young above). Musicians continue to play ‘cool’ after Cool Jazz. But it’s only those musicians who played ‘cool’ in the 1950’s that are classified as ‘Cool Jazz’. I wouldn’t think too deeply about this…

Cool but not Cold

And remember that it is Cool Jazz NOT Cold Jazz. You don’t want to play like a robot or a piano roll. You still want to impart some feeling into your playing. Being ‘cool’ is like being introverted – you still have feelings, you just don’t tell everyone about it all the time to everyone and don’t wear your heart on your sleeve. Cool Jazz still has feeling, it’s just less explicit and less extroverted; more nuanced and more restrained.

Have a Listen to

For a good example of the difference between Hot and Cool Jazz, have a listen to:

• Hot: All of Me ~ Louis Armstrong And His All-Stars – Ambassador Satch (Live)(1955)
• Cool: All of Me ~ Billie Holiday & Lester Young – Lady Day & Prez (1941)

And check out the following artists:

• Pre-Cool
  • Bix Beiderbecke
  • Frankie Trumbauer
  • Lester Young
  • Woody Herman
  • Stan Kenton
  • Claud Thornhill
• Cool
  • Miles Davis (Birth of the Cool)
  • Gil Evans
  • Dave Brubeck Quartet (with Paul Desmond)
  • Gerry Mulligan’s Pianoless Quartet (with Chet Baker)
  • Chet Baker
  • Stan Getz
  • Lee Konitz
  • Lennie Tristano
  • John Lewis (Modern Jazz Quartet)
  • Zoot Sims
  • Tadd Dameron
  • Al Cohn

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