The Los Angolean West Coast jazz was an offshoot of cool jazz, a style relying more on arrangement and feel than angular compositions and freestyle improvisation that characterised bebop. To some, West Coast jazz was seen as a watered-down version of music from the East Coast and the experimental, challenging idioms of bebop. Yet, these were truly stellar musicians that often swung just as hard and pushed just as much as their peers.
This concert at the JazzOpen Stuttgart marked a celebration of 50 years of West Coast Jazz, played by a group of early pioneers including legendary soloists and players Carl Fontana on trombone, Teddy Edwards on sax and Conte Candoli on trumpet. They are joined by the pianist Pete Jolly (another West Coast big name) and slightly younger musicians, the bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Joe LaBarbera. Together, they deliver flawless musicianship on a repertoire that touches on each of their strengths, from original compositions to solo sections that offer freedom for individual players. They also pay tribute to the great Miles Davis, an inventor of cool jazz according to some, though they do so by playing his hard bop tracks "Walkin'," "Oleo" and "Four," demonstrating once again the limits of categorization.
