Jazz critic Stanley Crouch, New York-based but California-born, has sought out the source of this cool approach to jazz. "The West Coast style mostly came from people responding to [saxophonist] Lester Young's way of playing," Crouch told PBS host Hendrick Smith.

"Now, he had a light tone," Crouch said of Young, a black player who got his start in Kansas City before moving to New York with the Count Basie band in 1936. "He, as they used to say, swung like crazy, with a very poetic approach to playing.

"So, a lot of white guys zeroed in on him. They liked his approach to playing." Among the influenced were Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck, and Shorty Rogers, all rising western stars of the 1950s.

But alongside Young, consider the significant influence of black trumpeter Miles Davis and the 78rpm discs he recorded in 1949 and 1950, finally collected on a long-playing album in 1957 under the title 'The Birth of the Cool.' By the time of that LP's release, the restless Davis had already gone in different directions. But the plaintive, seeking sound of his horn on those early sides, as well as his LP projects with arranger Gil Evans, had helped define 'cool' for a national and global audience.

The return of the recording industry after a wartime ban on the use of shellac, a vital ingredient at the time for record manufacturing, allowed jazz artists to be heard on jukeboxes and a growing number of radio stations, as well as in clubs all over the country. All of this resulted in a healthy amount of cross-pollination of styles.

So it makes sense that when music writer Robert Gordon prepared notes for an anthology of California-based jazz for Contemporary Records in 1998, he was forced to admit "there is no general agreement upon the definition of the term 'West Coast Jazz.'" Later simply referring to it as "that music produced by jazz musicians residing at the time on the West Coast," Gordon assisted in the production of the impressive anthology, four compact discs packaged as the West Coast Jazz Box, showcasing the genre, and in particular artists recorded between 1950 and 1964 on the Contemporary, Prestige, Pacific Jazz, Nocturne, and a few other mostly California-based jazz labels.

Of the several live venues represented on the 'West Coast Jazz Box,' Gordon pinpointed the Lighthouse, in its evocative sand-and-salt-spray setting in the Los Angeles suburb of Hermosa Beach, as the launching pad for "a West Coast school." In the early 1950s, bassist Howard Rumsey was engaged by the Lighthouse's owners to host what participating horn player John Graas recalls, in the anthology's notes, as "modern jazz nights."

Graas and several colleagues from Stan Kenton's 1951 'Innovations in Modern Music' big band tour had decided, understandably, to not continue with the tour but to try their luck in a new and benign climate. The horn players among them manifested what critic Crouch detected as the airy influence of Lester Young, in early recordings under the moniker of the Lighthouse All-Stars. The equally influential Miles Davis is featured on one track of the 'West Coast Jazz Box' set, in a 1953 performance at the Lighthouse of Dizzy Gillespie's 'A Night in Tunisia.'

'Cool' took on a lower, sensual sound in the baritone saxophone of Gerry Mulligan, recorded in 1952 and later. Mulligan was sometimes handsomely partnered with trumpeter (and sometime singer) Chet Baker. The pair occasionally journeyed north from Los Angeles to play engagements in musically fertile San Francisco, at the legendary Black Hawk club.

A local regular at the Black Hawk, sometimes performing at the piano six nights a week, was Dave Brubeck. "Dave's arrival into the San Francisco scene was really the key event in terms of setting up a whole school of modern jazz," says Ted Gioia, author of 'West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960.'

Whatever 'school' might lay claim to Brubeck would also have to acknowledge his resistance to being pigeonholed. "[He] doesn't really fit in the light version of West Coast Jazz," Crouch maintains. "You had the cool, fluid kind of playing that you got with Paul Desmond," the saxophonist in Brubeck's classic quartet and the composer of 'Take Five,' their biggest hit. "And then you had a much more aggressive kind of powerhouse approach from Brubeck."

Brubeck rose unique among jazz stars by appearing on the front cover of Time magazine, in November 1954. Shortly afterwards, Brubeck, along with wife Iola ('Oli') and their growing family, moved into a modernist home in the hills of Oakland, designed by a young David Beverley Thorne, who would later become distinguished by contributing a house design for 'Art & Architecture' magazine's renowned Case Study House program.

Thorne, now 82, recounts how Ted Simpson, a builder friend of his in 1949, encountered Brubeck at a club, near the site of Thorne's future Oakland practice, where Brubeck was engaged in a trio setting with then-drummer Cal Tjader and bassist Ron Crotty.

"Dave mentioned [to Ted] that he and Oli owned a crazy little steep lot in the hills of Montclair [above Oakland], and did he know anyone that could possibly design a house for them on it," Thorne recalls. "I guess Mr. Simpson told Dave that 'yes, he knew a crazy student at Cal [University of California at Berkeley] that could do the job.'"

The Brubecks had no intention of making modernist history with the design, Thorne says, but rather just putting an affordable home on a spectacular piece of land, which Brubeck had acquired as a gift from his father after his discharge from the service.

"Being that the lot was almost impossible for the average architect, it was still vacant," Brubeck recollected during a recent working return visit to the Bay Area with his wife. "And [Thorne] said, 'This is going to be perfect for cantilever.' He could see that on the peak, at the back end of the lot, was a huge boulder. And as he started visualizing it, his plans were to have the whole lot suspended from the boulder, in an 'L,' with I-beams coming out which faced the Bay [in one direction] and the canyons [in another]."

Iola detected musical elements in those plans, what she calls "a definite visual rhythm, a broad expanse which is broken into by the beams." When she, Dave, and their growing family took occupancy in 1954, the new home inspired the creation of music. The spacious glass windows provided sweeping views. The anchoring boulder, incorporated into the interior design with a table of tempered glass across its top, served as a kind of giant touchstone.

"I had a nine-foot grand [Baldwin] piano right next to that rock, and many of the most famous things I've written were written there," says Dave. "And the 'classic' quartet, with Paul Desmond and Joe Morello [and sometimes Eugene Wright, the only one of the four not based in the Bay Area, but in Chicago], that's where they did all their rehearsals." A recreation space laid out after the Brubecks' acquisition of an adjoining lot was the setting for a session of basketball with a visiting Miles Davis.

"With small children, it was a bit of a challenge keeping it quiet for Dave to work," admits Iola. A large sliding door, seaweed panels, and cork floors helped to contain the sound of working musicians, but couldn't block their sons' bourgeoning curiosity. "As they grew older and more interested in rehearsals, they would hang around," says their mother. "They saw people having fun playing."

That four of the Brubeck boys ended up as professional musicians may have had something to do with their childhood home's mid-century modern design, "because it was very open," says Iola. "And this was the '50s, a period of togetherness."

The broad commercial success of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, with albums like 1959's 'Time Out' (created "next to that rock"), eluded most other jazz artists in the 'cool school' or any other genre of jazz. An exception was San Francisco pianist Vince Guaraldi, who placed on the pop hit parade with his blithe air, 'Cast Your Fate to the Wind,' in 1962. Another crossover at about the same time was sweet-toned saxophonist Stan Getz, a sometime Southern California resident who became associated with, and handsomely rewarded by, the percussive pandemic of bossa nova, which was imported from Brazil and very accepting of 'cool' players.

A decade earlier, Los Angeles immigrant guitarist Laurindo Almeida had already helped implant samba rhythms and breezy Latin percussion into the West Coast scene. In the Bay Area, after Cal Tjader departed drums and the Brubeck trio, he focused on the vibraphone and his own several groups, and on a sophisticated -- and cool -- approach to what would come to be called Latin Jazz.

In a personification of the bicoastal jazz trade, sax titan Sonny Rollins headed to Contemporary's Los Angeles studios to record his Way Out West album in 1957. Tripping on his temporary reprieve from the New York City lifestyle, Rollins posed in a cowboy hat and holster for the LP's cover shot by photographer William Claxton. The album's relaxed and sometimes humorous style and its employment of two of Los Angeles' busiest players, drummer (and later club operator) Shelly Manne and bassist Ray Brown, suggest Rollins' recognition of the influence of the west. The title track was included in Contemporary's 'West Coast Jazz Box,' but the album itself was actually a multi-genre national best seller.

Southern California jazz musicians in the '50s and '60s not blessed with widespread recognition had to look outside their choice small ensembles for financial reward. Studios demanding film and television soundtracks provided more and more work during those decades, bolstering the coffers of talented and flexible bandleaders, composers, and arrangers such as Benny Carter and Bill Holman. They in turn were able to offer instrumentalists sometime employment in their big bands, which, despite their expansive size, showcased cool elements in arranging and soloing.

Holman describes his approach as inspired by "imagination, not getting hung up in big band rhetoric." In a recent interview, he set out his approach in terms of what might sound like West Coast Lovemaking. "The most obvious thing is shape," he said, "and the most obvious point of that is not getting to a climax too soon. Because some guys, when they write longer charts, they get to the climax a couple of choruses into the chart. And from then on, it's just hovering around the same climax, neither surpassing it nor fading out."

Did West Coast/Cool Jazz just fade out after 1960? Note that Gioa's book about the genre set 1960 as the end of "modern jazz in California," and 1945 as its beginning. (Coincidentally or not, 1960 was also the year when Dave and Iola Brubeck relocated their family to another modern home designed for them in Wilton, Connecticut by David Thorne. But that's another story.)

Jazz fans wanting to stay hip would do well to remain skeptical of jazz history dates. Remember that both West Coast/Cool Jazz and Bop borrowed liberally from music preceding 1945, especially the sort of pop tunes that Ned Eichler says his father favored. (Ned likes jazz, Joe didn't much. But he might have found it interesting to compare Charlie Parker's nervy Bop reworking [and retitling, as 'Ornithology'] of the popular 1940 ballad 'How High the Moon' with Chet Baker's more respectful but innovative cover of the same ballad.)

And the truth is that after that purported end date of 1960, the variegated elements of West Coast Jazz were absorbed by other genres that became promoted and accepted under other names, without need of regional tags. Looking back a half century, from our own era replete with anxiety, exaggeration, and mimicry (musical and otherwise), one might well wax nostalgic for the spirit of optimism and innovation that followed the country's recovery from World War II.

"It was like a renaissance in a way," says Iola Brubeck about that period, "of everyone in all fields -- architecture, music, visual arts -- everything going through a pushing of the envelope and getting away from tradition and experimenting with the new. It was just in the air. Just think about utility household design, the streamlined toasters."

But remember that some of those West Coast Jazz players, like some of the toasters, are still warm and working, among them Iola's husband and Bill Holman. Old and new fans of their kind of music are still collecting it, some of them in mid-century modern residences where the genre seems particularly at home.

Cool Jazz fan and Eichler owner Cathye Smithwick first became acquainted with West Coast Jazz, and saxophonist John Coltrane's approach to ballads in the '50s and early '60s, through her husband Charlie. The couple ultimately found that musical memories of that vintage serve to enhance their choice of lifestyle under a modern roof.

"Imagine trying to listen to [Miles Davis' album] 'Kind of Blue' or Coltrane's 'Nancy with the Laughing Face' or 'My Favorite Things' in a Victorian, with its itty-bitty windows and no light, and its very ornate, curvy furniture," says Smithwick. "I think Eichler owners gravitate towards these houses because of their spatial elements, their geometric elements, and their unity with the outside. Cool Jazz is a listening representation of that. It's a fabulous environment."

"When I'm listening to jazz in my home -- and I do it all the time -- I'm not doing it to be entertained," Smithwick concludes. "It's part of a lifestyle choice, rather than a form of entertainment."

Special thanks to Dave and Iola Brubeck, David Thorne, Michael Wurtz, George Moore, and Tom Madden

• Photos: Bob Willoughby courtesy Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library, copyright Dave Brubeck; also courtesy Chronicle Books
• Paintings: Bruni Sablan courtesy Bruni Jazz Masters Series
• Album covers: courtesy Blue Note, Concord Music Group, Fresh Sound, Koch, Lonehill Jazz, RCA, Sony Corporation, V.S.O.P., Verve record labels

Discover more Cool Jazz essentials and some fine listening on Keith Roberts' online radio station Forever Cool

COOL SCHOOL ESSENTIALS

The classic Cool Jazz artists are well represented on compact disc, and the artists and titles listed below are a guide to the start or the bolstering of a diverse and representative collection.

1. Chet Baker: Deep in a Dream/the Ultimate Collection (Pacific Jazz) This disc, mostly ballads from the '50s, is as precious for fans enamored of Baker's emotive, almost feminine delivery of vocals as for those who favor his diaphanous but imaginative approach to trumpet.

2. Dave Brubeck: Time Out (Columbia/Sony) The modernist cover art, borrowed from surrealist Joan Mirá, is a clue to the experimental, felicitous, and erudite approach of pianist and composer Brubeck and his 'classic' quartet on this immensely popular album.

3. Gerry Mulligan: Original Quartet w/Chet Baker (Pacific Jazz) Mulligan worked with like-minded Chet Baker but without piano, making Mulligan's subtle, dusky voicings of the rarely heard baritone sax and Baker's sweet and airy trumpet tone irresistible.

4. Lee Konitz: Inside Hi-Fi (Koch Jazz) Like Art Pepper, Konitz blew a cool and unique alto. Having earlier helped Miles 'birth' the genre, Konitz here leads a small ensemble through an artful approach to several standards, sometimes switching to tenor.

5. Art Pepper: Modern Art/Complete Aladdin Recordings, vol. 2 (Blue Note) That he used the same horn as Charlie Parker (alto sax) qualifies Art Pepper as a fascinating paradigm of the difference between Cool players, of which he was one of L.A.'s best, and East Coast-based purveyors of Bop.

6. Stan Getz: Award Winner (Verve) In the decade before he managed to place the jazz saxophone and Brazilian bossa nova on the pop charts, Getz evolved his soft, supple sound beyond the influence of Prez and shared the sessions compiled here with some of L.A.'s best sidemen.

7. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (Columbia/Sony) Nearly a decade after his seminal 'Birth of the Cool' sides, Miles applied his cool approach to a newer, more modal kind of jazz, partnered by an eclectic group of John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, and others.

8. Cal Tjader: Greatest Hits (Fantasy) A decade after Dizzy Gillespie launched Latin Jazz as a new and exotic way to go Bop, vibraphonist Tjader cooled the import down for the West Coast, while maintaining the vitality of percussion and of interchanges with Stan Getz and guitarist Eddie Duran.

9. Paul Desmond: Greatest Hits (RCA) There's no 'Take Five,' his classic hit with the Brubeck Quartet, but there are several of the relaxed and lyrical saxophonist's re-imaginings of older pop songs.

10. Barney Kessel: Poll Winners (Contemporary/OJC) In demand as a studio musician in L.A., guitarist Kessel also joined bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne in topping magazine jazz polls in 1956 and in this easygoing but artful recording the following year.

11. Vince Guaraldi: Greatest Hits (Fantasy) The 'hits' here of course include 'Cast Your Fate to the Wind' and 'Linus and Lucy,' which found their way into popular culture, but also show evidence of pianist Guaraldi's (and West Coast Jazz's) flirtation with Brazilian music.

12. Bill Holman Big Band: In a Jazz Orbit (V.S.O.P.) A rare, early showcase of the dense and distinctive arrangements of the still-swinging Holman, this recording features some of the best West Coast players in 1958, including Richie Kamuca, Victor Feldman, and Holman on tenor.

13. Shelly Manne & His Men: West Coast Sound 1 (Contemporary/OJC) Recorded between 1953 and 1955 with the cream of Southern California's Cool crop, drummer and later club owner Manne demonstrated, more successfully than most, the breadth and brightness of the West Coast Jazz sound.

14. Laurindo Almeida and Bud Shank: Brazilliance, vol. 1 (World Pacific) A formerly featured guitarist in Brazil, Almeida moved to L.A., and with this and later recordings (helped by alto saxist Shank) introduced a cool, jazz-wise approach to his native land's music, nearly a decade ahead of but never as celebrated as Stan Getz.

15. Bill Perkins: Octet on Stage (Pacific Jazz) A multi-saxist best known for his tenor work, Perkins was among the Stan Kenton big band alumni to gather at the Lighthouse and to reap the rewards of studio and TV work in L.A. His adventuresome but agreeable approach here continues today.

16. Conte Candoli: Modern Sounds from the West (Lonehill Jazz) The 'sounds' of Candoli's trumpet confirm the possibility of Bop virtuosity within a cooler West Coast setting. Among other Kenton alumni, Candoli was in evidence at the Lighthouse and in his trumpeting brother Pete's band.

17. John Lewis: Grand Encounter/2 Degrees East-3 Degrees West (Pacific Jazz import) While anchoring the early years of the cooly elegant Modern Jazz Quartet, pianist Lewis and the MJQ's bassist Percy Heath here shared their approach with guitarist Jim Hall and drummer Chico Hamilton on standards and originals.

18. Claude Williamson: Complete 1956 Studio Session (Fresh Sound) Not widely known now, Williamson was a favorite at the Lighthouse and when teamed with Bud Shank. Despite this Cool company, Williamson was (and remains) a self-declared devotee of the legendary Bud Powell's approach to Bop piano.

19. Duane Tatro: Jazz for Moderns (Contemporary/OJC) Some of the L.A.-based jazz luminaries whom Duane Tatro had likely employed for his film and TV scoring were assembled for this rather dense and experimental-sounding recording which stretches beyond the common concepts of 'cool' and 'jazz.'

20. Various Artists: West Coast Jazz Box (Contemporary) This four-disc set, better than any other compilation chronicles the evolution and variegation of the genre it's named for. Robert Gordon's liner notes and the faultless documentation of the selected tracks are admiringly informative.

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