West Coast Jazz

Jazz thrived in Southern California beginning in 1945, when clubs on Central Avenue and in Hollywood were presenting such greats as Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Nat King Cole. Business stayed strong until the late '50s, when the number of happening clubs began to dwindle to a handful and the West Coast jazz scene began to dry up. "It was great," recalls Bill Holman, who was active during the '50s as a composer, arranger, tenor saxophonist and bandleader.

When thinking about Dave Brubeck, you can't help but also consider time, and not just how much of it fans received from the prolific jazz pianist up to his death Wednesday at age 91. A titan of West Coast jazz, Brubeck was linked with California for much of his career. He was born in Concord, studied at what is now is the University of the Pacific in Stockton and recorded for Berkeley-based Fantasy Records, which helped forge the Bay Area's sound in the '50s. But regardless of where a listener was based, the Dave Brubeck catalog was an inevitable destination.

Bob Cooper, the lanky, laconic tenor saxophonist whose improvisations helped shape that straight-ahead, swinging sound known as West Coast jazz, is dead. Cooper, who played the ordinary reeds--clarinet and sax--and the more esoteric ones--oboe, English horn and four kinds of flutes--was found dead in his auto Thursday, an apparent heart attack victim.

Dave Brubeck, the jazz pianist, composer and bandleader behind the legendary Dave Brubeck Quartet, has died at age 91. The death of Brubeck, whose quartet performed “Take Five,” which became a jazz standard and the bestselling jazz single of all time, was confirmed Wednesday by the Associated Press. Brubeck would have turned 92 Thursday. According to the AP, Brubeck died of heart failure after being stricken while on the way to a cardiologist's  appointment in Connecticut.

The term "West Coast Jazz" became suspect sometime during the 1950s, not long after it first came into use. Criticized as pretentiously cool and emotionally distant, the genre was subjected to a list of negative musical and racial stereotypes. Author-educator Grover Sales' 1984 book "Jazz: America's Classical Music" termed the era's recordings as "bloodless museum pieces" and "neatly packaged soundtracks for the cold war."

For most jazz fans, the term "West Coast jazz" conjures up aural images of Gerry Mulligan, Shorty Rogers, Chet Baker, Jimmy Giuffre, Dave Brubeck and all the other high-visibility players in the cool jazz movement of the '50s.

Bud Shank, the alto saxophonist who was a key figure in the West Coast jazz scene of the 1950s, has died. He was 82. Shank died Thursday night at his home in Tucson of pulmonary failure, friends said. A versatile musician with an adventurous nature, Shank also played flute and -- during a productive period of studio work -- had pivotal solos on the popular 1960s pop tunes "California Dreamin' " by the Mamas and the Papas and "Windy" by the Association.

Like any good party, the first night of the three-day West Coast Jazz Party at the Irvine Marriott was a mix of new and familiar faces, fascinating dialogue and the occasional personality clash. Friday's headliners gave strong accounts of themselves, while traditional jam sessions boasted more thoughtful, and therefore more successful, combinations of musicians than in previous years.

For a time in the late '40s and early '50s, they were the rat pack of West Coast jazz. As bassist Hersh Hamel tells it in the book "Straight Life: The Story of Art Pepper," the crew, which included saxophonists Art Pepper and Jack Montrose, trumpeters Chet Baker, Jack Sheldon and, occasionally, Shorty Rogers would play together five nights out of seven at such hole-in-the-wall dives as the Samoan Club in East Los Angeles, or the Surf Club at 6th and Western.

In the early '50s, a small club on a pier in Hermosa Beach was the center of a musical scene that gave birth to the sound that came to be called West Coast Jazz. The West Coast sound, variously described as cool, sophisticated and soft but also known for its harmonic strength and often eclectic orchestration, was championed by various groups that assembled at the surf-side nightspot from which they took their name, the Lighthouse All Stars.

At almost 92 years old, Fred Katz is about as easy to sum up as the contents of the Smithsonian. Growing up a classical cello and piano prodigy before falling in love with jazz in the Manhattan clubs, Katz went on to help define the sound of West Coast jazz with the Chico Hamilton Quintet, where he was the first to introduce a bowed cello into the jazz vernacular. He also worked with Lena Horne and Tony Bennett, composed film scores for Roger Corman, backed Beat poet Ken Nordine on his "Word Jazz" albums and taught courses in anthropology, shamanic magic and religion at Cal State Fullerton for almost 30 years ?

Thinking about the upcoming Angel City Jazz Festival feels like a logical paradox. Is it possible to grow both bigger and smaller at the same time? After stretching to two days at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater last year with a lineup offering nods to West Coast jazz past and present, the festival has this year scaled FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article mistakenly had the time of Saturday's REDCAT event as 8 p.m. It begins at 8:30 p.m. back its multi-act "festival" component to one night at the Ford.

Paul Bryant, a South Los Angeles jazz master whose infectious smile and precocious skills in the arts earned him the nickname "The Central Avenue Kid," has died. He was 76. Bryant died Dec. 4 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a lengthy hospitalization, said his daughter, Angela Bryant Lott of Inglewood. He had been suffering complications following recent surgeries, and had most recently been living in Good Shepherd Manor near Leimert Park. A child actor, Bryant appeared in 22 films in the 1940s.

In the wake of another summer of hand-wringing among fans and critics about the future of jazz, Labor Day weekend in Southern California marked a face-off of sorts between festivals celebrating two sides of the genre. One, the West Coast Jazz Party, celebrated its 15th year in Irvine while the other, the second annual Angel City Jazz Festival, expanded to two days at a high-profile new location, the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. Spread out over four days and culminating with a Sunday brunch cruise, the West Coast Jazz Party offers a full menu of traditional jazz that falls under the swing and standards-rich category often called "straightahead."

Chris Connor, a smoky-voiced jazz vocalist who gained renown for her recording of "All About Ronnie" and other singles with the Stan Kenton Orchestra before going solo in 1953 and having success with songs such as "Trust in Me" and "About the Blues," has died. She was 81. Connor died of cancer Saturday at Community Medical Center in Toms River, N.J., said her longtime companion and manager, Lori Muscarelle. In a more than 50-year singing career that began in the late 1940s with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, Connor recorded with bandleader Herbie Fields and sang with Jerry Wald's big band before joining Kenton in early 1953.

Bud Shank, the alto saxophonist who was a key figure in the West Coast jazz scene of the 1950s, has died. He was 82. Shank died Thursday night at his home in Tucson of pulmonary failure, friends said. A versatile musician with an adventurous nature, Shank also played flute and -- during a productive period of studio work -- had pivotal solos on the popular 1960s pop tunes "California Dreamin' " by the Mamas and the Papas and "Windy" by the Association.

Those who came looking for the "party" in the West Coast Jazz Party over Labor Day weekend shouldn't have been disappointed. There was plenty of good-time music fit for toe-tapping and finger-snapping, without serious intellectual or emotional content. The three-evening event, held Friday through Sunday at the Irvine Marriott hotel, also had the informal feel of an open house.

Hitting the pause button, the story at its dramatic denouement, Buddy Collette takes five. Unfolding his more than six-foot frame from the confines of a booth at a Beverly Hills coffee shop, Collette, consummately regal, gentleman jazz personified, blushes when a waitress stops him in mid-long-stride. Finger wagging, she shouts a realization she's contorted into a question: "Aren't you the famous clarinet player I just saw? You, you on TV the other night. . . ."

Jimmy Giuffre, the saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer whose work encompassed a range including big band scoring, cool West Coast jazz, minimalist trios and free improvisation, died Thursday in Pittsfield, Mass. He was 86. The cause of death, according to his wife, Juanita, was pneumonia, a complication of his lengthy battle with Parkinson's disease. Giuffre's 1947 composition, "Four Brothers," which featured a saxophone section consisting of the then-unusual combination of three tenor saxophones and a baritone saxophone, created the signature sound of the Woody Herman band and established his visibility as one of the important figures on the then-emerging West Coast jazz scene.