ABSTRACT
The 1950s was a time of prosperity, but also unrest, in America. The space race, the Cold War, the first nuclear power plant, and court rulings in favor of school desegregation all mark the 1950s.
Although Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool album signaled the beginning of cool jazz, the majority of important cool-jazz artists/groups were white. This style, in comparison with bebop, tended to be more subdued and delicate, with few instances of especially loud, high, or fast playing.
The quartet featuring baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker gained much popularity in the 1950s. This group used no piano or other chording instruments, deriving harmony instead from the counterpoint between the bass and two wind instruments.
The term “third stream,” coined by Gunther Schuller, refers to a music combining elements of the European classical tradition and jazz. It was a music that lacked much popular appeal and emerged during this period of greater intellectualism in jazz.
However, before we look too far into the next decade, it is important to examine the other side of jazz in the 1950s, discussed in Chapter 10—the African-American mainstream jazz that stemmed from the bebop tradition in the previous decade.
