Technological Advances in the 1950s
Development of magnetic tape recording (replaced metal disc recording)
 Enabled music editing (splicing tape)
 Enabled the overdubbing of additional parts (multi-track recording)
 Greater number of live recordings (on portable tape machines)
Development of vinyl recordings (LP: long playing records)
Enabled longer performance times; "album jazz"

"Cool" Jazz (beginning in the late 40s/early 50s):
Compared to early bebop, cool jazz typically emphasized the following:
 Restraint; lyricism; quieter dynamic range
Soft, smooth, relaxed timbre; mid-range of instruments
 Irregular phrasing with use of space between phrases
 Variety of rhythm and tempo
 Forms: sometimes altering conventional forms
 Counterpoint: “jazz fugue”

Cool Stylists:
Miles Davis - "The Birth of the Cool" (1949)
Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker; The Modern Jazz Quartet
Dave Brubeck; Stan Getz; Lennie Tristano

Third Stream Music: (1950s)
 Merging of Jazz and European classical music
 Composers: Gunther Schuller (coined the term); John Lewis (of MJQ)

Hard Bop/Funky/Soul Jazz: (beginning in the mid-50s)
Compared to cool jazz, hard bop typically emphasized the following:
 Improvisation (more extended solos)
 32-bar standard and 12-bar blues forms
 Hard-edged timbre; wide instrumental range; blue notes
 Swinging, straight-ahead rhythmic drive; syncopation
 African-American roots music: folk, blues, gospel

Hard bop musicians:
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers; Horace Silver; Charles Mingus
Clifford Brown & Max Roach; Sonny Rollins

Miles Davis and Modal Jazz: (late 50s - "Kind of Blue" LP)
Features of "modal" jazz:
Slow-moving harmonic rhythm (one chord may last 8, 16, or more measures)
Pedal points (focal bass pitches over which the harmonies shift)
Absence of standard functional harmonic patterns (e.g., V-I, ii-V-I)
Chords or melodies that make use of the perfect fourth