1950s Jazz

By the 1950s jazz in America and Europe was the dominant youth culture.

By the 1950s jazz in America and Europe was the dominant youth culture. Traditional and modern jazz maintained their musical impetus with leaders in every field achieving major publicity and long-term record contracts. Magazines like ‘Downbeat’ (in America) and ‘Melody Maker’ (in the UK) continued to excitedly report every new jazz development, including the ‘cool’ West Coast jazz movement and a new category called ‘Mainstream’ which combined elements of both the ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ styles. Musicians like Stan Getz and groups like Gerry Mulligan’s Quartet (with Chet Baker) and the Modern Jazz Quartet were hitting the headlines; contemporary arrangers from Pete Rugolo to Gil Evans were producing new sounds and, as the decade progressed classic recordings including Miles Davis’ ‘Miles Ahead’ ‘Porgy and Bess’ and later ‘Kind of Blue’ as well as John Coltrane’s ground-breaking ‘Blue Train’ were essential trips to the record store. Jazz was regularly heard on radio, TV and film; American jazz legends including Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan, and guitarist Eddie Condon all toured Britain after the Musicians’ Union longterm ban on American artists playing in Britain was finally (and thankfully) revoked, and in the UK new stars like tenorist Tubby Hayes joined the ranks of established figures like Scott, Dankworth, trumpeter Kenny Baker and trombonist George Chisholm.

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