Cool Jazz and Hard Bop – 1950s

1. Compare/contrast cool jazz and hard bop, by explaining three musical characteristics of each style. Identify two key innovators of each style, and the geographic associations of each style. How did the phenomenon of “West Coast Jazz” and its racial coding as “white” make the African-American jazz scene in Los Angeles invisible?


2. Explain how the approach to jazz called modalism was unique and distinctly different, compared to other post bop styles in the 1950s. Identify the artist and title of the influential album that launched the modal jazz scene.