JAZZ IN LOS ANGELES BEFORE COOL JAZZ

Los Angeles had its own viable jazz scene from 1920 to 1950, even if no major new style was born in that region. As early as 1909, New Orleans bassist Bill Johnson was playing and leading a band in the Los Angeles area. Five years later he sent for cornetist Freddie Keppard and other top New Orleans players, forming the Original Creole Orchestra, which played the vaudeville circuit in Los Angeles before moving elsewhere. Pianist-composer Jelly Roll Morton was based mostly in Los Angeles from 1917 to 1922, and King Oliver took a successful West Coast tour with his Creole Jazz Band in 1921. The first jazz instrumental recordings by a black New Orleans band took place in Los Angeles by 1922 as trombonist Kid Ory, leading a group named Spike’s Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra, recorded “Ory’s Creole Trombone” and “Society Blues.”

During the 1920s a strong local jazz scene formed on Central Avenue, which at its prime was Los Angeles’ equivalent to New York’s Fifty-second Street, with quite a few major clubs lining both sides of the street. The difference was that Fifty-second Street was generally more integrated, but Central Avenue was dominated by black performers. Central Avenue actually outlasted Fifty-second Street, remaining a significant center for jazz into the early 1950s.

Los Angeles in the late 1920s had such major groups as Paul Howard’s Quality Serenaders with drummer Lionel Hampton, Curtis Mosby’s Blue Blowers, and Sonny Clay’s Plantation Orchestra, but during the swing era its local big bands paled next to the major orchestras from New York. Still Los Angeles has the distinction of having officially launched the swing era when Benny Goodman was given a sensation reception at the Palomar Ballroom.

One of the most important groups to be born in Los Angeles during the swing years was the King Cole Trio. Nat King Cole, who was born in Montgomery, Alabama, grew up in Chicago where he enjoyed hearing radio broadcasts by his main influence, pianist Earl Hines. Cole first recorded with his brother bassist Eddie Cole’s Solid Swingers in 1936. Two of his other brothers, pianist Ike and pianist-singer Freddie Cole, also became musicians. After touring with a revue that broke up in Los Angeles in 1937, Cole settled in the city. He formed the King Cole Trio with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince. They recorded an extensive series of radio transcriptions from 1938 to 1941 and made their first official studio recordings in the latter two years, including “This Will Make You Laugh,” “Hit That Jive Jack,” and “Sweet Lorraine,” Nat King Cole’s first solo vocal. These and many other records showed him to be one of the best jazz pianists of the later swing era.

The King Cole Trio grew in popularity throughout the 1940s and eventually inspired other drumless piano-guitar-bass trios, including groups led by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Ahmad Jamal. While in its early period, the trio often featured group vocals, but it was becoming obvious by 1946 that Cole’s singing was a major factor in the group becoming nationally famous. Among the many hits were “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “The Frim Fram Sauce,” “For Sentimental Reasons,” “Come to Baby, Do,” the original version of Bobby Troup’s “Route 66,” “The Christmas Song,” and “Nature Boy.” The trio’s personnel changed with Irving Ashby taking over on guitar in 1947, then expanded to a quartet when Jack Costanzo was added on bongos.

A much bigger change took place when Nat Cole recorded “Mona Lisa” in 1950 with a large orchestra. The song, which contained no piano playing by Cole, became a number one hit, speeding up his evolution from a jazz pianist to a pop crooner. His trio merely became his rhythm section, often buried in a much larger orchestra. Cole only played piano as a novelty and for special projects, shifting the focus entirely to his soothing and likable vocals. By 1955 most of Nat King Cole’s fans did not even know that he had once been a major pianist. He enjoyed great commercial success until his death from lung cancer in 1965.

Although swing groups did well in Los Angeles and on Central Avenue, it took longer for bebop to catch on. In the fall of 1945, Gillespie and Parker traveled to Hollywood, but their music had never been heard before on the West Coast, and their audiences were small and indifferent. For some of the young local musicians, however, the visit of Parker and Gillespie was an important and inspiring event. Also significant was an earlier visit by the Coleman Hawkins Sextet, because Hawk’s trumpeter Howard McGhee decided to stay in Los Angeles, where he led boppish combos that demonstrated the style to local players.

By 1947 the Central Avenue club scene featured many bop groups, and Los Angeles was nearly on par with New York. During this period Los Angeles was particularly strong in tenor saxophonists. Dexter Gordon spent 1946 to 1949 based in his native Los Angeles, often engaging in saxophone battles on Central Avenue with Wardell Gray and Teddy Edwards. Gray’s recording of “The Chase” is a good example of how the tenor battles sounded.

Teddy Edwards should have been as famous as Gordon, but he chose to spend most of his life in Los Angeles and never garnered many headlines. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Edwards started playing professionally in 1936 when he was just twelve. After freelancing on clarinet and alto, he switched to tenor and moved to Los Angles in 1945. Edwards worked with Howard McGhee and was part of the jam sessions on Central Avenue. A natural-born leader, Edwards mostly led his own combos throughout his career, providing not just the tenor solos but arrangements and compositions. His best-known song was “Sunset Eyes.” Teddy Edwards was a major force on the West Coast jazz until his death in 2003.