Will West Coast Jazz Get Some Respect?

Summary

Sandra Evans is a woman on a mission. She wants to make the definitive documentary about West Coast jazz. Like me, she loves those classic recordings by Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Art Pepper, Hampton Hawes, and others. But most jazz films ignore this entire movement—pretending that the history of the genre only took place in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York.That’s simply not true. The West Coast players deserve their place in our cultural history. Their music should be heard. Their story ought to be told—and it’s a fascinating story. I’ve been helping her as best I can. You can see me in this new trailer about her project.As a young man, I was also on a mission to celebrate the legacy of West Coast jazz. I convinced Oxford University Press to publish a book on the subject—and this turned into my single biggest project when I was in my twenties.I met many of the jazz elders who helped create West Coast jazz—and saw how they had been unfairly forgotten. Many were living in poverty. Some were playing music on the streets. It was sad to see. I took this personally, as Michael Jordan might say. I grew up in Los Angeles and later moved to the San Francisco area. This was my own homegrown jazz tradition. I loved it and wanted to share my enthusiasm with others.But even superstars such as Dave Brubeck and Chet Baker were frequently attacked back then. And someone like Vince Guaraldi was simply ignored—jazz history books pretended he didn’t even exist. They weren’t real jazz musicians. That’s what I kept hearing. If you didn’t live through this era of jazz policing on steroids, you can’t even begin to imagine the level of hostility—which was amplified tenfold if a West Coast jazz player dared to have a hit record.I could cite dozens of other examples of musicians who would have won prizes if they moved to New York. But if they stayed out West, they got little or no respect. That was how it worked back then. My West Coast Jazz book was the single biggest project from my earl...