"Cool Jazz" by Barry Ulanov

An obscure article from when the Modern Jazz World was young.

© Introduction. Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

The following appeared in the March 15, 1952 edition of Vogue Magazine.

Its author, Barry Ulanov [1918-2000], was trained as a violinist by his father who was the concertmaster for Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony Orchestra.

Ulanov was an early advocate of Bebop and many of the musicians associated with it had an affinity for him.

Miles said he was the only White critic who understood him and Charlie Parker, and pianist Lennie Tristano [although not a bebopper] even named a piece after him - “Coolin’ off with Ulanov.”

Ulanov taught at Juilliard [1946], Princeton [1950-51] and was at Barnard College [1951-1988] when this piece was written.

With a title like “Cool Jazz” and a 1952 publication date, one would expect references in the article to Gerry Mulligan’s early quartet featuring Chet Baker on trumpet, or Shorty Rogers or other musicians generally associated with the West Coast style of Jazz. You will also note that the famous “Birth of the Cool” recordings under Miles’ leadership are not referenced and this may be due to the fact that they were not collected and known under that rubric when this article was written. Instead, we get the inclusion of a reference to John La Porta, a largely forgotten Jazz musician.

But Ulanov takes “Cool” in a somewhat different direction in terms of the musicians he chooses to focus on under this musical appellation.

His writing style is reminiscent of that of Whitney Balliett with its emphasis on literary explanations of the music’s textures, detailed physical descriptions of the musicians themselves and few references to Jazz jargon.

An obscure article from when the Modern Jazz World was young.