[5] Meanwhile, a thriving jazz scene had appeared along Los Angeles's Central Avenue, featuring Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Teddy Edwards, Charles Mingus, and Buddy Collette.
[3]: 336 [6] In 1949–1950 baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan participated in the Miles Davis band, contributing arrangements to the recordings that became Birth of the Cool (1957).
In 1952 Mulligan, who had moved to California, formed an innovative and successful piano-less quartet with trumpeter Chet Baker, drummer Chico Hamilton, and bassist Bob Whitlock.
[1][3]: 119 Desmond's playing style ran counter to bebop, as he seldom used blues elements, and was influenced by Pete Brown and Benny Carter rather than Charlie Parker.
Some of the major pioneers of West Coast jazz were Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Bud Shank, Bob Cooper, Jimmy Giuffre, Shelly Manne, Russ Freeman, Bill Holman, André Previn, and Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond.
[1] West Coast jazz sometimes featured a rhythm section that omitted the use of a piano, guitar, or any chordal instrument, tending to a more open and freer sound, as exemplified by the Gerry Mulligan collection The Original Quartet with Chet Baker (Blue Note, 1998).
Gil Evans's arrangement on the Birth of the Cool album featured these instruments at a time when the West Coast style was emerging.
As it often refers to Gerry Mulligan and his associates in California, "West Coast" merely becomes synonymous with "cool jazz", although Lester Young, Claude Thornhill, and Miles Davis were based in New York.
"[6] Some observers looked down upon West Coast jazz because many of its musicians were white, and because some listeners, critics, and historians perceived that the music was too cerebral, effete, or effeminate, or that it lacked swing.
[12][13][14] However, African American musicians played in the style, including Curtis Counce, John Lewis, Chico Hamilton, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Buddy Collette, Red Callender, Harold Land, Eugene Wright and Hampton Hawes.