cool jazz
1
4.5
- noun
- /kuːl dʒæz/
:
cool jazz
- The album features a blend of rhythms and melodies typical of cool jazz, showcasing its smooth, improvisational style.
- cool jazz plays
Examples
-
She twists up the volume on a stereo, blasting cool jazz.
Fiction book (1992) -
And his favorite music is cool jazz.
Blog text (10) -
And so then, we started having cool jazz.
-
Oh, we'll dig a little cool jazz and stuff.
-
Cool jazz plays quietly in the background.
Fiction book (2001) -
Usually, Dan listened to cool jazz or old sixties rock.
Fiction book (1999) -
It was the era of cool jazz, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Monk.
Fiction book (1996) -
The sax player, if in accompaniment to Marshall's performance, has switched from cool jazz to blues.
Fiction book (1990) -
We drove to my apartment in the East Village, listening to cool jazz on the Panhard and Levassor's Bose FM stereo.
Fiction book (2002) -
On weekends, the cozy café features live performances of cool jazz, creating a relaxed atmosphere for guests.
Antonyms
How Relaxed
Surface Forms
Morphology
A B1 learner who knows 'cool' (relaxed/stylish) and 'jazz' can reasonably infer 'cool jazz' denotes a kind of jazz that is calmer or more restrained, so the core meaning is derivable. However, the term is a conventionalized genre label with specific musical and historical features (subtle harmonies, particular stylistic norms) that are not fully predictable from the constituents, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
Cool jazz probably comes from the word cool meaning 'calm' or 'not excited'. Musicians in the 1940s and 1950s chose a soft, relaxed sound instead of the loud, fast style called 'hot' jazz, so cool jazz now means jazz that sounds smooth and relaxed.