The cool school began in earnest in the late 1940s in part as a response to the rise of bebop but also a reflection of the different feel that various cities exuded at the time. While New York was the king of high energy and at times frantic sounds, the West Coast, San Francisco and Los Angeles in particular, enjoyed a more laid back sensibility. In this hour we will hear from the cool school, which ultimately was not strictly a West Coast genre, not a sleepy time musical parade, but rather one that borrowed from European classical form while at the same time maintaining swinging improvisation at its core.