In Brief

* * 1/2 “West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945 to 1960,” Ted Gioia, Oxford ($24.95). The style of this informative though somewhat dry and academically written volume is to set a scene, say Los Angeles’ Central Avenue during the mid-’40s, and then explore that milieu by interweaving bios of key figures with factual data. In this manner, the lives of such notables as Teddy Edwards, Wardell Gray, Cal Tjader and Dave Brubeck are discussed, but the many lesser lights who make up the bulk of any jazz scene are, for the most part, disregarded. Nonetheless, Gioia has solidly researched this volume--he brings some new facts to light--and it certainly is an addition to the scant amount of literature about this important era of jazz history.

Items in this periodic survey of albums, books, videocassettes and laser discs are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).