Perfection: Lennie Tristano - Wow (1949)

Between bebop in the mid—and late 1940s and hard bop in the mid-1950s and beyond, an exciting but short-lived jazz style surfaced known as cool. The movement was a product of formally educated jazz musicians who, at the tail end of the '40s integrated classical and jazz. The artists were had started out in bop but chose to create a form that was dryer independent of the blues. Cool saxophonists often played without vibrato and in the higher register of their instruments. 

In 1949, Miles Davis formed a cool-jazz tentet with songs arranged by Davis, Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis and Johnny Carisi. That same year, pianist Lennie Tristano pioneered a cool approach with a quintet. The group consisted of Lee Konitz (as), Warne Marsh (ts), Lennie Tristano (p), Billy Bauer (g), Arnold Fishkin (b) and Harold Granowsky (d).

Interestingly, Konitz was a member of both the Davis tentet and the Tristano sextet, and led his own quintet.

Recorded in March 1949, Wow was written by Tristano, ostensibly for his sextet recording session for Capitol, produced by Pete Rugolo. Wow is a nifty piece that features Konitz and Marsh playing portions in unison, like fluttering birds. Konitz solos, then Marsh and Bauer, followed by an extended liquid solo by Tristano before Konitz, Marsh and Bauer solo again. —all in 3:26, the duration of one side of a 78.

Here's the Lennie Tristano Sextet playing Wow in 1949...