West Coast jazz refers to various styles of jazz music that developed around Los Angeles and San Francisco during the 1950s. West Coast jazz is often seen as a sub-genre of cool jazz, which featured a less frenetic, calmer style than bebop or hard bop. The music tended to be more heavily arranged, and more often composition-based.
We, the Octokats, have resurrected this relaxed sytle of jazz here in Southern Ontario. The very essence of COOL can be found in this style of music. One of the most famous West Coast Jazz Musicians is Dave Pell. We modeled our octet after the Dave Pell lineup. The instrumentation for his octet consisted of Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax, Trumpet, Trombone, Piano, Guitar, Bass and Drums.
To hear a sample of our music please preview this video we made at our first gig at Chalker’s Pub in Toronto on March 24, 2013.
To hear more of our music click on the “Videos” tab on the top menu or go the homepage and click on “Discography”.