Far as I know, Lester Young invented cool. Here he is just before he died[0] with his old friend Billie Holiday (who he nicknamed 'Lady Day' - he called everyo

Far as I know, Lester Young invented cool. Here he is just before he died[0] with his old friend Billie Holiday (who he nicknamed 'Lady Day' - he called everyone 'lady'). Before him, what everyone wanted to be was hot, screaming, wailing sax, jumping up on bars, playing a lot of notes, extreme. Then suddenly less is more. He came up playing with Count Basie, who was also a less is more kind of guy. To oversimplify, hot was about high energy, cool was about beauty and taste. Hot was macho, competitive, striving to impress; cool was human, content, enlightened. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKqxG09wlIA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKqxG09wlIA